by Joan Strauss
After a winter of continuous snow and ice throughout New England, NESBA members were ready to greet spring when they met at the third annual retreat on March 20 in Harwich, MA. Downed branches and upturned trees provided evidence of the recent blizzard on Cape Cod, but the crocuses were emerging and the sun was bright when our group gathered at The 204 Cultural Arts Municipal Building.
C.L. Fornari kicked off the weekend on Friday afternoon with a presentation of The Artist’s Cocktail Garden with Bitters. The evening cocktail hour is a time to put aside work or devices and sit outside to reconnect with our natural surroundings. C.L. gave examples of ways to create green spaces that support relaxation at this time of day. She recommends plants that show up well in low light and release their fragrances at this time of day to attract butterflies and birds.
Great ideas for elevating your garden space
Taste testing with C.L.
The bitters we sampled
For refreshment, there are several options for teas, cocktails or mocktails that incorporate the garden’s bounty. C.L. led the group though tastings of several types of bitters. These herbal tinctures have a dubious history as cure-all patent medicines but are currently having a moment on the contemporary bar scene with products from artisanal producers. Flavors included black walnut, grapefruit lavender, orange cardamom and spiced cherry. We look forward to incorporating these ideas and spending some quiet moments re-connecting with nature on upcoming summer evenings.
Last year’s retreat was marked by a profusion of fresh flowers for color-matching exercises. This year we had an abundance of dried flowers. Our Saturday workshop, Dried Botanicals in Watercolor, was led by the multi-talented Jessica Daigle. She had us choose a dried flower specimen and start drawing. Most of our initial drawings were at scale, and Jessica recommended scaling up 2 to 3-fold by multiplying the dimensions of our initial drawings. She works in large format. For example, the Faded Fire Hydrangea pictured below is 21 x 16.5.
Getting ready to paint
Picking specimens
Faded Fire - Quick Fire Hydrangea by Jessica Daigle
Work in Progress - Jessica Daigle
Jessica stressed the importance of working with muted colors when portraying dried flowers and gave us a list of color mixes she uses that generally involve selecting earth pigments, color complements, and grays. Jessica uses 300lb hot press watercolor paper. After some base washes, she uses a dry brush technique which may involve stippling, a technique in which multiple colors can be woven together. She showed us several methods for handling veins including masking, lifting (Jessica uses a 1/4 & 1/8 angle shader brush from Winsor & Newton Summit or Princeton Velvetouch), or scraping with an X-Acto knife.
Dried specimens offer the obvious advantage of not continually changing and we can continue to explore the muted color palette and new techniques on our specimens at home. We can only hope to approach the rich, luminous quality of Jessica’s work.
Botanical illustrator and educator Kathie Miranda lead the final presentation on Sunday. The workshop was entitled Colored Pencils on Dura-Lar. Dura-Lar is a versatile, archival-quality polyester film designed for art, drafting, and crafting. Kathie uses Dura-Lar .005 two-sided matte film. One wants to avoid touching the sheet and Kathie showed us best practice for handling the sheet by creating “tabs” with tape. Kathie prefers Prismacolor pencils and the first challenge was to practice toning where a light touch gives the smoothest result. Then, we practiced applying tone to the front, the back or both sides of the sheet which creates the illusion of objects appearing in the midground, background or foreground respectively. We started working with simple circles and moved on to a line drawing of Jack-in-the-pulpit provided by Kathie. We learned how important it is to keep track of which side you are working on. Kathie was not kidding when she said this technique is a replacement for other types of brain exercises!
Kathie showing advanced techniques
Front vs. back brain tease
Jack-in-the-pulpit on Dura-Lar by Kathie Miranda
In addition to keeping track of which side you are working on, many of us struggled with the direction of the light when working on the back side of the sheet. We agreed that a good tonal drawing on tracing paper is a must. Kathie showed us examples of some advance techniques. This included working with two sheets of Dura-Lar, using acrylic to coat one side, and using colored paper as a backing. Dura-Lar accepts colored pencils well and it is possible to move quickly with this technique and experiment with creating “atmospheric fade” in one’s drawings.
As in previous years, many members got together for dinner to continue getting to know one another. It was a great way to meet new friends and old! Many thanks to Lynn Shepherd for another fantastic job organizing the retreat and to event volunteers Jan Boyd, Marie Brezinski, Catherine Bryant, Ellen Duarte, Lianne Gillespie and Janice McGonagle.
Lynn already has several ideas for future retreats, so it looks like we’ll look forward to exciting programs in the future.
Looking forward to working in The 402 next year!
About our presenters:
C.L Fornari is a creative gardening expert (aka plant geek) who transitioned from artist to garden communicator in 1995. She is the author of nine books including Sand and Soil ~ Creating Beautiful Gardens on Cape Cod and the Islands, Cocktail Hour Garden, and her newest book Hydrangea Happiness: Planting, Pruning and Blooming. C.L. is a Master gardener and hosts a weekly radio garden talk show. Her books are illustrated by her photos and artwork. Website: https://gardenlady.com/ Instagram @clthegardenlady
Jessica Daigle is an award winning internationally exhibited and published artist with a love for detail, storytelling and composition in all her pieces. Her work varies from Botanical Illustration to Book Cover Design. Explore Jessica’s website to see her beautiful work, her accomplishments, and learn about upcoming classes. Website: https://www.jmdaigle.com/ Instagram: @jmdaigle_botanicalart
Kathie Miranda is an artist and educator specializing in botanical illustration. She holds a certificate in botanical illustration from the New York Botanical Garden, where she is an instructor in botanical and natural science illustration. Her work has been exhibited in group shows throughout the U.S. She is passionately interested in the illustration and preservation of native woodland plants. Instagram: @Kathie.miranda Blogspot