by Olga Ryabstova, posted by Deb Shaw The Special Auction Preview for the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) 6th Annual Online Auction has opened today! This event supports both our artists and the ASBA in our dedication to educating the world about this exquisite art form. Showcasing the amazing botanical artwork created by some of our most talented members, this online auction is open to the public and features works available for purchase to a worldwide online au

by Janice Hoiberg The American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. The celebration is being commemorated with a “Special Exhibition,” a catalog of member’s artwork to be published in October 2019, based on the theme “Celebrating Silver.” Each original features a plant with ‘silver’ in the common or scientific name, or is a plant that has a ‘silvery’ element or appearance. The catalog also will document ASBA’s history, and inclu

by Janice Hoiberg Dudleya greenei, Greene’s Live-Forever, Watercolor on paper by Ellie Yun-Hui Tu, © 2015. This year ASBA celebrates its 25th Anniversary! Founded 1994, with 200 original members, it has grown to the vibrant organization of over 1700 botanical artists from around the world. As part of the celebration a special ASBA 25th Anniversary art catalog, “Celebrating Silver,” will be published. Each ASBA member in good standing is eligible to submit a scanned image of a

by Deb Shaw Come spend time with fellow botanical artists, take workshops, and attend lectures. Spend quality time at the Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the world’s top botanical gardens. Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is the nation’s oldest continuously-operating botanical garden and a National Historic Landmark. The Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri will host “Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens, the Third New York Botanical Ga

by Deb Shaw Signage with artwork by Esmée Winkel, Leiden’s 300-Year-Old Tulip Tree in Autumn (2016), Liriodendron tulipifera. Hortus Botanicus Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands. Watercolor on paper. © Esmée Winkel. Courtesy of the American Society of Botanical Artists and the New York Botanical Garden. The Los Angeles Times joined The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens and BAGSC in letting everyone know that the “Out of the Woods” exhibition will be comi

by Deb Shaw Li’l Stinky decided not to bloom after all, but provided a wonderful dissection opportunity! The Huntington team and the public got to see what’s inside! We were all disappointed when Li’l Stinker, Amorphophallus titanum, or “Corpse Flower” failed to bloom last week at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. The failed bloom, however, gave Jim Folsom, John Trager, and Brandon Tam the opportunity to dissect the bloom on Facebook Live to crea

by Deb Shaw The wonderful botanical art exhibitions at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Brody Botanical Center are in their final month of display. Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens, The Third New York Botanical Garden Triennial and American Society of Botanical Artists will be on display until August 27, 2018, along with BAGSC’s adjunct exhibition “Amazing Trees.”  BAGSC members will continue to have drop-in family botanical

by Melanie Campbell-Carter, posted by Deb Shaw Aloe broomii hybrid, Melanie Campbell-Carter, watercolor on paper, © 2018. Image protected by Digimarc. BAGSC member Melanie Campbell-Carter is returning to Texas wearing her Botanical Artist hat! As fellow members know, in 2014 Melanie relocated to Southern California from Texas to study botanical art. Melanie was thrilled to see an article in the March 2018 issue of The Botanical Artist about a new ASBA Circle in north Texas. T

by Deb Shaw Botanical Art Worldwide is listed on the American Express Essentials Culture site as one of 15 Art Exhibitions to see this spring at this link: https://www.amexessentials.com/top-art-exhibitions-events-spring-2018/ Congratulations to Akiko Enokido, her Camellia japonica var. decumbens is included (number 14 of 15 in the slide show). Thank you to the ASBA facebook page for the notification! BAGSC and ASBA member Akiko Enokido’s, Camellia japonica var. decumbens. #b

by Deb Shaw The American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) has announced the selected artists for Botanical Art Worldwide: America’s Flora, a groundbreaking collaboration between botanical artists, organizations, and institutions around the world. This worldwide exhibition and its events will call attention to the importance of conserving our planet’s botanical diversity. Each participating country will provide digital slide shows of up to forty works, to be compiled with a

