In addition to all the other fun things we’ll be working on during our Holiday Exhibit Workshop at Thornhill tomorrow (see details in earlier post), we’ll also be assembling the very first Nature Artists’ Guild Scarecrow for The Morton Arboretum’s annual display. The gorgeous gal in the sketch below, by Nature Artists’ Guild member Patty Koenigsaecker, is what we hope our scarecrow will look when she’s done. Don’t you agree she just may be the cutest scarecrow ever? Please stop by the workshop any time between 10 and 2 to help get her ready for her debut!
An important message from our Fundraising Chair, Nancy Thyfault –
Ladies and Gentlemen, mark your calendars! Our Holiday Workshop will be September 17th, 10 am to 2 pm, Room C, Thornhill.
This is your opportunity to create items for our fundraising table at the Holiday Exhibit. Think you aren’t “crafty”- well, it’s more about creating unique items embellished with your artwork! Please join us and we can get you started.
We will have wooden trays, boxes and other pieces that you may paint, faux finish or design however you would like to. Nancy Kolar will be there to help with fabric painting on holiday tote bags- what a great idea for “wrapping” a holiday gift! If you think that you may want to paint a tote bag, you can work up a design in the 8” x 10” range to bring along. You could also bring photos for reference. There will other “projects” to work on as well.
You needn’t stay for the entire time. Many people pick up items and take them home to work on. You may stay, bring lunch and enjoy some creative time with your fellow artists!
Please bring along your favorite brushes and acrylic paints. A container for water is a good idea, too. Thanks to some generous donations, we have plenty of things to work on.
Suzanne Wegener, Nature Art Education Manager at The Morton Arboretum (and our Nature Artists’ Guild liaison), announces another wonderful opportunity for our members –
Painters in the Garden
Come for a day or an hour and paint in the beautifully landscaped Children’s Garden where flowers, fish and frogs abound. We will have a cooling station with goodies so don’t let a little warm weather keep you indoors. Children’s garden staff will have a “make & take” for children interested in art. Please help us raise awareness of the Nature Artists’ Guild by participating. Please RSVP to Suzanne Wegener at swegener@mortonarb.org
Suzanne adds that you can bring information about yourself and your art if you’d like –a great opportunity to promote your work! Visitors will be strolling around, but since there are volunteers who will be doing art projects with children, there is no teaching involved. Suzanne will be available both days to answer visitor’s questions about the Nature Artists’ Guild as well as The Morton Arboretum’s Education Program. Click here for more information about the Children’s Garden!
Once again, Nature Artists’ Guild member Connie Devendorf has been kind enough to arrange for us the popular mid-summer paint-out at the beautiful gardens of Danada House, located on Naperville Wheaton Road, just north of I-88 and south of Butterfield Road. Danada House was built in the 1920’s by Dan and Ada Rice as their country retreat, and the recently renovated grounds include a rose garden labyrinth, native plants garden, a lovely alley garden, courtyard garden, and even a Thoroughbred horse farm!
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Click here for the Danada House website, or here for a few photos from last year’s paint-out. We’ll have the grounds from 9:30 am until about 2:00 on Monday, July 18, 2011, so come any time, and there’s no need to RSVP. Facilities and a huge screened-in terrace (no bugs!) overlooking the gardens will be available.
The Nature Artists’ Guild has been invited to participate in the annual Gardener’s Art Festival being held on Saturday, June 25, 2011 from 10 am until 4 pm at The Growing Place in Naperville. Please click here to find out all the details about this popular festival!
Photo credit The Growing Place
We are looking for artists to volunteer to participate for a 2-hour shift of painting, drawing or sketching during the event. What a great opportunity to show off your work while enjoying the beautiful surroundings!
The Growing Place would love to have four artists for each shift, so please don’t hesitate to sign up if you can – we need your contribution to help make this a success! Contact Jill Adzia to sign up (you can find her contact information in your Yearbook).
Karen Johnson promises blooms as she hosts a paint-out at her home on Thursday, June 9, 2011 from 9:30 am until 1 pm or so. Karen’s garden includes such June favorites as peonies, iris, and honeysuckle, as well as many native plants. There is a small pond with some goldfish, and Karen even suspects that a hummingbird or two may make an appearance!
