April 2 6:30 - 8pm
In Person Lecture
April 3 - 9:30 - 12:30pm
Tips and Tricks for Painting on Vellum - a Quick Primer
April 3 (1:30 - 4:30) 4, and 5 (9:30 - 3:00 pm)
Early Alpine Flora in Watercolor
Freyer-Newman Center at Denver Botanic Gardens
Join me in this intimate, small-class atmosphere in one of world’s most glorious locations filled with early blooming wild orchids and other wildflowers. This immersive experience will be held at the Transylvania School of Botanic Art & Illustration in Romania, a private, residential school dedicated to the observation, illustration and conservation of the grassland flora. The school sits in the grounds of James and Rachel de Candole’s family home in Copşa Mare, a small village surrounded by this farmed grassland and tens of thousands of hectares of oak & beech forest. We’ll wander fields and forest seeking out subjects for our brushes. Carol’s specialty is painting in watercolor on vellum, and we will be able to accommodate both students who want to learn about vellum and those who prefer working on paper. Background on vellum will be provided, including information on stretching vellum and framing your completed works.
Courtesy Transylvania School of Botanic Art and Illustration.
Courtesy Transylvania School of Botanic Art and Illustration.
Contact the Transylvania School of Botanic Art and Illustration for full details.
Using specimens from The Orchid Show, learn to paint the exquisite beauty of these delicate flowers. Master orchid artist Carol Woodin will show you techniques to achieve the waxy textures, subtle colors, and graceful forms of this flower family. Each student will produce a bookplate-sized painting in the style of a botanical monograph. Artists can work on paper or vellum. This is a 3-day, live class held at the New York Botanical Garden when it is in its height of spring bloom.
Prerequisite: Botanical Drawing II
Laelia eyermanniana in the collection of Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. A wild orchid of the Sonoran temperate forest.
Revel in a week’s painting in the wildflower meadows of the Pelion Peninsula, Greece. Carol will lead you in field sketching and artists will take their studies back to the studio to work in watercolor on either vellum or paper. In April, wild orchids, iris and anemones are found in abundance on hillsides, near the sea, and in ancient olive orchards. There is an optional post-workshop tour to Meteora, Delphi, and Mt. Parnassus. For info and reservation: Lagou Raxi Hotel
After a background discussion about the characteristics of vellum and its conservation, Carol will demonstrate stretching vellum over a panel. Artists will be provided with videos for pre-stretching preparations, and all those who would like to be personally guided through stretching their own first panel of vellum will be scheduled for an additional hour-long one-on-one later that day or the following day. This method keeps vellum flat and eliminates cockling. If you want to open up new options for framing and composing your botanical artworks on vellum, this is one way to do it. Carol has been stretching vellum since the mid-90s and has developed a method that works and is stable. A tutorial on framing artworks on vellum, both stretched and unstretched, will also be given.
Participating students will be provided with advance video and other information. If stretching your own panel, a list of required materials to have on hand, and their preparation, will be provided in plenty of time. Can’t wait to see you there!
Registration: $150 for Online Course, +$50 for One on One Vellum Stretching.
Paint the wildflowers of the Cape Floral Kingdom at Grootbos Private Nature Reserve in South Africa in this botanical art masterclass. Our subjects will be found in the meadows and forests of the Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, and we’ll bring them back to the classroom. Artists can work on paper or vellum, and demonstrations will cover both. If you’ve always wanted to see the unique flora of this world botanical hotspot, this is a great opportunity to get up close with it. An opportunity to visit the Grootbos Florilegium in the Hannarie Wenhold Gallery is also included.
For more info email shana@grootbos.co.za
In late summer, the bounty of Chatfield Farms provides a wealth of beautiful subjects for botanical paintings. Focus on capturing these edible subjects in watercolor using mainly drybrush layering on natural vellum with visiting instructor Carol Woodin. Through discussion, demonstration, and practice, learn effective watercolor layering by regulating how much water is in the brush. Learn brush carriage and handling tips, along with how to repair some of the most common glitches that present themselves. Build fresh but rich color and create believable form in addition to well-observed detail.
