“Bruce, you’ve demonstrated so clearly the power of images! Can you/will you gather some of your favorites for a Journal article?” How could any illustrator resist a request like that? Even if it does mean discussing images that are, at best, only tangentially related to the natural sciences. 

In 2011 I launched a blog in which I illustrate pairs of words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same (homophones). I post a new pair of images every week, so it’s called Homophones, Weakly. Get it? Har har. 

The Margaret Flockton Award commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton made to Australian scientific botanical illustration. The Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens, as a major fundraising organization and supporter of the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, is pleased to sponsor the Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration.

In the bicentennial year of the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition will be held in the Joseph Maiden Theatre from Saturday, April 9 to Sunday, May 1, 2016.

As a watercolor artist, I have always wanted to create art that could be handled in the same way as an oil or acrylic (i.e., framed and hung without glass or backing). Works on paper are beautiful, and I love the way the paper and pigment interact. But when it comes to creativity, I want to stretch the boundaries so as to have as many options for expression as possible. Another consideration, for me, is the apparent value perception through which the general public views works on canvas versus those on paper. Those of us who work in the art field know that watercolor paintings are just as durable as works on canvas. We see plenty of evidence of these watercolors in museums, with over 500-year-old illuminated manuscripts, masters’ watercolor paintings, naturalist, and botanical paintings that are holding up just as well as oils. Despite this, the popular perception is that works on canvas or wood panels are more valuable, and the “Sold” price for canvas vs. paper (as reported by curators) reflects this perception.

The Ultimate Inspiration

Earlier this year, I visited the J Paul Getty Museum’s hosted exhibition, J.W. Turner: Painting Set Free. Within this exhibit, which included approximately 50 paintings on loan from the Tate Gallery and various private collections, there was a room of about twenty rare watercolors. While examining these paintings in great detail, I was amazed at the way Turner handled watercolor on paper much the same as oils on canvas. How did he achieve these visually stunning paintings?

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (MLA) and the Andersen Horticultural Library (AHL) are excited to begin a long-term project, Flora and Fauna Illustrata (FFI), to document, in scientifically accurate fine art, the plant and animal species that occur at the Arboretum.

> Red Oak, Quercus rubra, Watercolor on Vellum, Wendy Brockman

Grasses are notoriously difficult to identify, ask any botanist. Having evolved along the same basic physical plan and superficially resembling one another, grasses must be identified by studying tiny structures that cannot be observed without magnification. By default, this has traditionally been left to experts, who still have difficulty separating species. Because of the exactitude involved, written descriptions in botanical atlases and floras are written by and for experts. Most laypeople turn away in bewilderment, wishing that some interpretive guide existed that could help to decipher the code.

And now one does! Ian Clarke’s book, Name Those Grasses; Identifying Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes helps those without specialized knowledge use identification manuals and botanical keys and clarifies the identification of grasses and grass-like plants. Stuffed with practical information, the book is designed, written, and profusely illustrated with ink/scraperboard drawings and color photographs by Clarke. He knows his topic well, having worked in the botanical field for more than 40 years, first for the University of Melbourne School of Botany and later for the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria’s identification and information services. He has a longtime interest in botanical illustration and has served on the selection panel for many botanical art exhibitions.

The Pollinator Partnership is seeking an artist to render the 2016 Pollinator Poster, this year focusing on “Trees for Bees.” To apply to illustrate the poster, please send a one-page narrative concept idea with a draft sketch to Kelly Rourke at [email protected] by Friday, December 11, 2015, by 3 PM PST. Final illustration will be due by Monday, February 1, 2016.

Background

The Pollinator Partnership (P2) is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization-- the largest organization in the world dedicated to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems. Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. They also sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce. Unfortunately, they are in trouble. Some species have seen a 90% decline in their populations over the last decade.  Without the actions of pollinators, agricultural economies, our food supply, and surrounding landscapes would break down.

