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Dear Friends:
Here at the Academy, many students are embarking on their Drawing Level 4 -- part of which is the study of the meanings of flowers. Mostly with a growl students question why this is such an important part of their botanical art program. This of course raises a inexhaustible discussion of flower art in history and its importance. And so the search begins on the how and wherefores of understanding this aspect of an already beautiful art form.
Floridians can hardly complain about winter here in Florida but unbeknownst to many it actually gets too cold here for many plants. Gardens that are filled with native Florida plants are certainly in better shape, then shall we say � mine. Many of my plants look very sorry indeed � the palms look pooped and the vines withered. To find inspiration we begin our perusal of my very bedraggled Florida garden then give up the search in pursuit of the Marie Selby Botanical Garden. Delighting in the approaching warm weather, this garden unfolds its glory and with it the messages and meaning of plants hidden therein.
To illustrate how the meanings of flowers are used in art, I refer again to the book of Botticelli paintings. His Birth of Spring and Primavera, so glorious to behold, remind me how the language of flowers is present in so many famous paintings. Leonardo, for example, inscribed, �Virtue Adorns Beauty� on the back of his portrait of Ginevra de Benci. It is the only painting by Leonardo in the Americas and was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Ginevra means �Juniper� which stands for chastity (a little play on words), and in the original drawing Ginevra holds a Juniper branch in her hands. The concept of chastity and virtue was to the Florentines �beauty� and a path to God and therefore a very appropriate theme for a wedding portrait. In the two paintings by Botticelli that continue to inspire me, we see Botticelli profess that �Pure Love is Victorious� by including Laurel, Myrtle, Cornflowers and Roses in both paintings. Now,
keep in mind that nowhere was this proclamation stated except in the very meaning of the flora subjects that highlights his work. Careful analysis of the paintings will show the temporal Venus in Birth of Spring becomes the sacred Venus mistress of all Gods and Goddesses in Primavera. In the first, Grace comes to Venus in a dress adorned with Cornflowers. She is the symbol of hope and faith and is about to adorn Venus in a robe of flowers and fruit. Soon to be the Venus Flora and Pomona, Goddess of Love and Beauty, in a setting of Laurel (proclamation of victory) and Myrtle (symbol of love and fidelity), Grace brings a message that Pure Love is Victorious. But, because the cape is not draped and because Grace is wearing a dress of Cornflowers, we might conclude that the message is not a proclamation, but rather a message of hope. It is a prayer for the constancy of pure love. In the second painting, Primavera, the sacred Venus standing central focus again, is now patron saint of forces and elements; and adorned with the gifts of Grace, she stands ready to triumph over the four seasons. In other words, in Genesis 1, verse four, when God first approves of creation and divides light from darkness, God establishes cycles, an ever changing sameness and Botticelli conveys one of the great themes of the natural world through mythology, theology, and the language of flowers.
So for all of us, spring blooms a waiting message. What�s in your garden??
God bless. OM
The All New OM ART Book Store
We keep adding information on Products & Art Supplies
Click Here To Visit Our Book Store and See What's New
Book Buys
Flower Lore and Legend
By Katharine M. Beals
Legends and Lore of Texas Wildflowers
(Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series, 24)
By Elizabeth Silverthorne
Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees
By Ernst Lehner, Johanna Lehner
The Secret Language of Flowers
By Shane Connolly
Academy of Botanical Art
Distance Learning sm
Now Available for Anyone
Interested in Endangered Species,
Bromeliads or Palms
Endangered Species for Botanical Artists
This wonderful course is available to anyone interested in the study of endangered species.
Academy Students earn elective credits for taking this course and completing the enclosed exam. A wealth of information that all will find extremely interesting.
Academy Electives: 15
by John Beckner, Botanist
$150.00 Non Certificate Student ~ $275 Certificate Students
Bromeliads for Botanical Artists
The structure of bromeliad plants and their flowers
with suggestions for ways to illustrate and
better understand these exciting plants.
