Volume 9 Issue 4 October 2013

HOW TO JOIN:
BASNCR Membership
12524 Two Farm Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20904
Botanical Art Society of the National Capital Region
Promoting botanical art in the National Capital Region
October 2013
www.BASNCR.org
Volume 9 Issue 4
Blue Pumpkin, Cucurbita maxima
Cover Art by Judy Brown, Selected by the Editor, who owns the original, purchased at a BASNCR exhibit.
“Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourd-ish squash has its
own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin . . .
We anxiously anticipate it every year. "
— Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer, October 2010
Member Work Honored and Featured
President’s Message Fall 2013
Dear BASNCR Members:
Congratulations to Kathy Lutter and Kelly
Ten years ago, BASNCR was founded by a small group of
artists who lived near Brookside Gardens in Maryland.
Mills Sverduk, recipients of the prestigious Brookside
Gardens School of Botanical Art& Illustration Certificate.
Today, our organization has grown to more than 90
members from three different botanical programs:
Brookside Gardens in Maryland, The Corcoran Institute in
Washington, D.C. , and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in
Richmond, as well as professional artists and members
who have related interests. BASNCR includes members
from Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maine,
Florida, Texas and Italy.
Pamela Mason was honored by the inclusion of her
graphite and carbon dust painting of a "Clematis
ochroleuca" (Curlyheads) seed head in the June issue of
"The Botanical Artist," the journal of the American
Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA). Pamela’s drawing
appeared among the illustrations for the article by Dick
Raugh, "The Science of Botanical Art: Weird and Wild"
The Hunt Institute’s 14th International Exhibition of
Botanical Art & Illustration features work by Lara Call
Gastinger (honorary BASNCR member).
When the Board met recently to plan the upcoming year,
we focused on what we wanted our organization to look
like this time next year. We confirmed that we want to
keep doing the things we have historically done very well:
The works of Karen Coleman, Betsy Farr and Lara Call
Gastinger were selected for the traveling ASBA
exhibition, “Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps.”
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Organize exhibitions in a variety of venues
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Publish a professional and widely read newsletter
four times a year
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Provide a variety of interesting programs for members
at the U.S. Botanic Gardens
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Support educational events, such as Children’s Day at
Brookside Gardens.
Looking forward to 2014, we are excited about our
BASNCR exhibit at The Athenaeum in Alexandria,
Virginia. "What was old is new again: Botanical Art and
Heritage Plants" opens November 1, 2014.
To keep doing what we do well and expand our outreach
potential, we need many active members. Please contact
me or any board member if you can serve or have
questions about how you can contribute your talents.
Don’t forget to renew your membership by January 1.
Dues are still only $37 annually. That’s one of the best
deals around!
Members whose work was hung in this summer’s
Botanica exhibit at Brookside Gardens included Dianne
Berndt, Hazel Buys, Karen Coleman, Lee D’Zmura,
Gail Goodrich Harwood, Barbara Hanft, Ellen Keane,
Juliet Kirby, Susan Knisely, Jerry Kurtzweg, Kathy
Lutter, Joan Maps Ducore, Pamela Mason, Cynthia
McCormick, Lotus McElfish, Merri Nelson, Marsha
Ogden, Kandy Phillips, Becky Spangler, Mary lou
Steptoe, Kelly Sverduk, Alice Tangerini and Mary Jane
Zander.
BASNCR Board Members – 2013
Mary Jane Zander
Mary Elcano
Laura Gilliam
Al Yergey
Judy Rodgers
Gail Harwood
Judy Brown
Cynthia McCormick
Barbara Sweeney
Ellen Keane
Marsha Ogden
Meta Carr
Jerry Kurtzweg
Kim Oster
Pamela Mason
Molly Hoopes
The year has really flown by! We are coming up on our
Annual Meeting October 20th, where we will install new
officers. Special thanks to our outgoing Board members.
Best regards,
Paula Raudenbush staged a 14-piece solo show at the
Fredericksburg, VA Library in August.
