Schedules, programs, news.
2022 was a busy year for the Nature Artists’ Guild. In-person paint-outs, programs, gatherings, workshops, exhibits, and even a holiday party returned, and our members were ready for it!
Here is a quick look at some images from events, presenters, and guild members throughout the year. For more information about any of the artists or events, please take a moment to scroll back through the posts of 2022.
The subtle tones of winter return as the Nature Artists’ Guild prepares for 2023. After celebrating the many moods of the prairie last autumn, members of the guild can now look forward to studying the nuances of local and exotic plants in various phases during the upcoming months.
Dates, times, and other details for these and other upcoming events will be shared with members by email and on this website as they become available.
Members of the Nature Artists’ Guild are invited to experience this wonder along with the joys of sharing food and laughter with friends and fellow artists at the annual Holiday Party tonight, December 1, 2022.
Festivities begin at 6 pm in the Founder’s Room (originally the library of the country estate of Joy Morton) at the lovely and historic Thornhill Education Center of The Morton Arboretum.
All the details were emailed to members on November 26. No RSVP is necessary and each member is invited to bring a guest.
Found feathers from a Great Horned Owl and a few other birds will be available for interested Nature Artists’ Guild members to study or sketch at this Wednesday’s Coffee and Art gathering. (Attendees are also encouraged to bring feathers of any type from their own collections.)
Everything You Need To Know About Feathers from The Cornell Lab provides the basics in a simple but thorough summary.
Guild members are invited to stop in any Wednesday morning at the Visitor Center of The Morton Arboretum beginning at 9 to sketch, chat, or simply enjoy the morning quiet. Participants are always welcome to bring artwork, inspirations, or supplies they’d like to share or discuss with the group.
The weather is already a bit brisker, there is just a hint of brilliant color in the leaves, and members of the Nature Artists’ Guild are looking forward to celebrating the wonderful displays of the season through their art.
Tomorrow, September 24, 2022, the guild has a workshop scheduled for members interested in creating subtle pieces of art using color pencil on slate tiles.
On Thursday, October 6, 2022, artist and illustrator Kelley Cappell will be sharing some of her thoughts about creating artwork for a variety of viewers using pen and ink and acrylic, as well as digitally. This program, sponsored by the Nature Artists’ Guild is open to the public, free of charge.
October 10, 2022 is the last day for members to mail completed prospectuses for participating in the 2022 Autumn Nature Art Exhibit at The Morton Arboretum in November. More to come soon about the exhibit and Featured Artist Alice Wych.
Every Wednesday morning, a group of guild members meet at the Visitor Center of The Morton Arboretum to chat, sketch, or enjoy the morning quiet at the Coffee and Art gathering. All guild members are invited to stop by.
Members who would like to participate in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Schulenberg Prairie will be able to pick up an 8 x 8 canvas, board, or paper for the project at the Thornhill Education Center on September 24 during the Color Pencil on Slate Tile workshop or on the evening of October 6 at the Kelley Cappell presentation. Some types of supplies may be limited, so interested members may wish to contact Carol Balabanow for more information.
As always, click on the highlighted links for more information.
On Thursday, October 6, 2022 at 7 pm, the Nature Artists’ Guild will welcome scientific illustrator Kelley Cappell to the Thornhill Education Center of The Morton Arboretum to share some of her inspirations and experiences creating illustrations and collaborating on exhibit design for the renowned Brookfield Zoo.
A qualified scientific illustrator with a degree in biology, Kelley creates her work in traditional methods using pen and ink, acrylic, and graphite, as well as digitally. In addition to her work at the zoo, Kelley is an instructor at the Water Street Studios School of Art in Batavia, IL.
This presentation, sponsored by the Nature Artists Guild of The Morton Arboretum, is free and open to all. There will be no fee for admission to the arboretum for this event, no fee for attendance, and no fee for parking (and no timed-entry pass necessary.) Visitors can let the gate attendant know they are there for the program to be admitted to the arboretum and directed to Thornhill.
This Wednesday, September 7, 2022, the Nature Artists’ Guild’s paint-out at the gardens of Cantigny Park will take place from 9 am until noon. While members are encouraged to let Linn Eldred know they are attending, drop-ins are also welcome. The gardens and grounds at Cantigny Park are always wonderful and this year there is the added bonus of an exhibit of colorful large-scale sculptures by artists from Mexico City. Parking and admission will be free.