Academy Electives: 5
by John Beckner, Botanist
$50.00 Non Certificate Student ~ $175 Certificate Students
Palms for the Botanical Artist
This publication is just the tip of an iceberg.
Palms are plants inclined to large dimensions.
They are very numerous and more varied than you first imagine. This text is for the person interested in illustrating them in various ways;
artistic or scientific and as a motif for crafts. But nearly all of it will be useful to plant lovers, tropical nature fans, gardeners and other people.
Academy Electives: 5
by John Beckner, Botanist
$50.00 Non Certificate Student ~ $175 Certificate Students
Click here to learn more about the
Academy and its instructors
ABA Instruction & Course Paks
The Academy of Botanical Art�s flexible program allows for distance learners to tailor a schedule of botanical art training to their needs that includes phone tutored lessons, classes with the Ringling College of Art and Design, the Marie Selby Botanical Garden, and Academy workshops now offered in several locations. Distance learners take advantage of classes offered in their hometown as part of their study program. There is hardly an excuse left not to join the Academy's growing school.
Book Volumes 1-8 = $38.00 each
Book Volumes 9 & 10 = $50.00 each
Plus Shipping and Handling
Accompanying ABA Course Paks
Volumes 1-9 = $19.00 each
Volume 10 = $25.00
Plus Shipping & Handling
Click Here To Order
Need Supplies? Visit Our Store!!
OM Art Book Store
OM Art Class Art Supplies
OM Art Instruction Books
Soul Biz
To me every hour of the day and night is an unspeakable perfect miracle.
Walt Whitman
~
Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.
Rumi
~
Earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
~
"Some flowers spoke with strong and powerful voices, which proclaimed in accents trumpet-tongued," I am beautiful, and I rule". Others murmured in tones scarcely audible, but exquisitely soft and sweet, �I am little, and I am beloved�."
George Sand (Armandine A.L. Dupin)
(1804-1876) French writer
~
Who can estimate the elevating and refining influences and moral value
of flowers with all their graceful forms, bewitching shades and combinations
of colors and exquisitely varied perfumes? These silent influences are
unconsciously felt even by those who do not appreciate them consciously
and thus with better and still better fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables and
flowers, will the earth be transformed, man's thought refined, and turned
from the base destructive forces into nobler production. One which will
lift him to high planes of action toward the happy day when the Creator
of all this beautiful work is more acknowledged and loved, and where man shall offer his brother man, not bullets and bayonets, but richer grains,
better fruit and fairer flowers from the bounty of this earth.
Father George Schoener (1864 -1941),
The Importance and Fundamental Principles of Plant Breeding
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Art Classes & Workshops
You can now combine
Distance Learning with Class Time
at any of our locations!!!
Private Classes with O.M.Braida
New Dates @ Studio 20
Time:
All Private Studio Classes
are from 9:30am to 2:30pm
Location:
2068 Sunnyside Lane, Sarasota, FL, 34239.
Just off 41 in the Southgate area two blocks north of Webber and the Mall.
Dates:
9:30am to 2:30pm
April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
May 14, 21, 28
June 4, 18, 25
10am to 3:30pm
April 3, 10, 15, 17
Tuition:
4 classes/20 hours: $450
Individual class: $125
Refreshments provided, but you may want to bring your own lunch.
Credit Cards Accepted!
Register Here
Or contact olivia@omartdesigns.com
Or Call 941-953-9999 for more information
Academy of Botanical Art sm @
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
To Register, visit www.selby.org
Or Call Marilynn Shelley 941-366-5731 x 239
2009 Academy @ Selby Schedule
Botanical Drawing & Watercolor
Noon to 5pm
Dates:
Five Day Spring Workshop:
April 20 to 25 w/ Olivia Braida
Three Day Spring Workshop: May 18, 19, 20 w/ Olivia Braida
Botanical Art & Illustration
Certificate Program Classes
Ringling College of Art and Design
Spring 2009 Term
Learn How to Draw & Paint Plants
Beautiful Botanical Art Workshop
Session A:
Monday �Tuesday-Wednesday
June 8, 9, 10
5:30pm to 9:30pm
Session B:
Wednesday-Thursday-Friday
June 10, 11, 12
9:00pm to 1:00pm
To Register, visit www.ringling.edu
Or call, 941-955-8866
Arboretum State Botanical
Garden of Kentucky
and the
Academy of Botanical Art sm
present
Instructors:
Olivia Marie Braida-Chiusano
Leslie Ramsey
Once again the Arboretum is proud to offer this special opportunity to join the Academy of Botanical Art in a four day botanical art workshop.