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REMINDER: Send BASNCR 2014 dues by January 1
to continue receiving the newsletter and access to
BASNCR programs. Make your check payable for $37 to
BASNCR. Send to:
Marsha Ogden, Membership Chair
12524 Two Farm Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA
Page 2
President
Vice President
Secretary
Interim Treasurer
Treasurer
Newsletter Editor
Newsletter Co-Editor
Newsletter Distributor
Newsletter Designer
Membership Chair
Membership Co-Chair
Exhibits Chair
Exhibits Co-Chair
Web site
Education Chair
Education Co-Chair
Selected Learning Opportunities
Observational Studies: Seed Pods
Thu, November 14 (10.00am-3.30pm)
Joan Ducore
Observational drawing studies provide important reference for
detailed botanical painting. Identify and draw a variety of
interesting seed pods. Bring some of your favorite seed pods or
large seeds to add to the pool of material to be shared around at
class. These drawings form a good starting point for the
workshop in December, “Shading in Detail: Seed Pods”.
School of Botanical Art & Illustration
www.brooksidegardens.org
Class details are online at www.ParkPASS.org under School of
Botanical Art. If you wish to register online and ParkPASS does
not have your contact details please click on the tab “My
Account” and follow instructions to sign in, or for further
information, voice mail: Brookside Gardens Registrar, (301) 9621451. Lists of materials required for workshops are found on the
BGSBAI website. Venue for the classes: Adult Classroom –
Brookside Gardens. Further information: Email [email protected] .
Shading in Detail: Seed Pods
Sat, December 14 (9.30am-3.00pm)
Diane Berndt
Switch out from the everyday and indulge in the absorbing art of
illustrating in detail with the forgiving medium of graphite
pencil. Instruction will cover pencil grades, papers, value study
and graphite rendering techniques that define the finest of details.
Paint a Useful Color Wheel
Fri, October 25, 10.00am-3.30pm
Lee D’Zmura
Three tubes of watercolor can be mixed to produce the full range
of colors needed for the entire painting of you plant subject.
Hone color observation skills as you learn the methodology to
produce your own aid to color mixing/matching with a limited
palette color wheel. The three tube colors chosen for this
workshop will be suited to various plants supplied for the class.
With this knowhow and new appreciation for color, complete
this color wheel at home and apply the same methods for the
other two wheels in the Saul palette, which will see most plant
color schemes covered.
Botanical Illustration Certificate Courses
You do not have to be enrolled in the Certificate program to take
these classes, but some do have specific skill levels. Find details
about the Certificate in Botanical Illustration by accessing this link,
or emailing, [email protected] for a mailed copy.
Creative Composition for Botanical Art
Saturdays, November 2 and 16, (10:00am-4:30pm daily)
Merri Nelson
As more botanical artists achieve a high level of control with
watercolor and the rendering of a realistic image, the only thing
that will distinguish an artist is their ability to see a subject in a
fresh, personal way and document it on the page with strong
compositional skills. Whatever medium you prefer, this class will
provide “do’s and don’ts” and composition tips to make your art
life easier and your finished art more successful.
Observational Drawing: Leaves
Sat, November 9, (10.00am-1.30pm)
Diane Berndt
Keen observation is essential for botanical drawing, and leaves in
two-dimensional view provide an excellent start to botanical
drawing. A step-by-step drawing exercise provides sound
foundations for approaching the drawing of any leaf, or sprig or
even a tree! Learn some terms for typical leaf shapes and their
finer structures to assist the observational drawing process.
Advanced Workshop in Botanical Illustration: Fall October 22,
24, 29, 31
Seasoned botanical artists create a fall-themed work in watercolor
Fundamentals of Watercolor for Botanical Illustration
November 6, 13, 20, 27
Learn about painting materials, practice painting in watercolor,
and master core techniques. Instructor review or completion of
the two drawing courses and pen and ink are required.
Art in the Garden
Exhibits and classes enhance your understanding and
appreciation for the natural world!
Nature Journaling October 26
Learn to record your observations of the natural world in a fun
and portable way with artist Susie Kowalik
Felt Painting with Botanical Subjects NEW November 2, 9, 16,
23
Combine both wet and dry (needle) felting techniques, along with
other textile crafts, to create a unique botanical composition .