If you are concerned about your ability to make a living as an artist under proposed changes to copyright law, it is time to act. Over 2600 letters were written in the initial comment period. Most by artists concerned about or against the proposed changes to copyright.  But now it is time to put a nail in the coffin. Below is a communication we are passing on from the Illustrators Partnership. Please take some time to read some of the letters written and either write a first one for yourself (in case you missed the initial opportunity), or comment on points made by others.  This is important to show that those interested in gaining access to your art, on their terms, will not have the last say...

Your GNSI Board of Directors supports strong protection for your copyrights and urges you to stand up and do the same. Writing a letter to the Copyright Office will have a real impact.

Sign up now for a special 3-D digital illustration workshop with instructor Chuck Carter at the Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center, the University of Maine, Orono, October 23 through 25, 2015. The workshop "Visualizing Dinosaurs: Introduction to Science Illustration in 3-D" is sponsored by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators as part of its continuing education series.

Participants will create a dinosaur scene in the 3-D program MODO®, learning how to render, add lighting, and make a series of images. The images will then be imported into Adobe®After Effects™ to explore basic animation, to create organic animation using the puppet tool, and how to use the 3D workspace to create a final animation.

Did you know the GNSI publishes a comprehensive Handbook of Science Illustration? Do you know the book? Do you use the Handbook regularly, or not at all?

We would like to hear from you about your knowledge of the Handbook and how you use it or don't use it. We have posted a brief SURVEY ON THE WEB (http://form.jotformpro.com/form/52585213694966) and ask that you respond whether or not you have a copy of the Handbook or use it, or even if you have never heard of it. The survey results will form the basis of an article in an upcoming issue of the Journal, and help us market this valuable resource.

GNSI President-elect Linda Feltner discusses her career and background with the Sierra Vista Herald, Arizona:

"Just about anywhere you go throughout the western hemisphere, Linda has either been there or her interpretive illustrations of wildlife habitats — accurate in every detail — have informed and guided your visits to national parks, museums and myriad other natural attractions.

Paleoartist and GNSI member Mark Klinger is featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Given Mark A. Klingler’s occupation, it’s no surprise he spent his childhood hiking through the woods looking for bugs, birds and other wildlife and representing what he saw with pencils and paintbrushes.

The Afterlife of Trees is an exhibit inspired by scientific research on tree decomposition. The Arts Center invites artists living or working in Oregon to submit artwork as a Request for Proposals to be considered for the January-February 2016 exhibit.

We invite artists to use the idea of “rot” or decomposition of trees in the forest as a starting point for the creation of artwork. This may include interpretations and visualizations of the concept of tree decay, research into their decay, as well as the environments where tree decay and research takes place. The ecological phenomena of tree decomposition in situ may inspire work of visual narratives, abstracted beauty, and ecological comments. While the artwork needs to deal with the concept of the decomposition of a tree(s) in the forest, it does not have to be about the specific site in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Additionally, the exhibit will feature artwork with connections to science, but is not limited to that; poetic representation of situations of decomposition is also encouraged.

I am not a plumber. My extended professional artist family hoped I would take after my great-grandfather, become a successful plumber and make a great living, but a different direction called.

My focus from a very early age was nature and science, though initially from a culinary viewpoint—my mother said that as a toddler I was an avid hunter-gatherer, focused on berries and fat insects in our wild backyard.  Fortunately, this pursuit soon gave way to sketching, where my early hunting skills still came in handy.

"OC" (C Olivia) Carlisle is a recent graduate in Scientific Illustration from the University of Georgia. She studied medical, botanical and entomological subjects, creating detailed renderings using carbon pencil and dust, graphite, watercolor, pen & ink, in addition to computer illustration and graphics techniques as well as fine art. Carlisle's fine art, photography and scientific illustration have been shown in invitational, solo and juried exhibitions in the Southeast and beyond, collecting several awards along the way. Read about her experiences and goals in this article.

Southern Distinction magazine is a bi-monthly full-color magazine with a distribution throughout Northeast Georgia and the Golden Isles; online subscriptions will begin with the August-September issue.