August 24, 25, 26, 27, 2009
9:00am to 4:00pm
With half hour lunch
Learn how to draw plants. Develop your nature drawing skills and illustrate a classical plant portrait in the French Court Tradition.
Join the second renaissance of botanical art and let your inspiration be tomorrow's masterpiece!
$450 Arboretum Member -- $475 Non Member
$8.00 paper materials fee payable to instructor
Student will please bring:
- three pears
- drawing and watercolor supplies
- two #3 round watercolor brushes
- one #0 round watercolor brush
- one or two mixing brushes
If you only want to draw, bring only drawing supplies.
Purchase art supplies here.
Arboretum Kentucky Drawing Supplies
Arboretum Kentucky Watercolor Supplies
Academy @ Kentucky
with Leslie Ramsey
Botanical Art Workshops
Graphite � Watercolor � Pen & Ink
Beginners to Advanced
With
Leslie Ramsey
Certified Botanical Artist
Certified Academy Instructor
THURSDAYS
to June
Day & Evening Classes
Day: 10am to 1 pm $200 (individual class $75)
Evening: 5:30pm - 8:30pm $200 (individual class $75)
Location
4464 Stuart Hall Boulevard #33102
Lexington, KY 40509
Art supplies and books not included.
For recent Arboretum/Kentucky University
Workshop attendees who completed Drawing I and Watercolor I, pursue the next level book
Drawing II and Watercolor II.
For Books and Course Paks and
Art Supplies visit�
www.botanicalartsupplies.com
To Register, call Leslie Ramsey:
606-434-4280
Exhibits Museums
South Florida Museum
201 10th Street West
Bradenton, Florida 34205
(941) 746-4131
http://www.southfloridamuseum.org/
John and Mable Ringling Museum
5401 Bay Shore Road,
Sarasota Florida 34243
(941) 359-5700
http://www.ringling.org/
Museum of Fine Arts
255 Beach Drive NE, St.
Petersburg, FL 33701
(727) 896-2667
http://www.fine-arts.org/
Salvador Dali Museum
1000 Third Street South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701-4901
(727) 823-3767
http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/home.html
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890
(412) 268-2434
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/
National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20005-3970
(202) 783-5000
1-800-222-7270
http://www.nmwa.org/
Smithsonian Institute
10th Street and Constitution Ave., NW in Washington, D.C. 20560
(202) 633-1000
http://www.si.edu/
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10028
(212) 535-7710
http://www.metmuseum.org/
American Museum of Natural History
79th Street @ Central Park West
New York, New York
(212) 769-5100
http://www.amnh.org/
American Museum of Natural History
79th Street @ Central Park West
New York, New York
(212) 769-5100
http://www.amnh.org/
Modern Museum of Art
11 West 53 Street,
New York, NY 10019-5497
(212) 708-9400
http://www.moma.org/
Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Pkwy
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(718) 638-5000
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/
High Museum of Art
1280 Peachtree Street, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
(404) 733-HIGH
Receptionist: 404-733-4400
http://www.high.org/
Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois, 60603-6404
(312) 443-3600
http://www.artic.edu/aic/
Bruce Museum One Museum Drive
Greenwich, CT 06830
203-869-0376
http://www.brucemuseum.org/
Harvard University Museum of Natural History
Home of the famous Glass Flower Sculptures
by Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895)
and his son Rudolf (1857-1939)
22 Divinity Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 495-2365
http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/
Locate Other Fine Art Museums
Locate Garden Events
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