Category: Paint-Outs

When you think of Autumn, you think of colorful leaves, and when you think of colorful leaves, what better place to find them than at The Morton Arboretum?    What a great opportunity for gaining inspiration and material for your autumn landscapes or just for being outdoors on what we assume will be a gorgeous autumn day!  Try a new medium or even loosen up a little – it’s all about the color at this time of the year! 

We will be meeting at the Thornhill parking lot at 9 am on Saturday, October 23,  and can choose our painting and sketching locations away from (or if you’re feeling bold, right in the midst of) the crowds.  We are extending an invitation to other art leagues and guests to join us at this paint-out (although non-Arboretum members will still have to pay the gate fee), so bring a friend, and it may also be a good opportunity to meet some new people and see what kinds of creative things they’re up to!

No need to RSVP – there’s room for everyone.  Paint-out date is rain or shine.  (If it’s raining, we’ll meet in the library). Bring your own thermos of coffee or tea, and we’ll supply the muffins.

Sure, the Impressionists had beautiful landscapes and gardens, sparkling fountains and blue skies for their painting pleasure, but we had all of that and more.

At Danada House on Monday, we also had bug spray, a huge indoor terrace surrounded by windows in a gorgeous old mansion, modern indoor plumbing, and a Panera restaurant a few miles away! We thank Connie Devendorf for her work in setting up this wonderful opportunity.

We also thank Ku-Mie Kim for hosting NAG members to a paint-out at her home last month. It’s been reported that her garden was beautiful and there was the added bonus of lunch prepared by Ku-Mie!

Two Nature Artist Guild Members have arranged some new paint-out opportunities for your enjoyment this summer.

Ku-mie  has generously invited us all to a paint-out in her garden on Thursday, July 15, from 9 am to 3 pm.  Ku-mie adds that she’ll have drinks and some fruit to snack on for her visitors!  If you plan on attending Ku-mie’s paint-out, please RSVP to Denise by July 7.  You can find Ku-mie’s address in the NAG yearbook. 

Connie has also arranged for a NAG paint-out at the newly renovated 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.  Inspiration abounds Continue reading “Two Paint-Outs Added this Summer!” →

Karen Klama, a member of both the Nature Artists’ Guild and the Downer’s Grove Art League has graciously invited fellow NAG members to join a DGAL paint-out in her garden next week.  Continue reading →

Sitting amongst the bluebells and looking out at the redbuds lining Lake Marmo, members of the Nature Artists’ Guild couldn’t have asked for a prettier scene at the paint-out on Saturday. Susan, Sharon and Eva are pictured here, looking quite lovely themselves, like subjects in an impressionist painting!

On Monday, June 7, 2010 at 9:00 a.m., Nature Artists’ Guild members will have a wonderful opportunity to attend a tour of and sketch or paint the prairie walk at world-renowned Fermilab.

We will meet and park at the Lederman Science Center of Fermilab (http://www.fnal.gov/pub/visiting/map/site.html) for a 9:30 tour of their prairie, given by botanist Ryan Campbell and master gardener Mary Jo Murphy.
After the tour, we are welcome to stay to sketch or paint for as long as we’d like (their public sites are open until 8 pm). Continue reading “Prairie Tour and Paint-Out at Fermilab June 7” →

Whew! You’ve finally finished your artwork for the spring show, picked it up just in time from the framer, and gone through the line at referee night. You’re done! What a relief! You deserve a break and you are not going to pick up a pencil or paintbrush for weeks! But then – you attend the spring show, you are inspired by all the beautiful work and all of a sudden you find yourself thinking, “who needs a break? I can’t wait to get started”!
Well, you are in luck. The arboretum is currently bursting with color and inspiration, and members of the Nature Artists’ Guild are going outdoors to soak it all in. The famed Morton redbuds will be in full glory, the daffodils will still be nodding at you, bluebells are just beginning to put in an appearance, and even all those teeny-tiny impossibly-chartreuse leaf buds are peeking out, just challenging you to try to capture their color! Continue reading “Redbuds and Daffodils Paint-Out This Saturday” →

          On Friday, March 19, at 9:30 a.m., Nature Artists’ Guild  Members will meet at the botany lab, located in the Administration & Research center, to sketch or paint from herbarium sheets.   At noon, members will have the exceptional opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at the Morton Arboretum herbarium on a tour given by herbarium volunteer and guild member Liz Lizzio.
           “The Arboretum herbarium houses more than 165,000 dried plant specimens and 19,000 lichens, many from Illinois and Missouri. The herbarium’s strongest collections are its (1) active and nearly comprehensive contemporary collection of the flora of the 24-county Chicago region and (2) broad collection of woody plants of the northern Temperate zone, both cultivated and spontaneous.” redwood.mortonarb.org/lab_pages/hipp/herbarium.html
Please RSVP to Suzanne Wegener at swegener@mortonarb.org or 630-719-5642.

In late winter, the next best thing to going on a tropical vacation is?  A paint-out at Hausermann’s Orchids, of course.  Another perennial favorite paint-out spot, Hausermann’s is magical.  When you go inside, out of the snowy 10 degree Chicagoland weather, you are instantly transported to the tropics.    No sand, no pina coladas, but there are thousands of orchids, and they are in bloom!

Hausermann’s has a nice area set  aside in their huge greenhouse as a “showroom” with specimens of dozens of different types of orchids, which is where we set up to sketch or paint.  It’s worth coming even if you only have time to take some photographs, or as some do, walk around oohing and aahing at the amazing orchids (and ultimately buying one or two)!  One lucky participant will even receive a free orchid to take home with them.

It gets a little crowded if there are too many, so we’ll try to limit the group to about 15.   Please contact Denise if you think you’d like to come.  We’ll be meeting on Friday, 02/05/10 from 9:30 to 12:30, and Suzanne  will meet you there.  Hausermann’s is located at 2N134 Addison Road, Villa Park, IL (see www.orchidsbyhausermann.com for directions).   Bring a chair, your art supplies, and maybe an MP3 with some Don Ho (who?) or Ziggy Marley (who???) music, and enjoy!

It’s Not Too Late to Join a Fun Paint-Out Tomorrow!

Our first paint-out of the year is tomorrow, and it’s at a place that many of us know and love! We will be meeting at the Jurica Nature Museum at Benedictine University tomorrow, January 14, from 9:30 to 12:30 (or later if you wish). If you haven’t been there before, you’re in for a treat!

This museum is filled with mounts and skeletons of creatures ranging from hedgehogs to lions . They are displayed in a few large rooms, and there are few or no spectators, so you’ll have room to spread out and get comfortable. Unfortunately for them, the animals stay extremely still, but that makes it much easier for us to get some good sketches, drawings or paintings! I stayed a while after everyone left last year, and though it was a tiny bit spooky in a “Night at the Museum” sort of way, I was able to do a sketch of a skunk that would have otherwise never been possible!

Please let LaVerne Bohlin know  if you plan on coming, as she will be meeting members there. Don’t stress about getting there right at 9:30 – it’s a casual gathering and we’d love to have you any time you can make it . If you have the time, maybe you could also go with some other NAG members to lunch afterwards, or stay later at the museum for some extra time with the animals (if you dare)!

Denise Fisk, Program Chair