Cody Gallery, Marymount University, 1001 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA

Opening hours 9:00am - 5:00pm, Monday - Friday

We three artists explore the interface between what’s underground and what’s above. We are all working in watercolor on vellum. The gallery below shows the 9 works I have on view. For information on any of these images, please email me. The first five in the gallery are available, the others are sold.

In 2023, I was selected as one of four botanical artists in residency at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, VA. Alongside me were artists Jean Emmons (Washington), Beverly Allen (Australia) and John Pastoriza-Pinol (Australia). We spent a happy and productive three weeks on site at this former Paul and Bunny Mellon estate, trying to sort through the botanical and floral wealth to choose just a few plants each. In addition to spending many happy hours on the sunporch painting with my fellow artists, we enjoyed several visits to the fabulous library, took some field trips in the area, and visited with the other residents and fellows in different disciplines that were staying there as well. My choice to submit for the Oak Spring Florilegium is the kohlrabi, currently in progress. Will let you see the finished work soon!

Working will Friends of Wellesley College Botanical Garden, we’ve turned this class into a virtual class, with a combination of live online demonstrations and lectures, and one-on-one individual guidance and check-ins. The classes will take place on June 9, June 11, and June 16. Through instruction, demonstration, and practice, learn to build color through transparent layering, and see why artists love working on vellum. This technique will build fresh but rich color and create believable form as well as well-observed detail. A demonstration of stretching vellum over a panel will be given. For more information and to sign up, see Wellesley’s Spring/Summer flyer here.

An Exhibition of Botanical Art at the Museum de Zwarte Tulp

Lisse, the Netherlands

Before the pilgrims set sail for America via England, they spent twelve years in the Netherlands, especially in Leiden. On the Mayflower, William Brewster brought an extensive botanical reference, the Cruijdeboeck by Rembertus Dodonaeus (1554). To plan this exhibition, organizers from Botanical Artists Netherlands and Hortus botanicus Leiden chose a selection of plants from the book that were used as food or medicine at that time. These plants demonstrated the exchange of plants between the pilgrims and indigenous Americans. For my plant, I chose Nuphar lutea, a waterlily whose taxonomy has undergone several revisions since that time. It grows in wetlands and lakes where I live and I used a kayak to make studies of it. The artists in the exhibition were all very happy that the exhibition has been able to hang in the Museum and is open to the public during these uncertain times!

Photos of exhibition courtesy Anita Walsmit Sachs and Martine Oosterom.

An Exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art,

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK

This exhibition now on view at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery celebrates the 30th year of her collection and unparalleled impact on botanical art. The gallery spaces are organized by geographical regions, and the entire gallery is given over to the exhibition. While over 150 artworks are on display in this exhibition, Dr. Sherwood has the most important private contemporary botanical art collection in the world, of over 1,000 works from 303 artists from 36 countries!

I am fortunate enough to have two works in the exhibition and accompanying book - Phragmipedium kovachii and Phormium tenax. The book itself is a treasure - over 300 images reproduced and so many old and new favorites in one place. The accompanying text and essays are also illuminating, contextualizing the works and the state of the genre. I’m also lucky enough to have the P. kovachii painting enlarged on the outside of the gallery, photo courtesy Mieko Ishikawa. It is a thrilling time to be a botanical artist, and we all owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Dr. Sherwood!

This exhibition at The Gallery at the Connecticut Cancer Foundation in Old Saybrook features 12 botanical artists, and mostly botanical artworks but some other natural history subjects as well. Curated by Marsha Malinowski of Malinowski Associates, Fine Art Advisory, the exhibition “brings together the best examples of botanical art in varied mediums by some o the most respected artists in this field.” Artists included are Jeanette Compton (CT),Jean Emmons (WA), Monika deVries Gohlke (NY), Carrie Di Costanzo (NJ) Gaye Grossman (NY), Cristine Piane (FL), Kelly Radding (CT), Jeanne Reiner (CT), Deborah Shaw (CA) , Anastasia Traina (NY), and Carol. For more info see Connecticut Cancer Foundation’s website here.

In June, I’ll be teaching a 3-day workshop at Filoli, the beautiful estate garden in Woodside, California. We’ll be using their orchids as subjects for the class, and students have a choice of working on vellum or watercolor paper. A three-day class allows us to make much greater progress, and I’ll give a vellum stretching demo as part of the class. Create rich color through multiple layers of watercolor dry brush to capture the shaded form and surface qualities so characteristic of orchids. I look forward to seeing you there! Find info here. Filoli’s website lists classes by date.

This Fourth New York Botanical Garden Triennial, jointly curated with the American Society of Botanical Artists, travels from the Tucson Botanical Garden in Arizona to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in May. The arboretum will be holding events to celebrate the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art on May 18. My painting in this juried exhibition of 43 artworks is Yellow Magnolia, which I studied at NYBG on an early spring day.

Find more info here.

This exhibition opened at the United States Botanic Garden in May, and is a collaborative effort by 25 countries around the world. Each country launched an exhibition, and presented a slideshow of the works in all other countries' exhibitions. America’s Flora is now traveling through the end of 2019 to highlight contemporary botanical art and botanical diversity. See the Botanical Art Worldwide website here. My painting that has been accepted for the show is Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens.

Museum De Buitenplaats

Patty Wageman, Director, Eelde, The Netherlands

An exhibition of seven artists' work from around the world to illuminate the journey of plants through botanical art. Artists included are: Beverly Allen, Australia, Helen Allen, UK, Mieko Ishikawa, Japan, Jee-yeon Koo, Korea, Vicki Thomas, South Africa, Anita Walsmit-Sachs, the Netherlands, and Carol Woodin, US. 

Join us for this two-day workshop in watercolor on vellum at the beautiful US Botanic Garden on the Mall in Washington, DC. August brings a delightful harvest of fruits and vegetables that we anticipate all year long. I'll be cutting stems with peaches and plums from my own trees, and we'll get beautiful ripe tomatoes from the USBG's own kitchen garden as subjects. These are such enticing subjects for paintings, with their nuanced colors, imperfections, and roundish form. Through drybrush layering, capture the bloom, fuzz, or glossy surfaces of these fresh fruits.  Through demonstration and individual attention, participants will learn to use vellum’s special surface and warm color to its greatest advantage in creating focused portraits, including bits of leaf and stem. Then feast on your subject! USBG link to workshop.

This exhibition, the Third NY Botanical Garden Triennial, curated by the American Society of Botanical Artists, documents trees from botanical gardens and arboreta around the world. It features 43 artworks from 40 artists. More information about the show and its travel schedule can be found on ASBA's website here: http://asba-art.org/exhibitions/out-woods.