Classes & Workshops
Fleisher Art Memorial
Philadelphia, PA​​​​
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Botanical Art
10 Thursdays
January 9 - March 13, 2025
6:30 - 8:30 PM ONLINE
Contemporary botanical art is a thriving genre! Explore this captivating world with a deliberate approach to drawing and painting. We’ll focus on botanical art through the ages, look at what current artists are creating, and examine basic drawing and painting skills through the lens of botanical art. Learn techniques to draw or paint subjects from the natural world accurately. We’ll start with graphite and move on to a dry brush watercolor technique. Each class will feature a demonstration, question and answer period, and time to create botanical art.​
REGISTER HERE:​
https://reg137.imperisoft.com/Fleisher/ProgramDetail/3536373336/Registration.aspx​
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Botanical Watercolor:
Spring Observations
5 Tuesdays
May 6 - June 3, 2025
6:30 - 8:30 PM ONLINE​
Watercolor has historically been the most used medium for creating botanical art and here is your chance to learn how it's done! By using a combination of washes and dry brush techniques, join us as we explore spring subject matter each week in this fun online class. Working with a limited palette to start, we’ll explore color theory, drybrush layering, and detailing to create contemporary botanical art. Some drawing experience would be helpful.​
REGISTER HERE:​https://reg137.imperisoft.com/Fleisher/ProgramDetail/3537373231/Registration.aspx
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Starting a Botanical Sketchbook
5 Tuesdays
May 6 - June 3, 2025
1:00 - 3:00 PM ONLINE​
Contemporary botanical art is a thriving genre! Explore this captivating world with a deliberate approach to drawing and painting. We’ll focus on botanical art through the ages, take a look at what current artists are creating, and examine basic drawing and painting skills through the lens of botanical art. Learn techniques to accurately draw or paint subjects from the natural world. We’ll start with graphite and move on through to a dry brush watercolor technique. Each class will feature a demonstration, question and answer period, and time to create botanical art. ​
https://reg137.imperisoft.com/Fleisher/ProgramDetail/3537373139/Registration.aspx
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Wayne Art Center
Wayne, PA​​​​
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Beginning Botanical Art
Saturday, March 8, 2025
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM ON SITE​
Join us in exploring the captivating world of contemporary botanical art. This course is perfect for beginners and will guide you through a brief history of botanical art while developing your drawing and painting skills. We'll start with graphite techniques and progress to drybrush watercolor, all centered around the beauty of nature. Gain confidence in accurately depicting botanical subjects and enjoy the process of capturing the natural world through this time-honored genre.​
REGISTER HERE:
Historic Yellow Springs
Chester Springs, PA
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Resting Nature: A Winter's Journey into Botanical Sketching
Sunday, March 9
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM ON SITE
Botanical art is a genre that combines art and science. Accuracy and observation are the keys to a successful drawing or painting. Using basic drawing techniques, we will seek to understand the structure, texture, and details of see pods, branches, leaves, moss, lichens, and other winter specimens. In this workshop, we will begin a botanical sketchbook with winter observations using graphite, Micron pen, and watercolors.
​REGISTER HERE:
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Jenkins Arboretum & Gardens
Devon, PA​
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Sketching Winter Trees
and Shrubs
Saturday, March 15, 2025
10:00 AM - 3:30 PM ON SITE​
Get up-close with winter trees and shrubs, many without their signature leaves. From the textured surfaces of branches to the delicate forms of emerging buds and the resilient sheen of evergreen leaves, you’ll learn techniques to capture the intricate details to bring these unique seasonal features to life on paper. Explore graphite, Micron pen, and watercolor as mediums with a small, manageable sketchbook.
All levels are welcome; some drawing experience is helpful but not necessary. Bring your lunch. Suggested materials list available.​
REGISTER HERE:
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Mt Cuba Center
Hockessin, DE​​
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Spring Botanical Art
Learning to Draw Spring Wildflowers
Four Thursdays
March 20 - April 10, 2025
10 AM – 1 PM ON SITE
Discover the fascinating details of spring wildflowers from Mt. Cuba’s gardens in this relaxed, beginner-level class. Develop basic drawing skills through observing and sketching a variety of flowers, leaves, and branches. Explore line, shape, and form, and follow up with instructor demonstrations. Plenty of exercises will build confidence in drawing native spring flowers. No previous art experience needed.
