by Deb Shaw
Artwork from the “Visual Voyages” exhibition at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. José María Carbonell, Loranthus, Royal Botanical Expedition to the New Kingdom of Granada led by José Celestino Mutis (1783–1816), tempera on paper, approx. 21¼ × 15 in. Archivo del Real Jardín Botánico- CSIC (Madrid).
Join BAGSC and The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens for an innovative seminar, held in conjunction with The Huntington’s exhibition “Visual Voyages,” part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative.
BAGSC and The Huntington are co-sponsoring this exciting weekend in November, and are experimenting with a new seminar format. Participants can register for one or more (or all) of the seminar components. BAGSC members have first options on spaces. Each of the seminar components are open to BAGSC Members, their guest(s), and the public. Individual prices are listed with each description; the price for the complete seminar package is listed below.
See full details about the seminar on BAGSC’s website, along with information about how to register for some or all of the events described below.
Friday, November 3 Wine and cheese reception: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Join us for a private exhibition tour and discussion of “Visual Voyages” led by Lugene Bruno and Alice Tangerini: 5:00 pm – 7 pm. This seminar will be a discussion of the artwork of images of Latin American Nature in the exhibition and will compare and contrast the works to contemporary botanical art. BAGSC Members: $50/person Non-members: $60/person Limited to a maximum of 30 participants
Saturday, November 4 Round Table Discussion and Tour of “In Pursuit of Flora: 18th-Century: Botanical Drawings from The Huntington’s Art Collections.” Go from Latin America in the Boone Gallery Friday evening to British artists in the Huntington Art Gallery — Works on Paper room. “In Pursuit of Flora” pulls work from The Huntington’s collection to reveal 18th-century European appreciation for the beauty of the natural world. Lugene Bruno and Alice Tangerini will lead a tour of this exhibition and discussion of the artwork, as it compares to the “Visual Voyages” exhibition and contemporary botanical art. 9:30 am – noon BAGSC Members: $30/person Non-members: $35/person Limited to a maximum of 30 participants
A practical (and fun!) demonstration of pressing and preserving plants for future drawing and painting, and secret recipes for “restoring” preserved samples to use for drawing and painting. Learn how to press plants to preserve specimens for future drawing and painting, as well as how to “bring them back” to view for drawing and painting. Alice Tangerini: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm. BAGSC Members: $30/person Non-members: $35/person Limited to a maximum of 30 participants
Individual Portfolio Reviews. Lugene Bruno will provide private portfolio critiques by appointment, one-half hour each: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm. Reviews will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis for the best time possible for your schedule, and for Lugene’s. BAGSC Members: $50/person (not available to non-members)
Gymnanthemum koekemoerae, © 2017 Alice Tangerini.
Sunday, November 5 Botanical Scientific Illustration Workshop. Pencil and watercolor on film, Alice Tangerini: 10:00 am – 2:15 pm. A hands-on workshop using pressed, “revived” and live specimens. Workshop will break for lunch. Lunch will not be provided; please bring your own, or feel free to purchase lunch at one of The Huntington’s cafés. Please be advised that the cafés can be crowded on the weekends. BAGSC Members: $30/person Non-members: $35/person Limited to a maximum of 16 participants Please note: the workshop costs above do not include materials. BAGSC will purchase some of the materials in bulk to save money for participants; we will post materials costs as soon as possible.
Individual Portfolio Reviews. Lugene Bruno will provide private portfolio critiques by appointment, one-half hour each: 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Reviews will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis for the best time possible for your schedule, and for Lugene’s. Please only request an appointment within the allotted time frame; we may not be able to accommodate other times due to other scheduled seminar activities. BAGSC Members: $50/person, (not available to non-members)
Dudleya rigida Rose, Crassulaceae, watercolor on paper by Frederick A. Walpole (1861–1904), 1897, 35.5 x 25.5 cm, on indefinite loan from the Smithsonian Institution, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation accession no. 4304.
