A Few Very Important Reminders!

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You may have noticed our lovely new header, which is a detail of a painting by our Nature Artists’ Guild Holiday Exhibit Featured Artist, Nancy Pienta Thyfault. Please click on the “Current Featured Artist” tab above to enjoy more of Nancy’s wonderful work and to learn more about her!

Speaking of our Holiday Exhibit, tomorrow (Saturday, September 29, 2012) is the last day to send in your completed prospectus if you plan to participate. If you are a current member, you should have received your prospectus by mail or e-mail in late August.  Please contact one of the Exhibit Co-Chairs, Barb Denny or Karen Johnson (you can find their contact information in your Yearbook) if you have any questions.

Next Thursday, October 4, 2012, the Nature Artists’ Guild is very honored to welcome award-winning watercolor artist Heeyoung Kim, presenting “Science of Watercolor Brushstrokes”.  It promises to be a very exciting and informative program, and we hope to see everyone there (guests and visitors are welcome)! Please scroll down to read more about Heeyoung and her artwork.

A Wonderful Morning at The Beard Garden!

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Carol Jean Rogalski shares this update about this morning’s paint-out at The Beard Garden –

The garden was inviting, the weather was perfect, and the sky was clear in spite of warnings of early showers.  Susan Beard could not have been a more generous hostess, even sharing some grasses and pods and vines with the stragglers, the last ones to leave. She commented that we should see the place in the spring.  Well, I take that as an invitation that we were such good guests that we would be able to return in 2013.  So those who missed it this year can put it on their list for the spring.

Great News!  We will be looking forward to it!  We are also looking forward to seeing more photographs of the garden and the event on the website of the Morton Arboretum Photographic Society (MAPS).

Nature Artists’ Guild and Morton Arboretum Photographic Society at The Beard Garden, 2012

Heeyoung Kim, Science of Watercolor Brushstrokes, October 4, 2012

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On October 4, 2012 ,  the Nature Artists’ Guild of The Morton Arboretum welcomes Heeyoung Kim, presenting the “Science of Watercolor Brushstrokes” at the Thornhill Education Center from 7 to 9 pm.

As Heeyoung explains,

Painting watercolor botanicals on hot-pressed watercolor paper is quite different from other types of watercolor paintings. It requires extreme control over the amount of water and brush strokes. It is all about the interacting process of water, paint, and paper, which can be explained scientifically, but in a very simple way.  The only or main tool for this whole process is the brush and the artist is the facilitator, in my personal point of view, who should create the best working environment for the tool and media. Working with transparent watercolor on hot-pressed watercolor paper is so sensitive that every single brush stroke is seen through or affects the next steps. Therefore, understanding how the brush works is critical in creating successful watercolor botanical paintings.

Fringed Gentian, Gentianopsis crinita, © Heeyoung Kim

Botanical artist and instructor Heeyoung Kim was the gold medal winner of the Royal Horticultural Society London Botanical Art Exhibition in March, 2012.  She has shown her works in ASBA/HSNY International Juried Botanical Art Exhibitions (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 – Honorable Mentions Award, 2010, Award of Merit, 2011), 13th Hunt International (2010), and Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World (2009-2011).  You can view more of Heeyoung’s beautiful artwork on her website, prairieplantart.com.  

 Guests and visitors are welcome to join us for this wonderful program!  Please ask for directions to Thornhill as you enter the Arboretum gate.

Meet the Leaf Fairy!

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Patty Konigsaecker has done it again!  The Nature Artists’ Guild’s 2012 Scarecrow that Patty has designed is really too sweet, though, to scare away any birds! In fact, with some of the changes we’ll be adding this Saturday (such as adding a bird’s nest to her bun), she’ll probably attract them!  After we substitute some of her flowers for leaves (hence the name change from Flower Fairy to Leaf Fairy), and change her quote to another more “leafy” one, our Leaf Fairy, with her skirt fluttering in the wind, will grace the shore of Meadow Lake at The Morton Arboretum all through October.

2012 Nature Artists’ Guild Scarecrow, “Leaf Fairy”, design by Patty Koenigsaecker

Please join us this Saturday at Thornhill at the workshop to help construct her! If you have suggestions or supplies that may be useful, please contact Patty Konigsaecker (you can find her contact information in your Yearbook).

Annual Gathering of the Nature Artists’ Guild Elves, Saturday, September 15, 2012

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It’s time again for all the hard-working Nature Artists’ Guild elves to gather together at our annual Holiday Exhibit Workshop!  On Saturday, September 15, our members will be working away downstairs at Thornhill, preparing treasures for our fundraising table at the Holiday Exhibit.  We don’t have the room number yet, but we are always the noisiest ones in the building, so you’ll be able to find us!  All Nature Artists’ Guild members are invited to drop in any time between 10 am and 3 pm.

