Filoli

Filoli, an estate South of San Francisco in the town of Woodside, California.  Built in 1915 by Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn.  The name Filoli came by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”    The 654-acre estate is a California State Historic Landmark and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. 

I was lucky enough to visit Filoli this past weekend, taking two courses, Framing & Portfolio, which are part of the Botanical Illustration Course offered at the estate.  Lee McCaffree was the instructor for this course.  She was a wonderful teacher and very knowledgeable about the subject.

The front entrance of the estate.

View of the Sunken Gardens

One of the garden carts at the Filoli Garden Shop.  

The carts were overflowing with flowers and plants to purchase.

View of the many paths of the walled gardens.

The back door of the estate

Just another pathway into one of the side entrances of the home

View looking in thru the Filoli Garden House

The Garden House

Oh yes, I did take a couple of classes while at Filoli.

Here is the instructor, Lee McCaffree and me working on framing ideas for my Hellebore.

Looking forward to returning to Filoli and taking more Botanical Art classes.

SBA - ASSIGNMENT #1 DRAWING

Received my artwork and marks from my SBA tutor in England today.

I had completed this assignment before even being accepted into the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course.  I read thru the sample assignment descriptions on the SBA website and decided to go along with the program, completing the assignments as best I could.

I tend to do well when I have instructions and a goal, so this kept me going with my artwork.

Once I was accepted into the program, they gladly accepted the first assignment, which I had brought with me to England on my last trip.

I really wasn't sure what to expect grade wise, so I was very happy when I received my marks in the mail today and received an 8.7 out of 10.

Tonal Values

Tutor's comments:  Excellent tonal strip with good even graduated of squares from light to dark. 

 Near Perfect!

Line Drawing

Tutor's Comments:  Beautiful piece well composed and positioned on the sheet.  However the line is too dark.  (I did not realize the weight of the lines were to be very thin, so it could be painted over at a later date)  All the structure and character is there as is your drawing ability.

Stippled Study of a Single Flower

 Tutors Comments:  Here you have produced a wonderful study showing the character of the subject.  Your ability to convey shape and form with this technique is extremely good and you have good constraint showing depth.

Note: Tutor's comments are a condensed version

All in all, I am very happy with my marks and the tutors comments. 

Looking forward to receiving the marks back from Assignment #2

Now it's back to work on Assignment #3 Leaves!

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SBA Society of Botanical Artists

I have begun my 27 month journey of the Society of Botanical Artists,  Distance Learning Diploma Course.  I was accepted into the program which began the beginning of 2013 and will be completing the course entirely in Coloured Pencil.  I will be posting my progress thought the months by posting my art and adventures

The SBA Course is open to students anywhere in the world and there are currently students from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Canada and the USA as well as Europe and the UK. 

For more information on the Society and the Distance Learning course, check out the SBA website.

Please join me in my journey!

Assignment #1 Drawing.  
I will post these drawings as soon as I receive them back from the tutor in the UK, I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them before turning them into my tutor.




Assignment #2 Coloured Pencil

 Exercise 1 - Drawing an cylinder, 

Exercise 2 - Layering with a single colour

Exercise 3 - Blending two colors

This was a fun little exercise which I used a Prismacolor Pencil for the cylinder and Faber Castell pencils for the layering and blending exercises.

Study 1 - Produce a small composition of a leaf, fruit and single flower.

Citrus × meyeri 

This Meyer Lemon tree is right outside the window of my art room.  It has lemons on it most of the year and I am always leaving a bucket of them for my neighbors to enjoy.

Study 2 - Produce a small study of single flower and its foliage.

Tulipa 'Ronaldo'

I decided to draw a Tulip after my mother said she would like one of my paintings for Mother's Day.

Since these assignments take so much time out of my life, I decided to create greeting cards out of this Tulip and send one to each of my favorite mothers for their special day :)

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mothers of the world!

Check back in a couple weeks for my tutors comments and marks!

Hope you enjoy the journey with me

Lori V.

A Week in Dedham, England

After a 10 hour flight from Los Angeles, I arrived at Heathrow at 9:30am.

