OSBA General Meeting

OSBA General Meeting

Monday, November 14, 2016

Time: 1:00 to 4:00

Please join us on Monday afternoon for our meeting, guest lecture and social get-together at the Nepean Visual Arts Centre – Located at the Nepean Sportsplex.

The address is 1701 Woodroffe Avenue.  The NVAC is located at the back at entrance 3.

Note: This time the meeting will be held upstairs in Studio 3 
Near the pottery studios on the 2nd floor
(elevator available)

MEMBERHIP RENEWAL

It is time to renew your membership.  

Please bring your cheque book or cash to the meeting.  Membership fee is $25 annually. 

New Members Welcome

OTHER AGENDA ITEMS

• Nominations and voting for executive positions
• Swap and Trade - Bring in any art supplies that you are not using 

PRESENTATION

"Creating Values with Coloured Pencil" by Jan Salmon

This is an opportunity to work on a small project using coloured pencils.  Here you will learn about creating lights and darks that give your paintings beauty, depth and solidity.   

A limited number of coloured pencils will be supplied, however, members are asked to bring their own if possible, including a colourless blender pencil.  If you have a set of Verithin coloured pencils, bring those as well as your Prismacolour pencils.  Also, please bring hot pressed watercolour paper, 8x10, (plus some scrap) mounted on a masonite board, eraser, sketching pencil, electric pencil sharpener, and a lamp.

OSBA Exhibition

OSBA General Meeting

Ottawa Society of Botanical Artists
General Meeting

Monday, September 12, 2016
Time: 1:00 to 3:30

Please join us on Monday afternoon for our meeting, guest speakers

and social get-together

Bring your latest artwork for display to your colleagues.

Guest Speakers

• Celia Godkin to talk about the 'Hawthorn project'.  She will share her experience of working on this piece.
• Carla Burns will show the results of her light fast test after OSBA's visit to the Paper Conservation Laboratory at the Canadian Museum of History in June. 

Memberships

New members welcome! Sign up at our meeting. $25 member fee annually. 

Location

Nepean Visual Arts Centre (Studio 2) – Located at the Nepean Sportsplex

1701 Woodroffe Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario  

The NVAC is located at the back at entrance 3. 

(For those who have taken classes with Kerri – the meeting is in the same room.)

Paper Conservatory Tour, Canadian Museum of History

OSBA Members from left to right: Claudia Burns, Julie Hughes, Janet Marshall, Donna Fleras, Hilary Casey, Barry Matthews, Cecilia Martin, Sarah Iley, Ros Allchin, and Carla Burns

 A group of OSBA Members participated in a tour of the Paper Conservatory at the Canadian Museum of History on Tuesday, June 7, 2016.  Our host for this event was OSBA member Julie Hughes a recently retired Textile Conservator.  Julie explained the importance of conservation and gave us an overview of the process that occurs when selecting an item for display as well as ongoing conservation efforts. 

Our guide for the tour escorted our group through the service corridors and explained how this part of the museum was designed.  The area has special isolation rooms to ensure that contaminants are not introduced into the main collection.  The hallways and loading areas were designed to accommodate large totem poles – how uniquely Canadian.  At one point, we had a brief glimpse of Napoléon’s bed as it was being carefully moved on a large flat-bed trolley for the upcoming exhibit -- and yes, it was majestic.

Once we arrived in the Paper Conservatory, we were introduced to Conservator Amanda who explained the importance of using archival quality materials when creating artwork.  She discussed the properties of paper and environmental factors that affect the integrity of artwork such as temperature, light and humidity.  Amanda then showed us a project to test the lightfastness of various media including materials commonly used in creating botanical art such as watercolour and coloured pencils.  This lightfast test could easily be replicated at home and will be the subject of a future post.