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Wildflowers in Color
Four Thursdays
May 8 - 29, 2025
10 AM – 1 PM ON SITE
Bring yourself to the next level with drawing native wildflowers from Mt. Cuba’s unique collections. Continue to learn basic botanical drawing skills, such as composition, scale, and perspective, while introducing simple color techniques that add another dimension to your work. A series of step-by-step exercises, instructor demonstrations, and one-on one feedback sessions provide a strong foundation in botanical drawing. Students may work in watercolor or colored pencil.
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Refined Botanical Drawing
Four Thursdays
June 5 - 26, 2025
10 AM – 1 PM ON SITE
Continue to refine botanical drawing and composition skills, using color theory and exercises that reinforce botanical accuracy. Explore painterly techniques such as dry brush or watercolor washes that enhance individual style while remaining true to the tenets of botanical drawing. Sketch, compose, and execute a finished piece, applying the skills learned in all three sections of the Spring Botanical Art Series.
​​​REGISTER HERE:
https://mtcubacenter.org/event/spring-botanical-art-series-4/​
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Longwood Gardens
Kennett Square, PA​
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Advancing Your Botanical Sketchbook
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Inclement Weather Date: Feb 16
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM ON SITE
​For those looking to add to their portfolio or grow their skills in botanical sketching, this class is for you.Bring your own, already-established botanical sketchbook and add to your art using new techniques, interesting drawing materials, and unique approaches—all while being led by a professional artist. Study intriguing materials from our Gardens—seed pods, bark, cones, and more—and use basic drawing techniques to create lifelike and botanically accurate sketches. Capture the unique shapes and textures of botanical wonders, all while growing your artistic skills. This fun, insightful, and hands-on class is intended for intermediate to advanced sketch artists.
​REGISTER HERE:
https://longwoodgardens.org/events-performances/events/advancing-your-botanical-sketchbook​​​​
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Botanical Art for Beginners
Saturday, May 17, 2025
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM ON SITE
​Have you always wanted to practice plant illustration but don’t know where to start? Join us for this fun and engaging experience designed for botanical art beginners—and work at your own pace to discover your illustration style. The primary medium explored in this class is watercolor, paired with frequent demonstrations from artist Margaret Saylor to clarify the painting progress.
​REGISTER HERE:
https://longwoodgardens.org/events-performances/events/botanical-art-beginners
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Open Botanical Art Studio
Four Mondays, June 9 - 30, 2025
1:00 - 4:00 PM ON SITE
Step into a collaborative, open, inspiring studio space where artists of all levels can grow and practice their skills in botanical art, experiment with new mediums and materials—or a mix of materials—create pieces of any size, fill their sketchbook, bring in botanical works-in-progress to advance, and so much more.
With a meeting each week through the month of June, students will focus on new botanical materials each studio session and use these materials as reference for their art. Instructor Margaret Saylor will teach a new art skill, then work with students individually to help them in their botanical art journey.
​REGISTER HERE:
https://longwoodgardens.org/events-performances/events/open-botanical-art-studio​
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Contemporary Naturalism Guild of Art
Workshops, Mini-Courses, Art & Conversation, and Masterclasses enrolling now!
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contemporarynaturalismguildofart.com
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​​Teaching classical art techniques with a modern expression to honor the personal connection to Nature
Naturalism is a late 19th- and early 20th-century movement inspired by the adaptation of the principles and methods of natural science, especially the Darwinian view of nature, to literature and art. We aim to share our knowledge of sketching, drawing, and painting the flora and fauna of our 21st-century world through online instruction by teaching classical art techniques with modern expression. Honor your connection to Nature through careful observation and depiction of natural science subjects and habitats in a contemporary style.
https://academy.contemporarynaturalismguildofart.com/
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