“Hidden Treasures: The rediscovery of art treasures in our collections” Public Lecture with Alice Tangerini, Smithsonian Institution and Lugene Bruno, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm in Rothenberg Hall. Lugene Bruno and Alice Tangerini will present an illustrated lecture on missing artworks that were rediscovered in and curated for their museum collections. These art pieces represent historical events and important discoveries or were created for publications in the realm of science and art. They may have been stored in places where their presence was not easily detected; sometimes amongst old boxes of artifacts, in the files of herbarium specimens or even catalogued as another kind of object. Artists such as Frederick Walpole (1861–1904), Paulus Roetter (1806–1894), Isaac Sprague (1811–1895) and Mary Emily Eaton (1873–1961) portrayed each plant subject with aesthetic beauty and scientific accuracy. Walpole divided his time between Washington D.C. for the USDA and field trips to the Northwest as far as Alaska, during which time he made field drawings, watercolors and exquisite ink drawings that resemble fine line engravings. His talent was extinguished at 43 when he died of typhoid while working in California. Isaac Sprague, a self-taught artist, and one-time assistant to John James Audubon, was one of the most prolific illustrators of the 19th century and, from his home in Massachusetts, he drew in pencil and ink illustrations for published descriptions of native floras and plants collected during exploring expeditions and railroad surveys by some of the most important botanists of the period. Paulus Roetter, an émigré from Germany went on to create some of the finest drawings of the cactus family while accompanying the botanist George Engelmann on one of the government boundary surveys in the Southwest from 1853–1854. Engelmann named the cactus Cereus roetteri in honor of this artist’s skill. Mary Emily Eaton contributed drawings and watercolors for a four-volume opus, Britton’s The Cactaceae (1919–1923), while working as a scientific illustrator for the New York Botanical Garden. She lost her job during the depression and returned to England where she exhibited her work over the years. Each artwork has a storied past, and the history and the images of the artist’s field studies and finished drawings and paintings that were rediscovered in the collections will be featured in this presentation. By curating, cataloging and imaging these art works the Smithsonian Institution and the Hunt Institute preserve for the future a part of American history. BAGSC Members: FREE Non-members: FREE Maximum of 250 participants
The Works
Want to participate in the entire weekend? Sign up for “The Works!” Complete Seminar Cost (everything included, except individual portfolio reviews) BAGSC Members: $150 Non-Members: $175
Questions? Contact the BAGSC Education Chair.
About the Instructors
Lugene Bruno, Curator of Art & Senior Research Scholar at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
Lugene Bruno, Curator of Art & Senior Research Scholar at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. Since 1996, Lugene Bruno has held a position at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation where she has immersed herself in the collection. She is responsible for all activities of the Art Department, including the curation of the art collection and twice-yearly exhibitions in the Institute’s gallery (most notably the triennial International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration). She designs the exhibitions and companion catalogues; provides talks and tours related to collection items on site and at botanical conferences; responds to research requests; and makes available for study selections of the art collection to visiting scholars, students and artists. She is an honorary member of several botanical art and florilegia societies in the United States and abroad. Bruno is also a practicing artist working with the concepts of gestural abstraction and employing the mediums of photography and graphite drawing.
Alice Tangerini, Staff Illustrator and Curator of the Botanical Art Collection at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
Alice Tangerini, Staff Illustrator and Curator of the Botanical Art Collection at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. As a Staff Illustrator for the Botany Department at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Alice Tangerini has been specializing in drawing plants in pen and ink and graphite since 1972 and now her illustration media includes digital color.She has illustrated at least 1000 species of plants appearing in scientific periodicals, floras, and botanical and nature books. Most of her subjects are based on the Department’s extensive collection of over 4 million herbarium specimens.Alice also teaches classes in illustration techniques, presents lectures on botanical illustration and juries shows in botanical gardens and in academic institutions.She has exhibited her botanical artwork in numerous shows connected with the botanical and scientific illustration societies of which she is also a member. Her responsibilities in the department also include managing and curating an extensive collection of botanical illustrations, both historical and contemporary, which are available for viewing on the Department of Botany website.
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