Category: Paint-Outs

An exciting new paint-out opportunity has just been announced!  Landscape designer Susan Beard has invited the Nature Artists’ Guild to her and her husband Kenneth’s 3-acre garden at 3711 Madison, in Oak Brook, for a wonderful day of painting, sketching, and photographing!   Once featured in Chicagoland Gardening magazine, and included in The Garden Conservancy’s “most beautiful gardens in America”, The Beard Garden includes over 300 varieties of hosta, perennial beds, annuals, flagstone paths,  and even shady woodland gardens of mature trees, understory shrubs, and groundcovers. 

Please contact Carol Jean Rogalski (you can find her contact information in your Nature Artists’ Guild Yearbook) if you would like to be included in this wonderful opportunity to enjoy the sights, sounds and fragrances of The Beard Garden.   Don’t wait too long, though, because attendance will be limited to 12 artists from the Nature Artists’ Guild of the Morton Arboretum and 12 photographers from the Morton Arboretum Photographic Society. 

Connie Devendorf describes the location for our upcoming Ball Horticulture Paint-Out as “a beautiful garden with both annuals and perennials, featuring many of Ball Horticulture’s “showcase” plants. It is a private garden for Ball employees. We have been invited as their guests.” 

You can see photos and read more about The Ball Gardens at www.BallHort.com.  We’ll need to limit attendance to about 15 members, so please RSVP to Ku-mie Kim if you would like to attend.  You can find her e-mail address in your Nature Artists’ Guild Yearbook.

Time: Monday, June 18, 2012 (9 am – 12 noon)

Place: Ball Horticulture Co., 622 Town Road, West Chicago, IL 60185

Even if you missed the mastodon at our previous paint-out, as a member of the Nature Artists’ Guild of The Morton Arboretum, you will now have another chance to draw, paint or photograph many, many huge (or tiny, if you prefer) creatures!

The Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum at Benedictine University in Lisle, IL houses over 10,000 mounts, skeletons and other items in its 2500 square foot space, and we will have it all to ourselves the morning of March 12, from 9 am until 1 pm.

Please click here to view the museum’s new online catalog of photographs and information!

There are a few benches, but for the best view and your own comfort, bring a folding chair along with your art supplies.  Many attendees choose to go out for lunch following this yearly paint-out.

Please RSVP to Suzanne Wegener if you’d like to attend, but even if you decide to drop-in at the last minute, please feel free to.  There’s plenty of room, and you can even show up late if you’d like!

In just a few weeks, during the cold, dreary month of February, members of the Nature Artists’ Guild will once again be taking a trip to the most tropical place in the area, Hausermann’s Orchids, the showroom and greenhouse of the largest orchid grower in the Midwest!

The paint-out will take place on Monday, February 6, from 9 am until noon. This is one of our most popular paint-outs of the year, and Hausermann’s can accommodate only 15 artists, so please be sure to RSVP to Kathyrn Wagner-Selbach (you can find her e-mail address in your Yearbook) to save your spot.

You can read more about Hausermann’s, get directions, and view some of their thousands of stunning orchids at their website,  www.orchidsbyhausermann.com.

Nature Artists’ Guild member Marilyn Peretti has arranged a wonderful new opportunity for our first paint out of 2012!

According to Marilyn, the new Science Center at Wheaton College features the Perry Mastodon, which was unearthed in 1963 in Judge Perry’s backyard pond in Glen Ellyn.   Several other large animal specimens, as well as  a geological display of rocks and gems are also in included in what Marilyn describes as a “gorgeous, classy display area on two floors”.

Wheaton College has asked us to limit the number of participants to 12, so please RSVP to Ku-mie Kim to reserve your spot.  You will also need to bring your own folding chair or stool.

Please click here to see more about the mastodon and the Science Center!

The trees of The Morton Arboretum have begun their big event – their annual display of reds, golds, oranges and violets against a deep blue sky!   The Nature Artists’ Guild has scheduled a paint-out during this show to try to capture at least some of all of that beauty.  On Saturday, October 22, 2011, we’ll be meeting in front of Thornhill at 9:30 a.m. before heading out to choose our location(s) for painting and sketching.  Whether you prefer to stay with the group or wander off on your own, we can guarantee that you will find some trees all decked out in their finest, ready and willing to be your models for the morning.

Bring a thermos, your supplies, and a portable chair or stool and we’ll supply the muffins!  The paint-out will be held rain or shine, but we’ll hope for one of those bright blue October skies.  Please invite your friends from other art groups, as this paint-out is open to everyone, members and non-members alike, but please keep in mind that non-members of The Morton Arboretum will still be charged a gate fee.  No RSVP is necessary, and in case of rain, please meet at the Sterling Morton Library.