26 - 30 October 2023: Botanical Art Masterclass

Enjoy 5 days with international artists Carol Woodin and Deborah Shaw.

Date: 26 - 30 October 2023

Cost: R6,500 per person (tuition fee includes daily lunch, but not accommodation)

Venue: Grootbos Private Nature Reserve

October is a beautiful month to enjoy the splendor of the Cape Floristic Region. Don't miss this opportunity to enjoy the vibrant spring-flowering fynbos plants and to learn from these renowned international artists. In this masterclass, artists will choose their subject from the plants provided and then visit the plants in situ to observe and sketch them in their natural habitat. Field information will be collected accurately and quickly through drawing, watercolor studies, and photography. Returning to the studio, compositions will be designed while paying attention to botanical accuracy and aesthetics. Compositional drawings will be transferred to either paper or vellum.

Through lecture, demonstration, and hands-on practice, artists will learn to manage multiple layers of watercolor drybrush, capturing rich color, shaded form and surface textures of Fynbos flora, while retaining the botanical accuracy of their subject. By the end of the five-day course, artists will have a painting completed or nearly so. Carol and Deb will also provide lectures on contemporary botanical art and conservation.

Meet the Artists

Carol Woodin

Carol Woodin has been making botanical art for more than 30 years, and in particular enjoys painting orchids. She is the director of exhibitions for the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) and is the co-editor of its publication, Botanical Art Techniques. Her illustrations have been exhibited and collected around the world, and she has received a number of awards for her work on orchids. Her work has appeared in Curtis's Botanical Magazine and in three monographs published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and NHBS - the most recent being Slipper Orchids of the Tropical Americas.

Deborah Shaw

Deborah Shaw has a degree in fine art from Pomona College in California, and while there studied botany and native flora. She has taught botanical art at the J. Paul Getty Museum in LA and Virginia Robinson Gardens in Beverley Hills, among other US and international venues. She contributes to the ASBA publication Botanical Art Techniques, and her work has been displayed internationally in exhibitions. Her work is also held in private collections, in the permanent collection at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, and is part of the botanical collections at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in California.

For more information or to book, contact Grootbos Florilegium.