By Judith Towers
Every third year the American Society of Botanical Artists holds its annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Five CVABA members attended the October conference and what an experience it is to find yourself among 227 botanical artists, many of whom are world renowned! The group was welcoming, sharing, and oh so inspiring!
Some favorite activities were the portfolio sharing where we could walk right up to tables of gorgeous work and talk to the artists about subjects, techniques, and materials.
Next came classes: Mushrooms: Painting Browns with Margaret Saylor was one of the highlights of the second day. Margaret brought many freshly picked mushrooms for our use, and taught us her technique for making the “ultimate brown” which was layered over short strokes of brighter blues, pinks, and yellows so that the colors mingled, creating a realistic but radiant glow. See some of Margaret’s work on the ASBA site:
Each of us enjoyed the opportunity to visit the 15th International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, within walking distance from our hotel.
Well worth a long visit is the nearby Phipps Conservatory. From the photos you can see that several prickly things, even the Dale Chihuly glass sculpture, caught my eye!
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