Capture the essence of a tulip with watercolour!

About the tutor:

Tanya holds a PhD in Natural History Illustration from the University of Newcastle. Working primarily in the field of Botanical Illustration, Tanya has work in Australian and International Collections. She is an invited member of the Florilegium Society at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney and a regular exhibitor at the prestigious Botanica exhibition and the Margaret Flockton Awards. Throughout the past years Tanya’s work has received several significant awards including, the Margaret Senior Wildlife Illustration Award, Wetland Care National Art Prize, and on numerous occasions, the Botanical Art Society of Australia Award for the best Native illustration. Tanya currently teaches Botanical and Scientific Illustration at the University of Newcastle as well as conducts private workshops throughout Australia.

About the workshop:

With a past steeped in romance, the Tulip throughout time, has been a muse for art, poetry and festivals. When originally introduced from the mountainous slopes of Turkey into the Netherlands, Tulips became increasing popular. The obsession with the plant, known as “Tulipmania” saw bulbs often being sold for more than the price of a house. Today, Tulips still fascinate many and there are over 6000 cultivars which range in a variety of colours and forms. These plants are one of my favourite subjects to illustrate and with such a varied range of colours and shapes they are always a constant source of inspiration.

Explore many elements of the beautiful and extremely diverse Tulip species. The workshop takes you through the processes from field sketching, to tonal drawing, composition, colour mixing and finally rendering the subject in watercolour. There will be a field trip to Floriade to sketch and view tulips. The focus will be on capturing the flowers vivid colours, depicting the luminosity of the petals and portraying the essence of the specimen. Essential techniques such as washes, glazing and dry brush will be explored and developed. Through the workshop you will improve your current skills, be introduced to new practices, developing a method which can be transferred to future projects and hopefully be caught up in just a little in “Tulipmania”

This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience. A materials list will be provided. Refreshments are included for morning and afternoon tea; please bring your own lunch.

This special one-off workshop will offer experienced botanical artists an opportunity to learn about the use of watercolour on vellum with internationally recognised UK botanical artist Dianne Sutherland.

About the tutor:
Dianne is a British artist, who originally trained to paint floral designs on china with the Royal Doulton design studio, in her hometown, Staffordshire. She worked as a freelance illustrator before becoming a full time botanical artist in the late 1990’s. Her preferred subject material includes native plants, from home and abroad and deconstructed plant studies in study pages and sketchbooks. She work in Graphite and Watercolour on paper and vellum.

Dianne holds a Diploma in Botanical Art and a BSc in Biology. She teaches botanical art online and in person and has been invited to teach all over the world. She writes a popular botanical art blog and moderates a large social media botanical art group. Currently serving on the Society of Botanical Artists Council, she has been an elected member of the Society since 2012. She is also a Fellow of the Linnaean Society.

Dianne has been a regular Royal Horticultural Society exhibitor and has work held in the collection at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation; Dianne is also a member of the Royal Botanical Garden, Sydney, Florilegium Society, with work in their permanent collection.

About the workshop:

In this 3 day workshop you will be introduced to vellum as the traditional surface of choice for the botanical artist. You will learn about and try painting on various types of vellum scraps to get a feel for the different surfaces, thereafter, you will learn the watercolour techniques used for painting on vellum.

You will choose from a variety of small subjects for a final small work, which will be painted on Kelmscott vellum (provided). Kelmscott is the finest vellum produced by William Crowley’s, the last vellum maker in the UK. Instruction and demonstrations will be given throughout which will enable you to prepare the surface and paint a glowing translucent painting of you chosen subject.

Suitable for intermediate to advanced botanical artists. Morning and afternoon refreshments are included; please bring your own lunch. A materials list will be provided on booking. 

Dates: 8 – 10 October 2019

Days/Times: 9.30am – 4.30pm

Venue: Crosbie Morrison Building, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra

About the tutor:

Polly Sutherland is a 22 year old British scientific artist and illustrator. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 2017 and Masters in Art in Science in 2018. Since graduation she has exhibited with the Society of Botanical Artists in London, illustrated books and been featured in INK Quarterly.

Polly specialises in detailed graphite drawings of microscopic and botanical forms, with her practice crossing over between scientific and artistic exploration. Polly is interested in the unseen aspects of the natural world and she is most known for her series of pollen illustrations, utilising scanning electron microscopy to create magnified drawings of the varied forms of pollen grains.

About the workshop:

Delve into the fascinating world of flowers by drawing enlarged studies of flower dissections in this 3 day workshop. Instruction on dissection will be covered, allowing you to identify and understand the reproductive parts of a chosen flower. You will be introduced the use of everyday technology that can assist you in this process of revealing what is often unseen or overlooked.

You will learn to scale a dissection to a large size and finally you will learn how to create a beautiful tonal study with depth, detail and scientific accuracy using the medium graphite. Demonstrations will be given throughout.

This workshop is suitable for beginners to advanced students. A materials list will be provided on booking. Morning and afternoon tea refreshments are included; please bring your own lunch.

Dates: 11 – 13 October 2019

Days/Times: 9.30am – 4.30pm

Venue: NatureArt Lab, Workspace A, M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith, ACT