(Boards, canvases, or papers for the Schulenberg Praire anniversary project will be available at this paint-out if a request is made in advance to Carol Balabanow.)
Note – The weekly Art and Coffee gathering will not take place on this date.
On September 24, 2022 from 10 to 2, members can attend a volunteer workshop at the Thornhill Education Center of The Morton Arboretum to learn how to create artwork using color pencils on slate tiles. The tiles will be sold at the upcoming Autumn Art Exhibit at The Morton Arboretum with proceeds benefitting the guild. Tiles will be provided, but participants are asked to bring a few other supplies (details are in the August 3rd email sent to members.)
On October 6, 2022 at 7 pm, Artist and Illustrator Kelley Cappell will share some of her experiences, inspirations, and techniques with the audience at the Thornhill Education Center. This program will be open to the public, free of charge. More about Kelley and her art coming soon.
October 10, 2022 will be the final date for members of the Nature Artists’ Guild to mail their completed prospectuses for participating in the Autumn Art Exhibit at The Morton Arboretum in November. The link to the prospectus was emailed to all members on August 31. Much more about the exhibit and the Featured Artist, Alice Wych, to come.
Nature Artists’ Guild members who would like to participate in the Schulenberg Prairie anniversary project can still pick up an 8 x 8 canvas, board, or paper at any of the in-person guild events (including by request at the Cantigny paint-out and excluding the Wednesday Coffee and Art gatherings.) Members can also use their own surface, but the final artwork must be exactly 8 x 8 inches (and less than approximately a half inch deep) to fit into the display. Questions about the project can be emailed to Carol Balabanow.
Members of the Nature Artists’ Guild can drop by this Wednesday, August 31, 2022 beginning at 9 am in the Visitor Center of The Morton Arboretum for the weekly gathering to sketch, paint, draw, chat, or simply take in the beauty of a quiet summer morning surrounded by plants, butterflies, and birds.
This will be the final week for the butterfly interpretive station staffed by arboretum volunteers. To enhance their exhibit, the volunteers have included some beautifully illustrated books featuring the artwork of Maria Sibylla Merian, a noted German artist and entomologist who set sail to South America in 1699. Next month’s interpretive exhibit will focus on bees.
Participants in this week’s Wednesday Morning Coffee and Art gathering can learn all about butterflies at a staffed interpretive station located just steps away in the Visitor Center of The Morton Arboretum. The August hands-on exhibit focuses exclusively on butterflies and their habitats. All Nature Artists’ Guild members are invited to stop by to chat, sketch, simply enjoy the quiet of the morning, or even begin gathering reference material for the Schulenberg Prairie Anniversary Project.
The Nature Artists’ Guild exhibit at Gallery 200 continues throughout the month of August. More examples of the wonderful artwork included in this exhibit will be coming soon.
This weekend, August 20 and 21, 2022, five members of the Nature Artists’ Guild will be demonstrating various methods of creating nature art and answering questions about the guild at a table inside the Visitor Center of The Morton Arboretum during the annual Wine and Art Walk.
A project celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Schulenberg Prairie has begun. A paint-out has been scheduled for August 25, 2022, but members who wish to participate in the special exhibit can also choose to begin work on their own at any time. Each piece must be created at or inspired by the Schulenberg Prairie and have a finished size of 8 x 8 inches.
As always, please click on the highlighted links for more information.
As the nights become a little cooler and the earliest signs of autumn begin to appear, we know that, although there will be plenty of yellows and golds in the months ahead, many of the pinks and purples of summer will begin to fade.
To celebrate the pink and purple blossoms before they disappear, we are inviting participants in this week’s Wednesday Morning Coffee and Art gathering to try to find a flower from their garden to bring along for themselves or other attendees to sketch. A few members will bring some different types of color pencils for others to try as well.
All Nature Artists’ Guild members are invited to drop in at the seating area of the cafe in the Visitor Center of The Morton Arboretum any Wednesday morning beginning at 9 to spend a little time sketching, chatting, or enjoying the morning quiet. (Timed-entry passes are required and are usually available the same morning.)
Nature Artists' Guild 