Jan Clouse, Quercus agrifolia
Coast Live Oak
Colored pencil, © 2023
'Day of Botanical Art' 2023
ONLINE
The theme this year for our fifth annual event (on Zoom) focuses on edible California native plants.
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Presentations and materials lists
Keynote speaker, Rose Ramirez
9:00 – 9:50 am Pacific Time
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Sage smudging has become a viral trend, common in movies, TV shows, social media, and cleansing rituals—people burning sage bundles in the hope of purifying space and clearing bad energy. Instead of healing, the appropriated use of saging in popular culture is having a harmful effect.
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Indigenous communities have tended a relationship with white sage for thousands of generations. White sage (Salvia apiana) only occurs in southern California and northern Baja California, Mexico. Today, poachers are stealing metric tons of this plant from the wild to supply international demand. The documentary film Saging the World spotlights the ecological and cultural issues intertwined with white sage, centering on the voices of Native advocates who have long protected and cherished this plant.
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This short documentary was produced by Rose Ramirez, Deborah Small, and the California Native Plant Society to foster awareness and inspire action for white sage. For more information on the film and ways to protect white sage, visit the CNPS Saging the World web pages. And get a preview of the film by watching the Saging the World Official Trailer.
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As botanical artists, this important work dovetails with our efforts to communicate the importance of plants in the world and raise awareness about environmental stewardship, ecological sustainability, and plant conservation. [The ASBA Code of Ethics can be found on their website by clicking here; and on the BAGSC website by clicking here.]
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We are honored to have Rose Ramirez as our keynote speaker to speak to us about the movement to protect the White Sage (Salvia apiana), her own native garden, food, and basket weaving.
Salvia apiana (white sage) flowers with two California native bees. Photo © 2012, Deborah Shaw
Jan Clouse, "Edible California Acorns from the Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) in Colored Pencil"
10:00 – 10:50 am Pacific Time
The Coast Live oak is one of my favorite subjects, and I come back to it repeatedly. Besides being a colored pencil demo of color choices, techniques and some tricks for painting the Live Oak acorns, my workshop will cover geography, history and some ethnobotany. The more you know, the more you see. The Coast Live Oak is truly California’s tree, iconic in our mind’s eye, on those golden California hills.
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Download a materials list by clicking here.
Jan Clouse, Summer Acorns, colored pencil on paper, © 2023.
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Catherine Watters, "California Wild Rose (Rosa californica)
in Watercolor"
11:00 – 11:50 am Pacific Time
Discover the lovely, fragrant and edible California wild rose.
This deciduous shrub has simple pink flowers, small leaves, and smooth orange-red hips that make a delicious tea. Catherine will demonstrate the steps to draw and paint the various parts of this beautiful plant.
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Download a materials list by clicking here.
Catherine Watters, Rosa rugosa, (cropped) watercolor on paper, © 2023.
Donnett Vanek, "Bladderpod (Peritoma arborea) in Graphite and Drybrush Watercolor"
12:30 – 1:20 pm Pacific Time
Donnett Vanek, Peritoma arborea (Bladerpod), Work In Progress. Drybrush Watercolor and Graphite, © 2023.
In botanical art, graphite and watercolor are sometimes used in one rendering to emphasize various parts of a plant.
Join artist Donnett Vanek as she discusses her rendering of a Peritoma arborea (Bladderpod) using this technique. In this presentation Donnett will take you through her steps of using two mediums in one rendering: how to choose which part of the plant to emphasize by using watercolor, while using graphite to compliment the watercolor.
Donnett will discuss the importance of a cohesive composition when using both graphite and watercolor in one rendering.
She will also discuss her techniques for
both graphite and drybush watercolor.
This presentation is appropriate for artists
of all skill levels.
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Download a materials list by clicking here.
Closing Remarks
1:30 pm Pacific Time
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Recordings will be available to registered participants starting February 24, 2023 for one (1) week. A new link to the recordings will be sent to all registered participants.
Information at a Glance
DATE:
February 18, 2023,
8:45 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time
ZOOM
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FEE:
BAGSC Members: $35.00 US
Non-Members: $45.00 US
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Sessions will be recorded. Registered participants will be able to view the recordings after the event, beginning February 24. Recordings will be available for unlimited viewing for one (1) week. A new link to the recordings will be sent.
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QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROGRAM?
Contact BAGSC Education Committee by clicking here.
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PROBLEMS WITH REGISTRATION
OR CONNECTING VIA ZOOM?
Contact BAGSC Media Committee by clicking here.
