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May 29, 2022

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

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Food and Garden Garden Notes

Join Adkins Arboretum on Trip to Philadelphia Flower Show

May 26, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

A showcase of excellence that dates to 1829, the Philadelphia Flower Show is a top destination and a must-experience horticultural event. On Mon., June 13, join Adkins Arboretum for an unforgettable trip to this year’s show, “In Full Bloom.”

The 2022 Flower Show explores the restorative and healing power of nature and plants while experiencing all that gardening offers to improve our lives. This year’s theme, “In Full Bloom,” connotes good health, positive well-being and a passion for life that culminates in a gorgeous and colorful spectacle. Staged outdoors at FDR Park, it will feature outdoor gardens at the peak of seasonal perfection and beauty to inspire everyone to plan for a better tomorrow.

The Philadelphia Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Flower Show is the nation’s largest and longest-running horticultural event. The show will be packed with a variety of flowers and plants at the peak of seasonal perfection. Visitors can expect 15 acres of spectacular floral and garden displays, educational areas, plant exhibits, shopping, a play area for families and plentiful food and drink options. Hundreds of spectacular native butterflies can also be experienced in the Butterflies Live! exhibit housed in an outdoor pollinator garden structure.

The trip is $105 for Arboretum members and $130 for non-members. The bus departs from Aurora Park Drive in Easton at 9 a.m. and will stop for pickups at the Rt. 50 westbound/Rt. 404 Park and Ride near Wye Mills and the 301/291 Park and Ride in Millington. Return time is 5:30 p.m. Advance registration is required at adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Garden Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, local news

Adkins Mystery Monday: Which Prehistoric Looking Turtle Did We Find?

May 23, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum 1 Comment

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Happy Mystery Monday! It’s World Turtle Day, so we’re celebrating with a turtle-themed mystery! Which prehistoric looking turtle did we find searching for a suitable location to lay her eggs?

Last week, we asked you about the adult antlion (family Myrmeleontidae). There are eight species of antlions recorded in Maryland, though there are over 2,000 species in the world. This antlion is likely in the genus Myrmeleon. The larvae in this genus will create funnel-like pits to lure in and trap their prey (primarily ants). Interestingly, the larvae can only move backwards.

Adkins Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum. For more information go here.

Filed Under: Food-Garden Homepage, Food-Garden Portal lead Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum

Re-Vision Exhibit on View Through September at Adkins Arboretum

May 12, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Like enormous 3-D drawings, vines sweep and spiral, bend and corkscrew around the trees in Howard and Mary McCoy’s outdoor sculpture exhibit, Re-Vision, at Adkins Arboretum. Interspersed with Mary’s poems directly inspired by the Adkins landscape, they are on view through Sept. 30. On Sat., June 4, from 2 to 4 p.m., there will be a reception for the McCoys’ outdoor show and Chinese painter and calligrapher Kit-Keung Kan’s exhibit in the Visitor’s Center, including a guided sculpture and poetry walk.

Grapevines swirl up from the forest floor in “Reconfigure,” and pale bittersweet vines twirl in wide arcs around a tree trunk in a tall sculpture called “Reorganize.” Nearby, a poem called “Not for the Faint of Heart” is wrapped around the prickly trunk of a devil’s walking stick plant.

These two Centreville artists have served as Resident Artists at the Arboretum for more than two decades, helping with the art program and periodically exhibiting their own work. This is their twelfth show of site-specific sculpture and the first to include several of Mary’s poems.

“Redraw” is among the site-specific sculptures created at Adkins Arboretum by Centreville artists Howard and Mary McCoy.

A map showing the location of the sculptures is available in the Visitor’s Center, and each sculpture is marked with a bright blue sign on the ground. To find the poems, however, you must keep an eye out for the same blue—perhaps on a tree, a signpost or even the railing of one of the wooden bridges that cross the Arboretum’s stream.

“I want the poems to be surprises that you come upon unexpectedly,” said Mary, who is a 2022 recipient of a Regional Individual Artist’s Award in Literary Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council. “For me, they were gifts from the landscape itself—feelings and ideas that came to me while I was walking through the forest or just sitting quietly on a log.”

The McCoys also walked the forest paths together, keeping an eye out for vines growing up into the treetops.

“Vines are like three-dimensional drawings,” Howard explained. “We both used to like to draw and paint a lot. It’s sort of like the paintings of Jackson Pollock or some of the other Abstract Expressionist painters—gesture painting. It has art historical context, and it’s sometimes hysterical what it ends up doing.”

The two artists chose to call their show Re-Vision not only because their work offers new ways of seeing nature, but also because they have “revised” the way the vines were growing and because both the vine sculptures and Mary’s poems were created by experimenting with trying one thing, then another, revising each work until it finally felt lively, balanced and whole.

As to why they cut vines out of the trees, Howard said, “We’ve talked about it with a couple visitors who came by while we were working—the importance of clearing vines off the trees so that you save the tree from the choking vines, and at the same time, you’re making sculpture, making art.”

“They are wonderful materials,” Mary said. “But you have to follow what they dictate. You want it to curve one direction, but because of the way it grew with an elbow or some tight curvature, it’ll want to go the exact opposite. So it’s a real collaboration with nature. We feel like the idea of collaboration is important not only when we’re making art in nature but in the larger context, that if we all were more interested in collaborating with nature instead of dominating it, we might be better off.”