Then off to London on the Heathrow Express.  Hopped on the Tube to Victoria Street Station then with luggage in tow, just a quick walk over to Westminster for the SBA Annual Exhibition

The cover for the SBA Exhibition (Society of Botanical Artist) was created by the wonderful Ann Swan.

Quick taxi drive over to the RHS Exhibit (Royal Horticulture Society) 

Both exhibits were wonderful.  Such wonderful art could be seen by some amazing artists.  Loved seeing the students art from the SBA Long Distance Learning program.

Just an hour by train from London is the historic town of Dedham.  Ann Swan holds week long workshops at Dedham Hall twice yearly in April and September.  

Dedham Hall is a 15th century manor house in the beautiful Constable Country.

Art courses are held in the large 2 story studio, originally the old barn.

This was my home away from home during my stay.  I had the entire upper flat with views in all directions.

Every morning a group of us ladies went for over an hour walk on the many footpaths in the area.  Every morning going in a different direction.

Its always fun getting the ladies to clown around on our walks.

Miss you all....... Mia, Sandra, Gill & Helen

The Daffodils were in full bloom around Dedham Hall and the surrounding area.

Color Pencil students hard at work!

Just another great meal.  We're always having a great time!  

Love these ladies :) 

Thank you Ann Swan for another memorable colored pencil workshop in England!

While having fun in Dedham, I did work on a new drawing of an Orchid.  This is blown up approx. 5X actual size.  It took me all week just to get this far.  Those little red islands on the leaves took days.  Now I'm starting to color in the green of the leaves.

Miss you all!  See you next year.

Lori V.

Orchid Show

March 8- 10, 2013

Earl Warren Fairgrounds

Santa Barbara, California

Off to the Orchid Show in Santa Barbara!

Looking forward to buying some beautiful Orchids to draw.

Thinking of making note cards of various varieties of Orchids, so this will really be helpful

The theme this year was Orchids in Focus, so many of the displays had a motion picture theme.

One of my favorite displays was from a local grower Zuma Canyon Orchids.

Such beautiful award winning displays of white Orchids

My favorites were all the crazy looking Orchids

Love all the color combinations

This is the variety I purchased and can't wait to start drawing

There were many beautiful entries in the art area.  Next year I hope to enter all my Orchid Greeting Cards.

Met another botanical illustrator Linda Ann Vorobik from Washington State.

She had some beautiful greeting cards, bookmarks and amazing silk scarves for sale at her booth.

Nancy at I at the Orchid Show. 

What a great time we had!

Happy Drawing friends :)

Casa del Herrero

Casa del Herrero, located in Montecito near Santa Barbara, California

This estate is included on the National Register of Historic Places and a National Historic Landmark.

I visited Casa del Herrero in January to meet with Molly Barker the director about arranging to have an artist from England to teach a Botanical Art class later in 2013.  The estate is planning on hosting art workshops in the coming years.

The 1920's estate was designed and constructed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style of architecture,

The principal architect of the house was George Washington Smith, one of the architects credited with creating the Santa Barbara's rich legacy of Spanish Colonial Revival design.

The estate covers 11 acres in Montecito with gardens designed in the Moorish style.

In the early 1930's George Steedman worked with architect Floyd Brewster on the design of his workshop. Steedman became interested in silversmithing in the mid 1920's and in 1927 studied with George Gebelein, the foremost American silversmith, in Boston

To take a tour of Casa del Herrero and for more information on the estate, visit their website at www.casadelherrero.com

Stay tuned for more details in the months to come.

Huntington Gardens Botanical Drawing

The Huntington

Founded in 1919 in Pasadena, California.

The gardens cover 120 acres including Rose Gardens, Japanese Gardens, Chinese Gardens plus a dozen other specialty gardens.

Botanical Drawing workshop with art instructor Lisa Pompelli.

 

Always so much going on at The Huntington, even in December

 

 

Diana launches her arrow ... seemingly into the dome of the gallery outside the Huntington Library. There's a legend that sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington used an 18-year-old Bette Davis as the model.

 

Art instructor extraordinaire, Lisa Pompelli working with a student

 

 

 

 Conservatory & Workrooms

 

Art students hard at work

 

One of my botanical drawings done in graphite that I worked on during the 3 weeks of class.

 

Looking forward to future classes with Lisa :)