We then moved to another room where artwork is mounted and prepared for display.  Curator Paul explained how to properly mount artwork to mat boards and where to use linen and Japanese hinging tape.  He also discussed the importance of using acid-free archival quality products and protective glass/plastic.  Paul then explained the optimal formula for hanging artwork -- centre of artwork should be 54” to 60” from the floor.  This height focuses the viewer’s attention on the image not the patterns created by the frames.  We were shown mounting hardware as well as a demonstration on how to measure and position artwork on walls.  Tour participants’ questions were welcomed and some interesting information was exchanged. 

Paul showed us the judge's robe of Hugh Richardson who sentenced Louis Riel to death for treason on July 31, 1885.  The robe is now dark green, most likely there were some fugitive colours in the original black mixture – probably a red hue.

As we were finishing the tour, several OSBA members remarked how interesting being a Museum Conservator would be and what important work they do.  OSBA members would like to thank the Conservation Department at the Canadian Museum of History as well as OSBA member Julie Hughes for organizing this wonderful field trip.

OSBA Members from left to right: Claudia Burns, Julie Hughes, Janet Marshall, Donna Fleras, Hilary Casey, Inga Legere,  Cecilia Martin, Sarah Iley, and Ros Allchin

En Plein Air with Chadwick and Karstad

Aleta Karstad wants to invite OSBA members to join her and Phil Chadwick (Phil the Weatherman) for a two-day painting workshop.

They will be teaching at a rustic and comfortable cabin on a wilderness lake near Lyndhurst (north of Kingston) on Friday and Saturday April 29th and 30th.  There should be nice warm spring days by then, but we’ll be out before the black flies. The registrants we have so far are beginners, so it should be a fun workshop.

For more details, please go to Aleta’s blog at http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page.html

Contemporary Botanical Art Presentation

Rosa Rugosa by Inga Legere

An Intimate Journey Through Nature

Saturday, April 2, 2016, at 1:30 p.m.

Kanata Beaverbrook Library

Come and experience the natural world as seen through the eyes of the artist. Contemporary botanical artists will share their love of nature through realistic portrayals of local and exotic flora through the use of traditional and modern media. An informal presentation by OSBA members who will share their artwork and artists’ journey.

Visit https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/node/20865 for directions to the Kanata Beaverbrook Library.

Mid-Winter Presentation -- Derwent Inktense

By Carla Burns

Pink Lilies in Inktense by Jan Salmon

We welcomed the beginning of February with a Derwent Inktense presentation and demonstration by OSBA member Jan Salmon.  For many participants, it was an introduction to this relatively new, vibrant media.  Jan began the presentation by discussing the properties of Inktense, basic techniques and versatility of use.  Inktense can easily be used in conjunction with other water-based products as well as regular coloured pencils.  As part of the demo, we were given the opportunity to try our hand at painting colourful leaves.  Many members commented that these pencils would make a great addition to their portable art kit for nature journaling and travelling.  On display were some of Jan’s beautiful paintings which demonstrated how effectively Inktense can achieve vibrant colours for botanical subjects.  Thank you Jan!

OSBA Members working on leaf demo with Inktense pencils

Maple Leaf in Inktense by Inga 

Lilies in Inktense by Jan Salmon

Art Exhibition - January 24, 2016

Botanical Art  - Plant Portraits

An exhibition of drawings and watercolours

Nepean Visual Arts Centre

January 14 to March 6, 2016

The plant kingdom is the muse: from seedpods
to sedges, fall leaves to flowers …

This exhibition celebrates the accomplishments, artistry and talents of Nepean Visual Art Centre’s botanical art students.  Mentored by instructor, Kerri Weller, students master the materials and techniques essential to creating realistic drawings and paintings of their botanical subjects.

Please join us to view the art, meet the artists and for refreshments!

Vernissage

Sunday, January 24, 1:00 to 3:30 pm

Nepean Visual Arts Centre is located in the Nepean Sportsplex
1701 Woodroffe Avenue at Hunt Club, Entrance 3, rear parking lot

NVAC hours are Monday to Friday: 8:30 am to 9:30 pm, 

Saturday & Sunday: 9:30 am to 3:30 pm

For further info, please call the front desk at 613 580-2424 ext. 46652