by Deb Shaw The Third New York Botanical Garden Triennial, Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens is on display at the The New York Botanical Garden, in Bronx, New York from November 18, 2017 – April 22, 2018. Information about the exhibition, including images of all the artworks is on the ASBA website. Forty-four artworks were selected from more than two hundred submissions, depicting one of the planet’s most important and beautiful resources: trees. Each of t

by Deb Shaw The 20th Annual International Exhibition by American Society of Botanical Artists and The Horticultural Society of New York was on display from November 09 – December 21, 2017 at The New York Design Center. Congratulations to all ASBA artists who participated, including BAGSC members Asuka Hishiki, Joan Keessey, Lesley Randall, Olga Ryabtsova, and Mitsuko Schultz. Forty-six works from more than 200 submissions were chosen, including artists from the United States,

by Janice Sharp and contributing authors Teri Kuwahara, Kathlyn Powell, Beth Stone, and Leslie Walker, posted by Deb Shaw Estelle DeRidder receiving her award. Photo by Kathlyn Powell, © 2017. The City of Torrance Cultural Arts Commission awarded Estelle DeRidder an Excellence in Arts Award on October 21, 2017, in Visual Arts & Design for her extraordinary work in botanical art for the Madrona Marsh and for bringing-the-outdoors-in with her murals on the walls of the city’s M

by Gilly Shaeffer, posted by Deb Shaw As part of BAGSC’s 20th Anniversary Celebration, we wished to start a scholarship fund to reach out to promising artists and foster their development as botanical artists. Congratulations to Irina Stolyarova, Natasha Zueva and botanical painting students from Russia! We warmly welcome Irina and Natasha as new members to our Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California (BAGSC) group. Irina and Natasha were chosen by a committee headed by

by Beth Stone, posted by Deb Shaw Martin Allen’s Techniques Showcase at the 2017 San Francisco ASBA Conference was a great introduction for the class he subsequently taught locally for BAGSC, October 24 – 26, at The Los Angeles Arboretum. Martin’s method is to work directly from photographs. He takes great care to stage the photos for dramatic lighting and for color accuracy to the point where paint colors can be directly matched to the colors on a printed photo. Although Mar

By Gilly Shaeffer, posted by Deb Shaw Matt Ritter talking with Diane Nelson Daly about her watercolor of Bauhinia x blakeana, Hong Kong Orchid Tree. The Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California (BAGSC) celebrated its 20th Anniversary on August 26, 2017 with a three-event program held at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. The late afternoon program started in the Arboretum Library with a tour of our current exhibition, Illustrating the Urban Forest: 20

by Jennifer Muto; and Rose Marie James, ASBA On-Line Manager; posted by Deb Shaw As you know, ASBA continues to be a wonderful resource for all information about what is happening in the world of botanical art. It brings us together in the way of conferences, a terrific quarterly magazine and as a means of showing our work to the world through exhibitions, our website gallery and our annual on-line auction. The ASBA online auction offers us the most exposure because it provid

by Estelle DeRidder and Deb Shaw Invitation for Estelle DeRidder’s Madrona Marsh Nature Center Exhibition, © 2016, Estelle DeRidder. In 2012, BAGSC member Estelle DeRidder was awarded an education grant from the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) to use in creating reusable plant identification cards featuring California native plant illustrations from the Madrona Marsh Preserve in Torrence, California. Information about Estelle’s project was presented at the ASBA A

by Deb Shaw Many of our ASBA colleagues are featured in Plant: the artwork was selected by a panel of international experts including Dr. James Compton, botanist and plant collector; Charlotte Tancin of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation; and Patricia Jonas, of  ASBA. Hailed as “a dazzling collection…that brings the evolution of botanical art right into the 21st century” (Gardens Illustrated), Plant is a wonderful resource for artists, horticulturists, and anyone

by Jude Wiesenfeld and Janice Sharp Last April Alexander Viazmensky (Sasha) and his students held their first Botanical Art Exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia (see the article on page 9 of The Botanical Artist, the journal of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) for June 2016, Volume 22, Issue 2, ISSN 1523-5165*). Sasha Viazmensky demonstrating initial watercolor technique for painting a mushroom. This October 19 – 21, 2016, Sasha came to teach a workshop about