Unearthed, Rainbow Radishes, watercolor on vellum
© Carol Woodin, Three-birds Orchids, Triphora trianthophora
Artists can work on vellum or hot press watercolor paper.
Orchids are one of the art world’s most treasured subjects, and we’ll find ours growing in the landscape at NCBG. Students will begin by studying their choice of subject in its natural habitat, learning to collect field information accurately and quickly through drawing, watercolor studies, and photography. Returning to the studio, we’ll finalize and transfer drawings to either paper or vellum. Through lecture, demonstration, and hands-on practice, artists will learn to manage multiple layers of watercolor drybrush, capturing color, shaded form and surface qualities characteristic of orchids, while retaining botanical accuracy of their subject. By the end of the three-day course, artists will have their paintings complete or nearly so.
Mexipedium xerophyticum in the book plate format. ©Carol Woodin
Dick Rauh and I will be co-teaching a class on orchid morphology and orchid painting at NYBG on April 27 & 28 (Dick), and May 1 & 2 (me). First, Dick will teach two half days online about orchid botany on April 27 and 28. Then for my two full days of the class, we'll paint an orchid in the classroom at NYBG. Orchids will be provided from its famous orchid show! This will be in the style of a scientific full color book plate, like the painting at left. For information and to register:
Join us at the Mediterranean Center for Art, Gardens, Plants and Design, Lafkos, Greece
Capture these wild orchid beauties by studying them in nearby fields and gardens, then working in the classroom. Through demonstration, lecture, and hands-on painting, make watercolor paintings from start to finish in the beautiful studio space at Lagou Raxi Hotel in Lafkos, Greece. The course includes a visit to the Pelion Orchid Center, time to wander the ancient kalderimia to the nearby village of Lafkos, all on the Pagasitic Gulf near the Agean Sea. Artists can work on watercolor paper or vellum.
Don’t miss a chance for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to immerse yourself in some of the 50+ native orchids of Greece, and bring home at least one painting of your favorite. For a full course description go here. A post-workshop tour is offered to the ancient sites of Meteora and Delphi, led by renowned orchidist Phillip Cribb.
Artists have several opportunities this season to participate in online workshops with Carol Woodin. If you’d like to be notified about any of these courses when they become available, email cjwoodin29@gmail.com.
Painting the Red Flowers of Summer on Vellum
Denver Botanic Garden Zoom Workshop
Three days: June 22, 24, and 26, 2021
Vellum is the ideal surface for bringing the brilliant reds of summer to life. After a brief background about vellum, we’ll perfect the techniques of painting in watercolor on vellum through discussion, demonstration, and practice. Each artist will learn to build color, detail, and form through transparent layering, building up rich but fresh color, and creating believable form. Three days will allow us to make substantial progress in advancing or completing our paintings of red flowers by the end of the course.
Summer’s Beautiful Berries on Vellum
Phipps Garden Conservatory Zoom Workshop
July 16 and 18, 2021
Summer brings beautiful berries, and they make great paintings. After a brief discussion of vellum and its characteristics, artists will transfer their drawings of berry bunches to vellum. Through discussion, demonstration, and practice artists will learn effective drybrush techniques on vellum. Conveying berry shapes and surface color, as well as bloom if present, will be demonstrated and practiced. Each participant will have a substantially advanced or completed painting by the end of the second day. Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate elective.
From a previous workshop participant:
‘I have now taken a few virtual art classes. I think this was my favorite. The way that Carol ran the class made it feel like a real in-person class. But with the added benefit for being able to view the instructor’s demos very clearly.’
Kelder’s Currants, watercolor on vellum
Zoom Workshop hosted by Coastal Maine Botanical Garden
Two days - April 27 and 29, 9:30 - 3:30
Explore the fascinating textures and patterns of magnified seeds or cross-sections of flowers or buds in this zoom workshop, painting seeds you’ve collected, sprouted seeds or acorns, or flower buds cut in half, in watercolor on vellum. After a brief discussion of the properties and types of vellum, we’ll lay out drawings of this rarely depicted aspect of plants and transfer them to vellum. Through a series of discussions and live demonstrations by the instructor, participants will learn to build up multiple layers of drybrush watercolor, gradually increasing color intensity, detail, and form. By the end of the workshop, artists will have completed small magnified seed paintings or floral cross-sections on vellum.