Page 3
Sycamore Leaf Plantanus occident
Braeburn Apple Malus "Braeburn" M Ogden
Ahhh…the Hues and Textures of Autumn
“...I cannot endure to waste anything so preciou
autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I hav
almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, 10th O
Magnolia Leaf Magnolia macrophylla P Raudenbush
Black Tupelo Nyssa sylvatica
K Coleman
Maple Leaf Acer rubrum K Coleman
Ornamental Gourd Cu
talis A Baker
n!
us as
ve spent
.”
Pomegranate Punica granatum
L Miller
October 1842
ucurbita pepo
Ginkgo Leaves Ginkgo biloba
P Mason
Poppy seed pods Papaver orientale M Ogden
P Raudenbush
Japanese Lantern Physalis alkekengi G Harwood
ART AND ACTIVISM
— A profile of Molly Hoopes’ Adventures
Garbage/ Recycling: We made magazine picture collages for
the fronts of sketchbooks. Then we walked around gathering
trash. We sorted the trash into recyclable plastic and metal- ,
burnable paper products and garbage.
Insects: We observed and drew insects, identified their parts
and studied them with magnifying glasses.
Bones: We drew dog and bat skulls and femurs. We dissected
owl pellets and identified the bones. We put together a complete
dog skeleton I had found in a field, and we looked at a book of
animal skeletons.
Flowers: We mixed watercolors to match flowers, then drew
and painted the flowers. We compared the sexual organs of
different species of flowers.
Photos from children's art classes Molly taught in Eronga and
Uranden, Michoacan, Mexico this summer.
BASNCR Education Co-Chair Molly Hoopes serves on
the Board of Directors of La Cruz Habitat Protection
Project (LCHPP). LCHPP is a not-for-profit organization
whose main focus is planting trees in the monarch
wintering grounds in Mexico and in the Highland Lakes
Watershed of Michoacan, Mexico. The organization plans
to expand into other parts of Latin America and has
already started a tree nursery in Haiti.
For the past seven years, Molly has been spending part of
each year in Michoacan, living by Lake Patzcuaro and
Lake Zirahuen, painting watercolors of flowers and
teaching kids about nature through art activities.
Locally in Baltimore, Molly teaches an after-school
program at Mt Washington School, in which the main
focus is monarch migration and the method of learning is
through art activities. Unfortunately, the monarch
population seems to be at an all-time low in 2013.
Monarchs are suffering at both ends of their migration deforestation is the main threat in the wintering grounds
in Mexico, loss of milkweeds and adverse effects of
herbicides and pesticides in the mid-western U.S.
Molly advises that one thing we as artists can do to help
(besides planting butterfly gardens, buying organic and
avoiding the use of pesticides) is to paint pictures of
milkweeds and nectar plants, and of butterflies,
The American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) has
awarded Molly a grant to pursue her artwork of Mexican
plants and to teach. In the summer of 2012, she taught
botanical art classes to adults in Erongaricuaro, Nature
and Art classes to kids there, too; and in Uranden, a
summer camp for middle-school-age students in
Nocutzepo. Teaching subjects included flowers, trees,
birds, insects, watersheds and mushrooms. Learning
methods included drawing, painting, arts and crafts and
nature hikes.
Molly’s account of her summer 2013 experience follows.
I co-taught a weekly summer workshop about Nature and
Environmental Issues in Eronga. There were 15 children
between the ages of 5 and 12, both boys and girls. Each week
had a different theme. The themes were:
Photos by Molly Hoopes, parental permission granted where
applicable
Page 6
caterpillars and
their host plants
to educate
people about the
specificity of
certain animals
to plants. This
will make
people realize
the wide-spread
effects of the
elimination of
each species,
whether through
direct human
influence or
indirect (climate
change,
overpopulation).
Always thinking, Molly would like to see an exhibit of art
depicting native species of plants that are important to
pollinators, or even just plants used by monarchs, or
better yet plants and pollinators together, with
informational plaques hung next to each piece of art. She
likes the idea of a workshop on painting butterflies. It
would be nice if some of the proceeds could go to
LCHPP.
