The Science Illustration Graduate Certificate Program at California State University, Monterey Bay is proud to announce the 24th Annual Illustrating Nature Exhibit. This renowned show will be held for its 4th year at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. The opening reception is May 3rd from 5-7 p.m. and the show will run through June 16.

This year's 2013 Science Illustration students hail from six countries and have diverse backgrounds in both the sciences and the arts. They have come together with one commonality: a love for the art of nature. Within this broad genre, you will find a variety of subjects. If you love science, nature, and art there is sure to be something you will find captivating, and the caliber of artistry is truly astounding.

Only 15 students are selected for this prestigious graduate certificate program every year ensuring an outstanding level of artistic talent and scientific know how. The major focal point is natural history and students are encouraged to explore any and all scientific subjects of their choosing for which they have an interest. From the four instructors Ann Caudle, Jenny Keller, Amadeo Bachar, and Logan Parsons, the students are taught traditional science illustration techniques, digital media, layout and design, and how to prepare oneself for the professional world at large. Many excellent and intriguing guest speakers throughout the school year provide encouragement and examples on a variety of career paths a science illustrator may choose, including: publishing in textbooks, children's books, science journals, and popular magazines; forensic reconstruction; extinct or prehistoric species reconstruction; fine art exhibiting, illustrating for scientific research; creature design for the entertainment industry; and on the business side: the laws of how to be an artist, and how to protect and conduct oneself legally and professionally.

The US Forest Service just released a beautifully-illustrated, non-fiction children’s picture book that discusses why trees are sometimes cut down.

Former GNSI member Graham Johnson writes:

The 16th biennial Juried Exhibition of the DC/MD/VA Illustrators Club will be held at PEPCO's beautiful Edison Place Gallery in downtown DC. The exhibition will run from June 10 through July 13, 2013, and will feature works chosen by our group of eminent judges.

All the illustrators from DC, MD, VA, PA, DE, WV, NJ, and NY area are welcome to submit their recent illustrations. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase your work. Our website is now open for entries. Upload your work at http://illustrators.server302.com/IC016/entry1.php

"What is Scratchboard? How do they get so much detail? I've never heard of carbon dust, but I really like it! I would never have the patience to do this. It is just like a photograph, only better! Just keep looking, you will find more animals and different plants! How do they get that texture?"

>Image: Rock Crab by S. Landry

The AOI Illustration Awards are the most comprehensive and highest profile illustration awards based in the UK. The AOI Illustration Awards will promote exceptional work by illustrators and present illustration as a major force in global visual culture. The awards are international and open to illustrators worldwide working across all sectors and in any medium.

Nature's Patchwork Quilt: Understanding Habitats
by Mary Miche; published by Dawn Publications; illustrated by Consie Powell

Just imagine all of nature, mountains, prairies, oceans, and all lying on your bed as a patchwork quilt! Take flora and fauna in their unique habitats, fold them up and you have a book, this book. Downloadable activities for this book can be found on the Dawn Publications website.

The Guild of Natural Science Illustrators is proud to announce that we can now take offers for Presentations and Workshops at the 2013 Annual Conference directly on the web. Thanks to Board member Ikumi Kayama, we now have a sophisticated submission form that should cover all the bases in preparing you to participate in the Conference. Workshops, short and long presentations, panel discussions, and more!  Soon we hope to have the Exhibit submission forms online as well.

Consider joining us in Bar Harbor, Maine, July 7-13, 2013 and share your knowledge with an enthusiastic group of artists.

GNSI-DC had a wonderful send-off for 2012 with a well-attended holiday gathering at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History on Dec. 18th.

It was a pleasure to see old friends, and new faces interested in Science Illustration.  
Attendees brought friends and family to join in the fun.

In 1762 in the Netherlands, Johannes Fredericus Gronovius published The Flora of Virginia, based on an herbarium of John Clayton from Gloucester, VA. Now, 250 years later, a revised hardcopy version is available, and a digital version is being developed.

The Flora Of Virginia Project Foundation is an effort by the Virginia Native Plant Society, whose mission is the conservation of wild flowers and wild places. GNSI member and freelance illustrator Nicky Staunton has been a Charter member of the Society since 1982; she furnishes line drawings for the Society's newsletter and participated in the plant inventory of the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Woodbridge VA (700+ species, using four floras of neighboring states).

The New England Chapter of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators held an exhibition of work entitled " A Closer Look: Guild of Natural Science Illustrators New England chapter recent works" at the South Shore Nature Center, Norwell, Massachusetts.

The GNSI Great Lakes Chapter invites all GNSI members residing in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan to join their exhibit at the Fernwood Botanical Garden in Niles, Michigan. The title of the exhibit is Great Lakes Chapter of the Guild of Natural Scientific Illustrators Exhibit: Spring Botanicals.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JANUARY 14, 2013
LOCATION: Fernwood Botanical Gardens, Niles, MI
EXHIBIT DATES: February 28 -April 14, 2013
OPENING RECEPTION: Sunday, March 3, 3:30-5:50 pm

The ASBA (American Society of Botanical Illustrators) recognizes artists who have made significant contributions to science through botanical art. These artist’s work must meet the requirements of scientific accuracy, technical proficiency, and aesthetics. In addition, the artist must have compiled a body of work that shows significant accomplishment in the field of scientific illustration. The recipient of this year’s biennial award, “ASBA Botanical Illustrator Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Art”, is our very own Marjorie Leggitt, Treasurer of the GNSI.

Marjorie has been a GNSI member since 1979 and a member of the ASBA since 2002. Although she considers herself an all-around “scientific illustrator”, much of her scientific art has been botanical in nature. As a college student in 1974, she began working in the field with her botany professor, Dr. Jack Carter. Their efforts resulted in the fully illustrated Trees and Shrubs of Colorado, a publication that is still in print. Since 1990, Marjorie has taught pen and ink, composition, perspective and various other classes in the Denver Botanic Gardens Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate Program. Also in 1990, Marjorie began an ongoing collaboration with paleobotanists working as research artist and illustrator of prehistoric exhibits and professional papers. Today, Marjorie is a lead artist of the Flora of North America Magnoliophyta Vol 13 tome, having worked on volumes 9, 19, 20, and 21.

The website Science Art-Nature has posted a Call For Entries for a virtual art exhibit entitled Window On Evolution: An Artistic Celebration of Charles Darwin, commemorating Darwin Day, February 12, 2013. Each selected piece of art must portray a narrative about evolution. Visit the Science Art-Nature website for the entry form and detailed information.

Congratulations to GNSI member Linda Feltner for both a people's choice arward at the GNSI Members Exhibit this past summer and now two new awards for the same image! Linda has received "The Ethology award for the Best Depiction of Natural Behavior in Any Medium" and the "Western Art Collector's Magazine Editor's Choice Award" from the Society of Animal Artists (SAA), for "A Mischief of Jays".

Linda's image is a 20 x 24 pastel created as part of an ongoing series of animals, plants, and environment of the Sky Island Ecosystems in southeast Arizona.