Join Connecticut-based photographer Rich Pomerantz for a day-long garden photography workshop out in our June gardens. This class will teach you to capture the beauty and form in a garden setting with available light, flash and reflectors. Rich looks for the essential elements of every garden, to find the gardener’s intent and translate it into beautiful, compelling imagery. Please bring your camera (and its manual), charged battery, storage cards, lenses and enthusiasm! Most of the time will be spent shooting, with a designated period to download imagery and review work. Rich’s critique is one of the most popular parts of his workshop. Workshop size is strictly limited so that you have Rich’s personal attention.  Be sure to dress for the weather and bring sturdy shoes, your hat, bug spray, and a lunch.

Rich Pomerantz’s garden photography has appeared in Traditional Home, Garden Design, Horticulture, Fine Gardening and Organic Gardening magazines, in White Flower Farm catalogues, and in advertisements here and abroad.  Rich has taught garden photography at botanical gardens throughout the Northeast and Midwest and at his Connecticut studio. His website, www.richpomerantz.com, showcases his garden, portrait and shelter photography. His blog was named by Horticulture magazine as one of 2011’s best gardening blogs.  Rich has three books to his credit: Great Gardens of the Berkshires, Hudson River Valley Farms and Wild Horses of the Dunes. He gardens and works out of a studio he built next to his home in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

If you’re interested in this program, chances are you’ll be interested in  our other photography classes, as well as Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens’ new Photography Club. Learn more.

Where:  Bosarge Family Education Center and gardens, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Price:    $100 members, $120 non-members (pre-registration required)

Where:  Meet in Bosarge Family Education Center, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Price:     Free for birders – but please let us know you’re coming by clicking on the “Purchase Tickets” button below.

Where:    Bosarge Family Education Center, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Price:       Free (pre-registration required)

Skunk Cabbage by Linda Heppes Funk

Acclaimed botanical artist Linda Heppes Funk will be “In-Residence” at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens from May 27-June 2, 2012. Please visit the In-Residence Programs page for more information about her and others in this program. In addition to the program outlined here, there will be a lecture, auction, and exhibit opening on Sunday, May 17. She will be demonstrating her techniques at the In-Residence office of the Bosarge Family Education Center on Monday, May 28^, and Saturday, June 2.

From Tuesday-Friday, May 29-June 1, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. each day, Linda will teach an intensive four day tutorial suitable for those at all levels of accomplishment (basic drawing experience preferred). She will cover all aspects of the traditional art of botanical drawing.  Using live wildflower plant material as subject matter, instructional focus will include composition, observational skills and sketch development; and drybrush watercolour technique, applied to finished work on weighted cotton hotpress paper.

Students will be encouraged to practice the skills and discipline required to produce drawings combining scientific precision and artistic beauty. There will be an emphasis on process, not product, and on developing the individual’s unique abilities, though we will work toward producing a finished drawing. Exploring the meditative aspects of drawing from one’s focused center, to capture the life and spirit emanating from nature, is an underlying foundation of this course. Space is very limited so please register early.

Where:  Bosarge Family Education Center, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Price:     $495 members, $550 non-members (pre-registration required)

Botanical Illustration is a specialized world, a world of beauty, in which the nature of the subject matter is ever-changing, and always fascinating.  In the United Stated there is a developing interest in the botanical art tradition and its contribution not only as a fine art form, but in its educational value, including its significance in raising ecological awareness.   In this illustrated slide lecture, lauded botanical illustrator Linda Heppes Funk will present a program on the history of botanical illustration for The American Society of Botanical Artists, of which she is a founding member.  Linda will discuss the tradition of western botanical art up to the present day with inspiring images, including some of her own making. 

At the close of the lecture, one botanical illustration created and donated by Linda will be auctioned to benefit the In-Residence program at the Gardens.   The lecture and auction will be immediately followed by a reception for her exhibit in the Bosarge Family Education Center gallery, lobby and In-Residence office.  