Resources, Websites & Blogs

You-tube video about the La Cruz Habitat Protection
Project . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw6Ug
6RUPTQ

LCHPP Web-site
http://www.forestsformonarchs.org/
Page telling about the Highland Lakes Watershed
area of Michoacan: http://www.forestsfor
monarchs.org/ projects/highland-lakes/

Blog about the wildlife and plants of Michoacan,
Mexico, and includes some of Molly’s artwork, as
well as lots of photos of insects, birds and plants of
this region. The address is http://www.forestsfor
monarchs.org/blog/big-biodiversity-summer/

Info, maps and place to tell where you have seen
monarchs and milkweed (Journeynorth web-site):
www.learner.org/jnorth/

Blog about teaching art to kids.
http:www.forestsformonarchs.org/blog/kids/
Report on the Scott Rawlins Workshop
in Silverpoint Drawing
By Rita Pazzelli
The weekend of
June 22-23, 2013
at Brookside
Gardens brought
to our region
artist, illustrator
and educator
Scott Rawlins for
a master artist
Rose of Sharon Hibiscus syriacus by R. Pazzelli
workshop in
silverpoint
drawing attended by several BASNCR members.
Mr. Rawlins began with a short historical introduction to
silverpoint dating back to Renaissance times up to
contemporary silverpoint artists. Throughout the
workshop he exhibited many of his working examples in
silverpoint and refreshingly focused on the positive
critique of each participant’s artwork.
To our delight, Rawlins included a running commentary
of his worldwide travel excursions and enjoyable do-youknow-this-artist experiences as well. We each came away
from the workshop with a completed work of art in
silverpoint and pastel tint as the two-day workshop was
well paced, very informative, and inspiring – in short,
super positive reviews for Scott Rawlins and requests for
more silverpoint workshops from those attending.
Mark Your Calendars
BASNCR 2013 Fall Meeting, USBG ……….….… Oct 20
Winter Newsletter Submissions to Judy Brown:
[email protected] ………………... by Nov 8
BASNCR 2014 Winter Meeting, USBG …………. Jan 12
BAEE Exhibit, USBG ………………… Feb 15—June 15
Spring Newsletter Submissions to Judy Brown:
[email protected] ………….…… by Feb 21
BASNCR 2014 Spring Meeting USBG ………… April 6
Summer Newsletter Submissions to Judy Brown:
[email protected] ………………. by May 2
BASNCR 2014 Summer Meeting USBG ……… June 15
Botanica 2014, Brookside ………….… June 28— Aug 9
Fall Newsletter Submissions to Judy Brown:
[email protected] ……………….. by Sept 1
BASNCR 2014 Fall Meeting, USBG ………….…. Oct 12
ASBA 2014 Annual Meeting, Denver ……... Oct 16—18
BASNCR 2014 Exhibit, Athenaeum ……. Nov 1 - Jan 4
Page 7
by Judy Brown
E
lderberries bloom
in the spring, but
fall is when we celebrate
this tiny fruit. A friend
told our featured artist,
Linda Miller, about his
grandmother gathering
elderberries to make jam.
The story inspired Linda
to name her painting
“Berries for Nana”. It’s
time to respect our
Elders!
What’s Blooming Now
It takes a lot of
Elderberries to make a
single jar of jelly. They are
tiny and have seeds. The
jelly is delectable but not
easily found.
McCutcheon Apple
Products in Frederick,
Maryland makes lovely
Elderberry jelly. Look for
it in farm markets and
country stores.
In 2013, the International
Herb Association named
Elderberries “Herb of the
Common Elderberry
Year” and published a
Sambucus spp is a native
book filled with facts on
plant found throughout
every facet of this plant
North America and is a
including it’s fragrance
member of the
and flavor, botany and
Honeysuckle family. The
cultivation, lore and
plants grow in moist
history, fun facts, poetry,
Elderberry
Sambucus
spp
by
Linda
Miller
woodlands and range in
crafts, and medicinal
height between 4-8 feet.
information. http://www.iherb.org/ hoy2013.htm
Their edible berries and flowers are used to make jam,
jelly, tea and wine. Native people use the berries for dyes
and the wood for arrow shafts, flutes, whistles, and
clapper sticks. The Williamsburg Botanical Garden has a
specimen in their collection.
During your fall woodland and garden walks, look closely
at the variety of berries around you. Perhaps you will be
inspired to honor one of them in your next painting.
BASNCR, MEMBERSHIP
12524 Two Farm Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20904
BOTANICAL ART SOCIETY OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION
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