Happy Holidays! Natural Treasures Challenge Theme of "Festive"

The Ottawa Society of Botanical Artists (OSBA) extends holiday greetings to our friends near and far. To celebrate this season, the December Natural Treasures theme was Festive and three members shared their work. All pieces have been completed in coloured pencil.

Thanks goes to OSBA members who participated in this year's Natural Treasures Challenge. We received a lot of positive feedback so will be continuing this project in 2020. The January theme will be "Something from your Stash". Many of our members collect dried plant material and can rumage through their stash to find something interesting to draw or paint. January entries will be posted throughout the month on both this blog and our Facebook page.

Holly in coloured pencil by Marina Ferrarin

Poinsettia in coloured pencil by Mary Atkins

Holly in colourd pencil by Theresa Bolton

November Natural Treasures Challenge: Stayin' Alive

As we enter late autumn in Ottawa, we challenged our members to find subjects that were "stayin' alive". Considering the mid-month snow flurries, this required a bit of plant hunting. The December theme is "Festive".

Lambs Ear in coloured pencil by Mary Atkins

Begonia root in watercolour pencil and graphite by Gillian MacDonald

Pumpkin in watercolour by Esra Ozgun

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

Fall Art Classes - Continued

In this listing of art courses you will find options that are not strictly botanical. You may be interested in trying a new media like print making, coloured pencils, pen and ink or improving your drawing and painting technique. Instructors like Deidre Hierlihy, Anne Armitage, Crystal Beshara or attending workshops that will be at the Ottawa Art School Fair in October. Please visit the website links below for further details and to register.

Deidre Hierlihy

Print Making Workshop

www.deidrehierlihy.com.

Linocut Printing Workshop

Location TBA: (Nepean Creative Arts Centre or Nepean Visual Arts Centre)

Monday, October 5, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Cost: $90, includes materials and equipment (on loan from instructor)

Maximum Registration: 12 students

Immerse yourself in the delight of lino cut printing.  Using a drawing or photograph as a starting point, play with pattern to transform the image into an effective lino cut design.  Develop expressive mark while cutting the block.  Print the relief using rollers in black and in colour, experimenting on a variety of papers. Contact Deidre for further details and to register at www.deidrehierlihy.com.

Ottawa Art School Fair – October 31 and November 1

Workshops, Demos, Lectures, and Shopping

http://www.artschoolfair.com/faq/

Don’t miss the Ottawa Art School Fair, Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, at the Hellenic Meeting and Reception Centre, 1315 Prince of Wales Drive.  This event will include workshops, demos, lectures and shopping!  Here are just a few of the many events that may interest our members:

·         Everything you Wanted to Know About Paper by Ed Brickler ($30)

·         Watercolour Markers and Sticks demo by Winsor Newton ($30)

·         Daniel Smith Watercolours – An Intimate Conversation with owner John Cogley ($30)

·         Colour Mixing Workshop with Susan Ashbrook ($65)

Anne Armitage

Coloured Pencil Classes

http://www.pictureperfectpets.ca.

Pencil Painting for Beginners:   Learn basic art principles of composition and colour with a medium that is inexpensive, uncomplicated, clean to use and easy to store.  This is a five-week course and each student has a completed pencil-painting ready for framing at the end of week five.  Lesson 1: materials. Lesson 2: pencil application and techniques. Lesson 3: composition theory. Lesson 4: colour theory. Lesson 5: completion of the project.  This class is available through the Ottawa Catholic School Boards continuing education program beginning the last week of September. There are classes available Wednesday afternoons in Kanata and Thursday and Saturday mornings at Saint Nicholas (Carling and Merivale).  To find out about registration and to view Anne’s work go to http://www.pictureperfectpets.ca. 

Crystal Beshara

Watercolour and Drawing Classes

http://crystalbeshara.com/art-classes/

Crystal Beshara offers classes in a variety of media including watercolour, and pen and ink.  They are they very popular and fill up quickly. The following classes still have room for more students:

Watercolour: The Magic of the Mediterranean, September 30 to December 2, Wednesday, 9:30 am to 12:00 pm

Watercolour: Wanderlust Greece II, September 30 to December 2, 2015, Wednesday, 12:45 pm to 3:15 pm

Pencil & Conte: Portraiture, October 1 – December 3, 2015, Thursday, 12:45 pm to 3:15 pm
Classes run for 10 weeks, each class is 2.5 hours in duration
Prices start at $215 CAD and now includes the cost of reference images
Exact class location will be sent to you upon registration, free parking

DON'T FORGET TO LOOK AT OUR PREVIOUS POSTING ON COURSES

Fall Art Classes in Ottawa

It’s back to school time – art school that is. 