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Schedule (all times Pacific Time)
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Keynote speaker, Rose Ramirez
9:00 – 9:50 am
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Break, 9:50 – 10:00 am
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Jan Clouse, "Edible California Acorns from the Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) in Colored Pencil"
10:00 – 10:50 am
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Break, 10:50 – 11:00 am
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Catherine Watters, "California Wild Rose (Rosa californica) in Watercolor"
11:00 – 11:50 am
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Lunch Break, 11:50 am – 12:30 am
Donnett Vanek, "Bladderpod (Peritoma arborea) in Graphite and Drybrush Watercolor"
12:30 – 1:20 pm​
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Closing Remarks
1:30 pm
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About our Presenters
Rose has lectured on photography, ethnobotany and basketweaving. She and her husband, Joe Moreno, have been working with the California Indian communities south of the border for almost twenty years. https://roseramirez.wordpress.com
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Rose, together with Deborah Small, and supported by the California Native Plant Society, produced an award-winning documentary to foster understanding and inspire action for white sage. Deborah Small is an artist, photographer, and Professor Emerita at California State University San Marcos. She is a member of the Chia Cafe Collective, and was instrumental in helping to produce their publication, Cooking the Native Way. Her collaborative public art as well as her individual and collaborative exhibitions have been shown internationally. https://deborahsmall.wordpress.com
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Rose and Deborah's most recent book is the Ethnobotany Project: Contemporary Uses of Native Plants of Southern California and Northern Baja California Indians, first published in 2016, and re-published in English and Spanish by the Malki Museum Press in 2018.
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In 2010 they published Edible, Medicinal, Material, Ceremonial: Contemporary Ethnobotany of Southern California Indians, available as a free download at: https://deborahsmall.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/ethnobotany-calendar-2010.pdf
Rose Ramirez (Chumash/Yaqui descent), has a BA in American Studies and an MA in Public History. She is a photographer, filmmaker and California Indian basket weaver. She has worked with Native artists, documents California Indian culture and has written a number of articles on this subject.
Jan Clouse, Following a career in teaching literature, theater and art, Jan began her pursuit of botanical painting in 2005, focusing her attention on the close observation
of plants rendered in colored pencil. Since then, she has shown her work regularly in group and solo exhibits.
As a member of the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California Jan has participated in various activities and shows, including the Artist at Work demonstrations at the Getty Center in conjunction with the Gardens of the Renaissance exhibit. She has also exhibited work in a number of BAGSC-organized exhibitions presented in the Brody Center at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, most recently in the exhibit celebrating BAGSC’s 25th anniversary. Her paintings were also on exhibit with BAGSC artists in Cornucopia: A Botanical Art Exhibit of Edible Plants at the San Diego Botanic Garden. Jan’s work was on view in the 17th Annual Botanical Art Exhibition at Filoli. Additionally that year, her paintings were included in a Botanical Art Vernissage at the Masseria Montenapoleone, Brindisi, Italy.
Jan has studied with botanist, botanical artist and Jepson Manual illustrator Linda Ann Vorobik,
with botanical colored pencil artist and teacher
Ann Swan, and most intensely with botanical painter Margaret Best.
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For more information:
Catherine Watters, Born in Paris, Catherine paints in watercolor on paper and calfskin vellum. She shows her work internationally in several exhibitions each year.
Her paintings are included in many collections, including The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation; The Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection; The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens Florilegium, Australia; The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England; The Museum of Natural History in Paris; The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium; The Filoli Florilegium. Her work is also included in three florilegia that she co-founded at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, Alcatraz, and Château de Brécy in France.
Catherine has been teaching botanical art since 1999. She co-developed the Botanical Art Certificate Program at Filoli and is a frequent guest instructor and lecturer around the U.S. and in France. She has juried and curated a number of exhibitions. Her work is included
in numerous publications, including ASBA's book 'Botanical Art Techniques', published by Timber Press
in 2020.
Catherine is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Botanical Artists, the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, and The Red List Project. She is also a member of the Association des Passionnés d'Illustrations Botaniques in France. She received her B.A. from the University of California at Davis where she studied French and Art.
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For more information:
Donnett Vanek, is an artist working in the mediums of watercolor, graphite and linoleum block prints. Her area of interest is California Native plants and
pollinators. Donnett thinks of her renderings of California natives as portraits, observing the beauty, intriguing variations of color, shape, texture and size of each plant and their pollinators. Through her artwork Donnett hopes to educate and encourage people to consider the importance of native plants and pollinators to our landscape. Donnett has been a featured artist in the prestigious ASBA’s the Botanical Artist; Journal of the American Society of Botanical Artists. In 2020 Donnett had a solo show: California Wildflowers and Pollinators, at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers & Native Plants. Donnett comes to botanical art with a background in textile design.
Donnett Vanek is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, and the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California. Donnett also serves as a board member of the Botanical Artist Guild of Southern California.
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For more information:
https://www.instagram.com/donnett.dishragstudio/
https://www.facebook.com/DonnettatDishragstudio/