Watercolor in the Garden-- introductory course in painting
with Elizabeth M. Dunham, botanical illustrator, www.elizabethmdunham.com

September 20 & 27, 2008, 2-day program. 8:30am to 12:30pm (both days)

Express your artistic side in a fun and relaxing atmosphere with area botanical illustrator, Elizabeth M. Dunham.  Elizabeth will lead participants through the basis of water color painting and photography using the Gardens as the subject of several painting exercises.  The second day will consist of a brief critique of student work from day one and continuation of painting exercises and photo-transfer.  All skill levels welcome!

• Registration required $75 per person, supply kit available for $60.00 or you can bring your own watercolor supplies.  (Paper, pencils, photo transfer equipment provided.)

For more information and registration:

• Download the registration form (PDF)

• emccown@tds.net
• 608-831-8154 or 608-215-2303

Artist Bio Born in 1980 in Madison, Wisconsin to a family of horticulturists, it is no wonder that beautiful flowers and landscape scenes fill Elizabeth M. Dunham’s canvases. Needing to nurture her creative side and distinguish herself from the agriculture industry her parents ruled, Elizabeth studied Art and Graphic Design first in Kansas, then graduated in 2003 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After a brief graphic design internship at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection she started working not for a design firm but for the family company, Knight Hollow Nursery, Inc. Knight Hollow Nursery, Inc. is a high technology, specialized plant nursery clones high value and unique horticultural crops. This job keeps her close to all the things she loves and inspires her to paint; her family, the plants, and the land.

Working mostly in watercolor but also in acrylic, gouache, and oil, she paints what she sees on a daily basis: the beauty of plants, people and their relationships to the land. Elizabeth seeks to show the realities that have ruled her life through her paintings. “Beauty in my artwork is in the connection between me and the paint, the brush and the canvas, the water and the air. Creating art is like creating a garden or cooking. You have to use the correct ingredients in the way that they are meant to be used. You cannot expect to control every way the medium behaves, whether it be paint or plant. I cannot control the way the water and paint might flow in to the minute cracks and bumps in the paper. I cannot control the way the paints will mix with each other. I can simply facilitate the medium to grow in its own perfect way; just as one must do to have beauty in the garden. Everything has a life force of its own in this world.”

Elizabeth has had art shows across southern Wisconsin including in the Overture Center in Madison. She teaches art classes at local gardens and is currently illustrating a perennial garden book that will be released in May, written by Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farm and published by American Nurseryman. You can see her work now at the Jewelers Workshop on the west side of Madison, WI.