NCalSBA ACTIVITIES

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28th Annual International Exhibition & NCalSBA Sketchbook Project

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September 26 - November 23, 2025

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Marin Art & Garden Center

30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Ross, CA

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Opening Reception: Sunday, September 28th from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

For more information on the exhibition and programming, learn more here

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BOTANICAL ART WORKSHOPS

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SKETCHING DAY AT CIRCLE K RANCH

Sunday, September 21, 2025

10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Join us in the North Bay for a day of sketching at Circle Oak Ranch in Petaluma on September 21st from 10am to 3pm. Owner Sara Malone has planted an extensive, beautifully designed garden featuring over 1700 conifers, trees, shrubs, and succulents, many of which are rare in cultivation and in the trade. The gardens have hosted visitors from around the world, and have been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and websites. Sara has invited us to experience her extensive gardens for the day. Bring your picnic lunch (sharable items always welcome!), your sketching/painting materials and take the opportunity to meet up with fellow artists! Circle Oak Ranch is located at 911 Mustang Court in Petaluma.  

Please contact either Kristin Jakob HERE or Bernard Halliwell at HERE to let them know you are coming.



2025 Annual Membership Meeting

August 16, 2025

11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Deadline to register: August 7, 2025



Please join us at our upcoming ANNUAL MEETING of the Northern California Society of Botanical Artists on August 16th either by attending in-person or remotely, via ZOOM. Following our brief general membership meeting, artist Lee McCaffree will share her experiences as the 2024 Botanical Artist in Residence grant recipient at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

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Lunch will be provided for members attending in-person. In addition, there will be an opportunity for those interested to share their portfolio/sketchbook or sell their art by contacting Mary Batchelder.

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Our in-person meeting will be held from 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM at Woodhall, 501 Orindawoods Drive, Orinda. There is a $5.00 fee for attending. 

The Zoom presentation will start at 11:30 AM.

"A special thank you to Blick Art Materials for donating $5 gift certificates for all our members attending the in-person Annual Meeting on August 16. Their continued support in the art community is very much appreciated!”

Photos from our first In-Person and Zoom Annual Meeting

COMING SIDEWAYS TO BOTANICAL ART with Ellen Blonder

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June 6, 2025 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm

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Virtual Program on Zoom

We are thrilled to welcome Ellen Blonder as the presenter for this June NCalSBA Program. Ellen will give a brief history of her professional work as an illustrator and will show how she inched toward botanical art. Ellen will share how she brings photography into her mix of tools for laying out a drawing, in addition to drawing from life. 

Ellen Blonder worked as a freelance illustrator and designer for over 30 years, in advertising, publishing, and product design. After retiring, she has delved more seriously into botanical art and painting. Her favorite subjects include the flora and fauna of Kauai, where she spends part of every year when she’s not in Mill Valley. Her work can be seen on her website, ellenblonder.com.

Please join us. This event is free to NCalSBA and BAGSC members. 

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See supply list below.

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SUPPLIES and EQUIPMENT

Ellen Blonder

June 6, 2025

iPhone, iPad with Photos app (can also edit photos in app on laptop)

Procreate app for iPad

Light pad (from Amazon: HSK A3 Artist tracing Light Box…, but others are available)

Tracing paper

Clear ruler

Calipers

Tombow mono zero eraser, kneaded eraser

Pencils: #HB, H

If using watercolors

Paint: mostly Winsor Newton pans, random collection over the years, Winsor Newton gouache (especially titanium white, vandyke brown, various primaries, sap green, raw sienna, burnt sienna, yellow ochre ivory black)

Paper: Arches hot press 140#, tracing paper, clear acetate (optional)

To create grids:

Micron pen, .05 to .005 range

Either tracing paper or clear acetate

Brushes: Winsor Newton watercolor sable round (with Blick Art Materials) #1; Interlon (interlocked synthetic brushes made in Japan, available through John Neal Books) #0, 3/0, 2/0

If using acrylics: 

Masterson Sta-Wet palette; paint mostly Winsor Newton, Sennelier; brushes mostly DaVinci Cosmotop Spin; surfaces mostly stretched canvas, canvas boards

Exploring the Roses at the Berkeley Rose Garden

May 16, 2025 at 10:30 AM

The month of May can be an exceptional time to see roses blooming at the Berkeley Rose Garden. We invite members to explore and sketch some of the 1,500 rose bushes at this historic Berkeley garden. The Berkeley Rose Garden is considered by many to be the finest rose garden in Northern California. The garden offers over 250 varieties of roses along with breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. This is an opportunity to meet and share our passion for botanical art at a local site.

The plan is to meet at the benches near the Rose Garden sign on Euclid Ave. at 10:30 AM to check in. We will provide handouts focusing on sketching roses. At 12:00, we will gather together for a picnic lunch and share our explorations of the garden. After lunch, members can continue to sketch the garden. 

Photos from the Rose Garden Tour

Nestled in a Berkeley neighborhood, The Berkeley Rose Garden was in full bloom for our group on Friday. The landscape design was conceived using a color block progression with beds of red at the top terrace, descending to pinks/oranges, yellows, and whites with an astounding Sally Holmes climber at the bottom center of the garden.

What to Bring:

Easy to carry supplies: sketchbooks, paints, color pencils, general drawing supplies, etc. 

Water, a sunhat.

Picnic lunch. 

You might also consider bringing a small folding seat to sit on while sketching and there are areas to sit in the rose garden to sketch. 

Members will need to keep the pathways clear for other visitors to pass. 

The garden includes terrain that has slopes and stairs, and the NCalSBA assumes no responsibility for injury. Check the Rose Garden website about accessibility.

Please read the ASBA Code of Ethics for Botanical Artists Working in the Field:

 CODE OF ETHICS https://asba-art.org/code-of-ethics

Hope to see you there

April 16, 2025 at 11:00 AM

Stanford Arizona Cactus Garden Tour with Christy Smith - Stanford University Campus

Tour will last about an hour and there is NO FEE.

Thank you Mimi Kearns for organizing this event! See photos below from the tour taken by Mimi Kearns and Andrea LoPinto.

The Arizona garden, also known as the Cactus Garden, was designed for Jane and Leland Stanford by landscape architect Rudolf Ulrich between 1881 and 1883. There are many unusual cacti and aloe in the garden which is maintained by volunteers. 

We will get a 1 hour tour. If we’d like to stay and sketch, we are allowed to bring small stools and sit but need to stay on the paths. The garden is a short walk from the Cantor Center which has a cafe and we could go over there together for coffee and/or lunch.

There are no bathrooms in the garden; the closest ones are at the Cantor Center. You might want to bring water and sunblock.

Visitor is parking available. To park you need to download the ParkMobile app to your phone to pay for parking. Here's the information https://transportation.stanford.edu/parking-stanford/purchase-parking/visitor-parking.