NOTES: Artists will need either a standard microscope or handheld digital microscope to magnify your subjects. Handheld digital microscopes can be used with their included stand, are under $100, and the image is viewed on a computer or digital notebook. If you are going to be painting enlarged floral dissections, or a sprouted acorn, then a microscope isn’t necessary - a 4 - 6X magnifier will probably be fine!
Examples: https://www.celestron.com/products/deluxe-handheld-digital-microscope-44302-c
or https://www.celestron.com/products/infiniview-lcd-digital-microscope
Collect a variety of seeds and look at them in advance under the microscope, so you know which ones you'd like to include in your painting on vellum. If you can sprout some of them these are also welcome subjects, including sprouting acorns or other nuts. If you can’t find any seeds, you can cut some daffodils or tulips in bud or flower and dissect the flower and ovary to show what’s going on inside. For these you would probably only need a magnifying glass.
New York Botanical Garden Zoom Workshop
April 19, 21, and 23.
On day one, Dick Rauh will walk you through putting different types of orchids under the microscope to focus on their fine details and learn about their special adaptations. Then, orchid artist Carol Woodin will show you techniques to achieve the waxy textures, subtle colors, and graceful forms of this flower family. Each student will make a book-plate sized painting in the style of a botanical monograph.
This workshop is now full
Hosted by Pacific Northwest Society of Botanical Artists
On-line (via Zoom)
A one-day virtual composition workshop with Carol Woodin on Saturday, February 27, 2021 from 9:30 am to 12 pm. This class will include a slideshow with a discussion of the elements and principles of composition and their application to botanical art and scientific illustration.
Slipper Orchids 1, watercolor on vellum over panel
After a brief background discussion about the characteristics of vellum, Carol will demonstrate stretching vellum over a panel. Artists will be provided with videos for pre-stretching preparations, and all those who would like to be personally guided through stretching their own first panel of vellum will be scheduled for an additional hour-long one-on-one later that day or the following day, on Dec. 5. This method keeps vellum flat and eliminates cockling. If you want to open up new options for framing and composing your botanical artworks on vellum, this is one way to do it. Carol has been stretching vellum since the mid-90s and has developed a method that works and is stable.
Participating students will be provided with advance video and other information. If stretching your own panel, a list of required materials to have on hand, and their preparation, will be provided in plenty of time. Can’t wait to see you there!
To register, email me here.
This two-day immersion into painting in watercolor on vellum will show participants why artists love working with this beautiful but quirky material. With acorns, nuts, chestnuts, and autumn leaves each student can gather at home, artists will build layers, bringing life to browns and neutrals in the nuts and to vibrant colors of fall leaves. Learn to increase color intensity and build form, while developing techniques that take advantage of vellum’s best qualities. After the class is over, students can email photos of their completed paintings for a final critique. Work in progress can also be emailed so the instructor can help guide students to the next stage. For more info click here.
Hazelnut, watercolor on vellum, Carol Woodin
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.
Battenfeld’s Anemones, watercolor on vellum, ©Carol Woodin
It was a busy year for teaching again, and I had opportunities to teach in some amazing places! Some of the highlights were:
Teaching students to paint roots and spring bulbs at the Minnesota School of Botanical Art in Minneapolis in May, the perfect time of year for blooms of all kinds.
A three-day workshop at Filoli in Woodside, CA painting orchids from their collection in watercolor on paper or vellum, and visiting various gardens in the region.
A fun evening with over 30 registrants at the famous Mutter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Participants first sketched in the garden founded by Dr. Benjamin Rush, and then later mixed cocktails named after exhibits in the museum, using plants from the garden.
At the ASBA conference in Pittsburgh, I gave a lecture about Margaret Mee and her influence on today’s botanical artists, then taught a one day workshop on painting the Red Orbs of Autumn, with apples, tomatoes, rose hips, and radishes as subjects. It was a wonderfully enthusiastic class!