Autumn is a wonderful time of year to take an art class so we have prepared a list of our members’ recommended instructors.  If you are new to botanical art, or want to further develop your skills, there is no better place to start than with Kerri Weller’s classes.  Students in Ottawa’s East End will be pleased to know that Kerri is also teaching classes at the Orleans campus of the Ottawa School of Art. 

Kerri Weller

Botanical Art – Drawing and Painting Classes

(www.kerriweller.com)

Watercolour Basics at Nepean Visual Arts Centre (City of Ottawa)

September 30 to December 9, Wednesday 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm (No class on October 14)

Course Barcode: 972444, Cost: $250.25

This course introduces materials and techniques to create realistic paintings of our plant world. Autumn provides the inspiration and subject matter for exercises, colour mixing and watercolour practice. Painting from live plants, not photos, is a wonderful way to acquire strong art skills. Step by step instructions and demos allow students who have never painted to try their hand at watercolour. Botanical Art: Drawing recommended.     

Leaves ~ Colour, Pattern & Composition at Nepean Visual Arts Centre (City of Ottawa)

September 30 to December 9, Wednesday 9:30 am to 12:30 pm (No class on October 14) 

Course Barcode: 990381, Cost: $250.25

Join an artistic exploration of leaves as they change through the season! Create small paintings as you master a variety of watercolour techniques and composition projects. Demos and individual instruction ensure strong progress. Intermediate to advanced botanical art students. 

Simply Cyclamens at Ottawa School of Art, Orleans Campus

November 7 to 28, Saturday 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, Cost: $255

Long lasting flowers, gorgeous colours and sculptural forms make cyclamens a winter favourite for artists. Join Kerri as she guides you through practical exercises, composition and individual instruction designed to ensure steady progress. Painting from live flowers allows for skills in observation, colour accuracy and techniques to be explored in watercolour studies and paintings. A cyclamen plant is included in the course fee. Botanical Art: Watercolour Basics recommended. 

Drawing the Fall Harvest at City of Ottawa, Landsdowne Park Horticultural Building

October 25 to November 15, Sunday, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm 

Course Barcode: 999020, Cost: $164

Fall's bounty provides an intriguing array of subjects, perfect for mastering fundamental arts skills. Drawing directly from fruits and vegetables selected from the farmer's market, students develop their techniques and ability to draw with realism. Practical exercises and individual instruction ensure steady progress. Suitable for all levels.

MORE COURSE IDEAS COMING SHORTLY

Trying to Draw an Active Tulip

By Claudia Burns

I forced 5 of the lovely tulips as part of the kind gift of spring flowering bulbs given to me last fall by my art class after the death of my brother.  I had never done this before so wanted to try it out. 

I planted the bulbs in a pot and kept them in the garage until about a month ago when I brought them in as they were starting to sprout.  They have grown well and bloomed beautifully and I will replant the bulbs in the garden this spring.

Photo 1

My plan was to draw and paint one of the tulips but as I was doing other art projects for our recent classes, the tulips did not get drawn.  They opened more and more widely each day in a sunny but cool window and then closed at night.  Yesterday I decided to get at it and because the blooms were already fully open with petals increasingly opening towards horizontal rather than vertical.  I decided I would draw the inner parts, the pistil, stamens, and the attachments of the petals inside.  For reference, I took several photos of the flower in direct sunshine without a flash.  As you can see in Photo 1, the petals are quite open and the internal structures easily visible.

Photo 2

Photo 2 was done with a flash and macro lens to focus on the stamens and pistils (what I planned on drawing). 

Photo 3

I moved the pot to my art room upstairs where the light was much less intense, bright but not sunny.  Low and behold, the flowers, including my chosen bloom, started gradually closing (photo 3).  This was about 20 minutes after photos 1 and 2.  

Over the next hour, the bloom kept closing to its final resting position (Photos 4 then 5).  

In one of the other blooms, which was also, closing I directly observed the actual movement of the petals.  

Photo 4

I wound up sketching the flower in positions 4 and 5 (from life, not photos).  My original plans were stymied by the tulip itself, which had its own intentions.  Certainly makes life difficult for the aspiring artist. 

Photo 5

I was quite amazed at how rapidly this closing occurred.  The fact that the light levels in my art room were not at all dark but obviously a great deal darker than the sunny window that the plants were in originally.