A Celebration of Botanical Art – 18th April – 5th May 2018

Posted on April 18, 2018 by - News

After many years of struggling to find venue the society has an exhibition “A Celebration of Botanical Art” at The Courtyard Gallery, The Core, Solihull Library at Solihull in the West Midlands. (Accessed through Touchwood Centre)

The exhibition is open every day from 18th April until 5th May. There are 60 paintings by 22 members of the society (some are ASBA members), 43% are works in coloured pencil, 36% watercolour and the rest mixed including graphite. All the works are for sale and there are demonstrations on some days. Images of the exhibition are on our Facebook page and in ‘Former Exhibitions’

Thank you to Julia Trickey for the workshop on 15th April about ‘Composition’. as well as those attending the workshop other members were working on their own projects in another room.

Martin Allen Workshop – 18th March 2018

Posted on March 20, 2018 by - News

‘Using photographic notes’ was the title of Martin’s workshop. We are very grateful to Martin for travelling down from Middlesbrough in snowy conditions, eleven members managed the dreadful road conditions in the West Midlands to attend.

Points from the workshop

  • Take a lot of photographs of your subject.
  • When photographing indoors use natural light from a window if possible, from the left to give shadows, use a white board behind the subject and use a tripod. Outdoors use a white board and tripod, it may not be possible to pick wild flowers.
  • You need to see how all the structures fit and refer to a flora for the size of leaves, number of stamens etc. Your painting needs to be botanically correct.
  • Measure all parts, including the size of leaves.
  • Also record the the reverse of the flower, petals and leaf structures
  • Do not paint/record distorted petals or leaves, you may have to merge two images to get a good painting.
  • Beware of painting flowers or leaves that are drooping.
  • Make colour notes from the plant, colour will not be accurate from printed photographs. sometimes you may need to use ‘Photoshop’ to whiten the background of the photo to get a more correct colour.

Members were then challenged to colour match and paint part of a red bromeliad.

Finally Martin took us through how he used photographs in his painting, in particular showing a painting of Rampion enlarged to many times its size but still in proportion. A thoroughly enjoyable and informative workshop.

Workshop 28th April 2018

Posted on February 18, 2018 by - News

Botanical Painting Workshop at Winterbourne House and Gardens with Jeni Neale, Saturday 28th April ‘Spring Flowers.

Enjoy a day of drawing and painting the delights of springtime from Winterbourne’s garden: flowering bulbs, emerging buds and beautiful Camelia. Concentrating on simple compositions, learn how to capture their form and vibrant colours in easy colour washes. Jeni will demonstrate drawing and painting methods at each stage and the limited numbers will allow for plenty of one-to-one tuition throughout the day.

For further information and bookings, please click on link: www.winterbourne.org.uk/whats-on/spring-flowers/

January 2018

Posted on January 22, 2018 by - News

Sixteen members braved inclement weather to enjoy some ‘me’ time at our meeting on January 21st. Please note there will not be a meeting at Stirchley on 18th February, a venue for lunch on this day has been organised members must inform the chair if they wish to attend and to see the menu.

There is a Botanical Art Exhibition at Easton Walled Garden from Saturday 17th February – Sunday 11th March on their usual open days, this also co-insides with their snowdrop week. The artists exhibiting are Norma Gregory, Dawn Wright and Sue Vize. More details on their website www.visiteaston.co.uk

 

December 2017

Posted on December 22, 2017 by - News

Our last meeting of the year was well attended. Many took part in our ‘Paint a Postcard competition’ and there was an opportunity to browse and buy books, followed by a buffet lunch. The two winners of the Christmas competition were Jeni Neale and Annabel Barrett (images are on our Facebook page).

There is an exciting programme of events organised for 2018 with a good spread of workshops and painting days and maybe a few trips. Members of the society will continue to visit Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens on the second Wednesday of the month from 1.30pm February to November. An exhibition of members work will be held at ‘The Core’ Solihull Library from 18th April – 5th May and the paintings will be for sale.

2018 is designated as the year of botanical art and there are events all over the world. The ‘Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition’ is to be held at The Ruskin Library, University of Lancaster from 18th May – 15th June. Title – In Ruskin’s Footsteps ‘Linking People to Plants through Botanical Art’