Karen also promises bugs! If it rains, Karen has the unequaled ability to supply the group with insects, shells and other natural items (for those of you wondering why, it’s because Karen is an entomologist and the instructor of many insect-inspired art classes at the arboretum). She has plenty of room at her kitchen and dining room tables, but suggests you bring your own light.
Indoors or out, it promises to be fun! Bring a lunch if you’d like to stay later, and please RSVP to Karen if you’re planning to come (you can find her contact information in our Yearbook).
The Nature Artists’ Guild liason to The Morton Arboretum, Suzanne Wegener thanked everyone at our meeting last night on behalf of the Arboretum for doing such a great job of painting eggs for their upcoming Cirque Du Soleil promotion. Suzanne started out with 100 plain tan eggs, and as of last evening, only two were not yet decorated!
As artist Priscilla Humay pointed out after her awesome presentation last evening (thank you, Priscilla!), the Nature Artists’ Guild really does have one of the best settings in the Chicagoland area for an artists’ group. The Morton Arboretum provides us with inspiring subject matter, a wonderful and helpful staff, quality instruction and promotion, and facilities for our workshops, shows and meetings that are not only modern and comfortable, but historic and absolutely beautiful!
Sometimes it takes someone outside of the group to notice what we may take for granted. So, thank you Morton Arboretum for everything you do for our group, and any time you need help in painting a hundred or so eggs, we’ll be glad to do it!
Our fellow Nature Artist Guild member Diana Sunyog has arranged for Guild members to have a private tour of the Nettie McKinnon Gallery in LaGrange Park next Friday, April 1st from 11 am until about 1 pm.
This gallery is a hidden gem featuring over 120 works of art by many major artists, including Hudson River School painters John Frederick and George Aldrich and major American Impressionist painters Edward Henry Potthast, John Henry Twatchman and John Singer Sargent.
The history of the museum is fascinating, with early works of art being bought from profits of the sale of magazines by 7th and 8th graders in the late 1920’s, all under the direction of principal Nettie J. McKinnon. Nettie’s determination to make art available to students as an everyday part of their lives resulted in this wonderful collection. Most of the artists represented are also in leading museum collections across the country. Please visit www.saltcreekart.org/for more about the museum’s history and collection.
Family members are welcome, and Diana mentions that there are a number of nice restaurants in the area from which we can choose for our post-tour refreshment (no PB &J sandwiches for this field trip)! Please contact Ku-mie Kim (her e-mail address is in your Yearbook) if you’d like to come, as the museum would like an accurate count.
The address of the gallery is – Nettie McKinnon Gallery, 333 North Park Road, Entrance 4, La Grange Park, IL 60526 , Phone – (708) 482-2400 (ext. 2002).
Who doesn’t have Spring Fever? Although the first day of Spring isn’t until the twentieth of March, members of the Nature Artists’ Guild can begin celebrating its arrival a few days early!
Photo credit Chicago Botanic Garden
On Friday, March 18, 2011, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, we will be visiting the world-famous Chicago Botanic Garden for a spring paint-out. The Garden’s 24 display gardens and four natural areas will just be coming back to life with tulips and crocuses and literally hundreds of thousands of daffodils and jonquils! As the Garden’s website notes, “No season is more longed for, or dreamed about, than spring, perhaps because it rubs shoulders with the harshest months of the year. This spring, discover daily miracles and celebrate the plant world at the Garden in all its optimism, color, and beauty.”
All of us in the Chicago-land area also know that March weather can be very unpredictable! Luckily for our paint-out participants, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s three greenhouses boast semitropical, tropical and desert environments.
Photo credit Chicago Botanic Garden
You won’t be feeling any chill while indoors sketching the Garden’s display of “beautiful and fragrant flowering plants, rare plants, edible plants, utilitarian plants, seasonal plants, and houseplants from around the world”, all kept at a plant and people-pleasing 75 to 85 degrees! Take that March winds!
Please let Ku-mie Kim know if plan to attend (her contact information is in the Yearbook). There may be a possibility of arranging some car-pooling for those interested. Please visit the Chicago Botanic Garden website, for directions as well as some late-winter sustenance!
The Hausermann’s paint-out is still scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, February 4. It’s even fine with them if you show up early – they open at 8 am. Yes, it will be cold outside, but Hausermann’s showroom is a great place to warm up and forget about the weather. Don’t forget, one lucky participant will receive a free orchid to take home! Contact Ku-mie Kim to RSVP if you haven’t already.
Nature Artists' Guild 