Susan Perrine Trellis

Hillary Parker Fern

Dick Rauh drawing

Every summer, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens hosts experts who offer a series of activities to enrich the Gardens experience. We believe that our Experts-in-Residence program is the only one at a U.S. botanical garden that includes other types of experts beyond visual or performing artists. We’ve featured ornithologists, botanists, landscape architects, painters, photographers, and others. See below for a list of past and present years’ Experts-in-Residence at the Gardens, and click on the links for this year’s residents’ programs.

2013 Experts-in-Residence

Susan Perrine, Artist-in-Residence from June 11-15, is a contemporary fiber artist specializing in ancient techniques. During her Gardens residency as part of our 2013 celebration of “Trees, Timbers and Traditions,” Susan will create artistic works utilizing and weaving twigs. In addition to offering several classes while at the Gardens, Susan and our visitors will weave a twig tunnel in the traditional-arts area of the Children’s Garden. 

Susan Perrine’s Workshops:
June 12: Making Garden Tuteurs
June 13: Create Twig Jewelry
June 14: Make a Twig Tunnel
June 15: Making Rustic Garden Trellises
June 15: Reception for Twig Tunnel

Hillary Parker, Artist-in-Residence from July 16-19, is a naturalist and international award-winning botanical watercolor artist with paintings exhibited and sold worldwide.  A former resident of Camden, Maine, she now works from her studio on St. Simons Island, off the coast of Georgia, returning to Maine to spend time with family in Boothbay whenever time permits. She has enjoyed a dual career of teaching and painting for more than 20 years and enjoys keeping up with the demands of private and public commissions, juried exhibitions, lectures, international workshops, and solo and group shows with galleries that represent her. Her paintings can be found in Singapore, El Salvador, Canada, Japan, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, South Africa, Bahamas, and throughout the U.S. Visit Hillary’s website.

Hillary Parker’s Workshops:
July 16: Painting Poetry in Nature
July 18: Edible Art
July 19: Wine and Watercolors

Dick Rauh, Artist-in-Residence from August 5-9, teaching an intensive art workshop, “Drawing Native Plants of Maine.” Dick earned a doctorate in plant sciences in 2001 from the City University of New York to better inform his illustration techniques.  He is the illustrator of Carol Levine’s classic Guide to Wildflowers in Winter, a work which piqued his interest in the dry fruits and other remnants of out-of-season natives, which he paints in enlarged versions to demonstrate their architecture. A collection of this work received a gold medal from the Royal Horticultural Society and a best-in-show award. He is a fellow of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society. Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens will present an exhibit of Dick’s work, “Tree Sketches,” from August 1-28.

Dick Rauh ‘s Workshop:
August 5-9 workshop: Drawing Native Plants of Maine

Rolph Briggs, Expert-in-Residence from September 4-6, is a certified arborist, as well as a consultant and educator.  He is the founder of Tree Specialists, Inc., of Holliston, MA, which specializes in the preservation and restoration of landscape trees.  Briggs works with property owners and professionals to develop action plans to extend the life of their plant collections through education, high quality fieldwork, and professional planning.

Rolf Briggs’s Workshops:
September 5: Air Tools Workshop for Arborists, Landscapers, Landscape Designers, and Landscape Architects
September 6 (9 a.m.-noon): Tree Care and Preservation Workshop for Homeowner
September 6 (2-4 p.m.): Ask the Arborist, with Rolf Briggs

2012 Experts-in-Residence

Susan Schön, artist – July 30-August 3
Linda Heppes Funk, botanical artist – May 27-June 22
Hank Tyler, artist in wood – June 24-27
Bob Duchesne, birder extraordinaire – July 2-6
Susan Newbold, artist and journal illustrator – August 22-31

2011 Experts-in-Residence

July 5-9: Landscape Architect Herb Schaal, FASLA
July 18-22: Barry Dana, past chief of the Penobscot Nation
July 26-30: Barry W. Van Dusen, internationally recognized wildlife artist
August 8-12: Stephanie Stuber, curtorial intern and bryologist studying the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts of the Gardens
September 5-10:  Kim and Philippe Villard, collaborative woodblock print artists
September 27-October 1: Michel Dirr, author and professsor of horticulture