The word is that we will be creating some pretty doily tablescape accessories, learning decorative metal embossing for embellishing items, and hand-felting ornaments and other holiday decorations.  We’ll have the supplies, we’ll have the instructors, and we’ll have some snacks, so all we need is you (although you may want to bring a lunch if you plan to stay all day).  As always, if there is another project you want to work on, please bring it along – your fellow artists love to learn new techniques!

Don’t forget, we will also be working on our “Flower Fairy” scarecrow to be displayed at The Morton Arboretum’s annual Scarecrow Trail at Meadow Lake throughout October.  Please join us for a fun and productive day at our workshop.   Pointy shoes with bells not required!

Not So Scare(y)crow!

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We don’t know whether she kept any birds away from any crops, but last year’s Nature Artists’ Guild’s debut scarecrow, Patty Painter, was certainly the most stylish one at The Morton Arboretum’s annual Scarecrow Trail, displayed near Meadow Lake all through October!

2011 Nature Artists’ Guild Scarecrow, Drawing by Patty Koenigsaecker

This year, the Nature Artists’ Guild is doing it again, and the theme, contributed by member Connie Devendorf, will be “Flower Fairy”.  We’ve asked costume designer and member Patty Koenigsaecker to once again come up with a sketch, but we’ll need lots of help to pull it all together.

Assembly of the scarecrow will take place at our Holiday Exhibit Fundraising Workshop (more details coming soon), on Saturday, September 15, (drop in downstairs at Thornhill any time between 10 am and 3 pm), along with all of our other workshop activities.

Workshops are always a lot of laughs and a wonderful way to spend some time getting to know your fellow Nature Artists’ Guild members!  Please join us!

Patty Painter and friends, 2011 Nature Artists’ Guild

2013 Nature Artists’ Guild Desk Calendar Artwork due September 14, 2012

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It is so hard to believe that this will be the fifth edition of the Nature Artists’ Guild desk calendar!  These calendars, initiated and designed by our lifetime member Mary Ingels, are some of our most successful fundraising projects ever.  Sold at our Holiday Exhibition and various other venues, the calendars are an annual favorite, and a great way for you to have your artwork published!

You should have already received your e-mail with instructions for preparing and submitting your artwork (due by September 14, 2012), and Mary makes participating easier than ever by giving you some great hints for obtaining quality photographs or scans.

So dig out your favorite paintings or drawings, carefully follow the instructions for submission, and be part of this wonderful project.  We’re looking forward to seeing your work!

Previous Nature Artists’ Guild Calendar Pages, copyrighted by the artists

The Beard Garden Paint-Out, September 13, 2012 from 9 am until 1 pm

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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. 

Nature Artists’ Guild Prepares for a Busy Autumn!

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This cooler weather (finally) reminds us that autumn is right around the corner, and it will be a busy season for members of the Nature Artists’ Guild!

In the next few weeks and months, there will be an exciting new paint-out opportunity (The Beard Garden),  instructions will be sent out for participating in the 2013 Nature Artists’ Guild calendar project, a workshop has been scheduled for our Holiday Exhibit fundraising, and not too far off, is our popular Holiday Exhibit itself!  Featured at this exhibit will be the wonderful artist and one of our hardest working guild members, Nancy Thyfault.

Check back soon for more about all of these upcoming events, and to read about Nancy and see some of her beautiful artwork!

The “Artist Trio” at the Next Nature Artists’ Guild Meeting, August 02, 2012

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The Nature Artists’ Guild is proud to present one of our most popular meeting formats next Thursday,  August 2, 2012, from 7 to 9 pm at Thornhill.   This year, our “Artist Trio”  will include Fran Kelly, Carol Jean Rogalski, and Laverne Bohlin.  All three presenters are instructors in the Morton Arboretum’s Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate Program, as well as Nature Artists’ Guild members.

You will have a chance to learn the technique of painting dew drops and rain drops in watercolor when you stop by Fran Kelly’s demonstration.  Carol Jean Rogalski will offer insights into the history, techniques and materials, both historical and modern, of Illumination.  Laverne Bohlin will be presenting us with some techniques in developing gorgeous pastel landscapes.

This promises to be a fun, informative and somewhat informal meeting, where you will have the chance to try different materials, learn about different techniques, and interact with your fellow Nature Artists’ Guild members.  Please join us!