All day in our gift shop, lacquered trays, placemats, and coasters featuring Linda’s botanical art will be specially featured.

Where: Bosarge Family Education Center
Price:    $10 members, $12 non-members

Storm Petrel by Hank Tyler

Hank Tyler will be In-Residence at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens from June 24-27 and will offer several programs during this period. Visit the “In-Residence” page for more information about Hank Tyler and other residencies at the Gardens.

In this small workshop for adults, Hank will demonstrate his wooden bird-sculpting technique on several of his works in different stages of completion and will discuss his approach to sculpture and design. Participants will be encouraged to try their hands at sculpting with Hank’s tools, using some of the same hardwoods as in his sculptures.  Hank will also discuss wooden spoon and knife making.  Space is limited so please register early.

Where:  Bosarge Family Education Center, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Price: $30 members, $37 non-members; p(re-registration required)

Hank Tyler

Hank Tyler will be In-Residence at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens from June 24-27 and will offer several programs during this period. Visit the “In-Residence” page for more information about Hank Tyler and other residencies at the Gardens.

In this illustrated lecture, artist Hank will share his 50 years of wood sculpting birds in a variety of hardwoods.  He will discuss the design and sculpting technique he uses, while showing images of his lovingly crafted works. A number of completed sculptures will be on display for the audience as well.

Where:  Bosarge Family Education Center
Price: $10 members, $12 non-members (pre-registration requested)

Storm Petrel by Hank Tyler

In this free program to begin his residency, internationally known sculptor Hank Tyler will demonstrate the materials, tools, and method he uses to create his award-winning bird carvings. Questions and conversations are encouraged, and all ages are welcome at this informal program. Observe a wood-sculpting artist at work!

Where:     Bosarge Family Education Center
Price:       Free with admission (Pre-registration required)

Comprised of harpist Danielle Langord and flutist Nicole Rabata, Naia features traditional Celtic music from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Quebec along with
their own traditionally inspired compositions. Rich harmonies blend with delicate melodies to create Naia’s unique sound.

Based in Portland, Maine, they perform throughout New England and have appeared in various ensembles and as soloists throughout the U.S. and on international stages, including Festival Interceltique in France, Hammersmith Irish Center in London, and the Hebridian Celtic Festival in Scotland. We look forward to presenting this talented duo and helping to kick off Saltwater, one of the premier Celtic music festivals in North America, Saltwater.

Where:  Central Gardens, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Price:     Free with Gardens admission

This is part of the season-spanning series “Growing Your Own Food: Beyond the Basics,” a follow-up to our extremely popular primer to “Growing Your Own Food” offered in 2011. The classes are designed to take your gardening endeavors to the next level, offering special topics such as elegant kitchen garden design, cultivating and preparing edible flowers, growing shiitake mushrooms, selecting heirloom varieties, and saving seeds. For an overview of the entire series, click here.

Class Description: Selecting Heirloom Varities and Saving Seeds with Neil Lash

Heirloom vegetables are traditional, open-pollinated cultivars. Learn all about these interesting and culturally significant varieties, how to get them, and which ones are appropriate for our climate.  Showing examples from right here in Maine, Neil Lash of the Heirloom Seed Project will describe the importance and benefits of seed saving, with tips and techniques on how to save seeds yourself.

Neil Lash teaches horticulture and is the director and cofounder of the Heirloom Seed Project at Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, which grows, harvests and sells more than 800 heirloom seed varieties.  This award-winning program selects seeds for their historical and genetic significance. In 2011, seeds from the project were sent to 32 states and several historic gardens.

Where:    Bosarge Family Education Center, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Price:       $30 members, $37 non-members (pre-registration required)

CLICK ON THE BUTTON BELOW TO REGISTER FOR THIS CLASS, “SELECTING HEIRLOOM VARIETIES AND SAVING SEEDS WITH NEIL LASH:”