© Carol Woodin, Three-birds Orchids, Triphora trianthophora

At North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC

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.