Re-Vision is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Sept. 30 at the Arboretum, located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for more information.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Arts Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, Arts, local news

Mountains and Streams Exhibit by Kit-Keung Kan on View at Adkins Arboretum

May 7, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Tradition and innovation mingle throughout Kit-Keung Kan’s breathtaking paintings of thundering waterfalls and graceful pine trees and his energetic scrolls of colorful Chinese calligraphy. In Mountains and Streams, his exhibit on view through July 1 at Adkins Arboretum, Kan proves himself not only a masterful painter and calligrapher but an engaging poet and philosopher as well. There will be a reception to meet the artist on Sat., June 4 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Kit-Keung Kan, “ Pines of Mt. Huang XV,” Chinese ink and watercolor on rice paper, 26.5” x 26.5”

Deeply influenced by traditional Chinese art and philosophy but always ready to experiment with new ideas, Kan has developed his own unique style of painting that is simultaneously realistic and abstract, subtle and stunningly bold. His Chinese ink and watercolor paintings include his own poems elegantly brushed along one side in traditional Chinese style. More of his poems appear on long scrolls that sweep across the gallery’s ceiling in graceful curves. English translations are provided on a handout available in the gallery.

All of Kan’s work is inspired by the ancient Chinese philosophy that looks for unity between humans and nature. A lifelong artist who exhibits internationally, he is a retired physicist living in Bethesda. Growing up in China, he was influenced by traditional Chinese paintings from an early age. After moving to the U.S. in 1968 to earn his Ph.D. in physics, he began experimenting with Western ideas in his paintings, exploring semi-abstraction and installation art.

Spare and simple at a glance, his paintings are filled with an infinity of intricate details. Created by brushing many, many layers of tiny strokes of ink and watercolor onto rice paper, every painting shimmers with activity. There is an astonishing subtlety of color in the surfaces of mountain rock and the cool translucence of layered blues and greens in his cascading waterfalls and raging whitewater.

A master calligrapher who has been teaching the technique for many years, Kan also likes to explore the visual potential of the dancing strokes of ink used to create the Chinese characters in his poems. Draped in wide loops across the Adkins gallery ceiling, his installation of calligraphy scrolls, “Music of Mountain and Water,” is festive and exuberant even as it tells the story of the details of morning fog, birds, breezes, insects and falling water that create a feeling of refuge, tranquility and transcendence in nature.

Several of the paintings in the exhibit depict the unusual pine trees that grow on Mt. Huang, a mountain that has been celebrated in art and literature in China since the Tang Dynasty in the eighth century. Kan visited the mountain in the 1990s and took many photographs but was not able to create paintings from them until the Covid shutdown furnished him with uninterrupted studio time.

“The pine tree is special there,” he said. “The needles are very dense. People paint the pine tree in dramatic ways, very bent, very ancient.”

In contrast, Kan chose to paint some of the mountain’s straight-trunked pines with their near-horizontal sweeps of heavily needled branches. He also wrote a poem for each painting, their Chinese characters telling of the experience of visiting the fabled pines.

Kan began writing poems about 17 years ago, encouraged by a friend who also was interested in classic Chinese poetry.

“We exchanged our writings and criticized each other,” he explained. “Early Chinese poems have certain standards, a certain pattern you have to follow.”

By pairing paintings and poems, Kan is able to offer two parallel experiences—telling the stories of his landscapes in both visual images and the mental images created by language.

Mountains and Streams is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through July 1 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Arts Notes, Garden Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, Arts

Adkins Arboretum Receives Caroline Foundation Grant to Benefit Caroline Residents

April 23, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum 1 Comment

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Caroline County residents are invited to explore the many benefits of nature at Adkins Arboretum! Thanks to a generous grant from The Caroline Foundation, the Arboretum has launched “Nature for Health and Well-Being,” an initiative aimed at ensuring all Caroline residents are able to benefit from time outdoors, regardless of income level.

“Nature for Health and Well-Being” provides free admission in 2022 for all residents of Caroline County. Visitors need simply inform front desk staff that they are Caroline residents, and they will be admitted free of charge.

The grant also funds the Arboretum’s new Caroline Membership, which offers free household memberships to county residents who receive SNAP benefits or identify as low income. Available at adkinsarboretum.org or at the Arboretum front desk, this membership is good for two years and includes unlimited admission to the Arboretum’s 400 acres and five miles of paths, along with free member programs such as First Saturday and Bird Migration walks and discounts on fee-based programs, summer camps and homeschool science classes. Reciprocal admission to hundreds of public gardens across the country is also included. The Arboretum has set an ambitious goal of 300 free memberships for Caroline SNAP recipients this year.

“Adkins Arboretum has been reaching out to Caroline County residents,” said Executive Director Ginna Tiernan. “We would like to provide even more opportunities for residents to enjoy our paths, programs and events. We want to remove any barriers that may be keeping residents from visiting and accessing all that nature has to offer.”

As we move beyond the pandemic, being in nature remains critical to our health, well-being and recovery. A growing body of research confirms the health benefits of spending time outside, with as little as ten minutes outdoors just two to three times a week linked to increased levels of mood-boosting serotonin and decreased levels of stress-inducing cortisol. Exposure to sun, soil and plants are all connected with better health. Through the “Nature for Health and Well-Being” initiative, the Arboretum hopes to welcome Caroline residents who may have hesitated to visit due to admission fees and to provide a resource for healthy outdoor activities.

Located near Tuckahoe State Park in the heart of Caroline County, the Arboretum strives to inspire environmental stewardship, provide respite and healing and celebrate natural and cultural diversity through the joy and wonder of the natural world. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org.

The Caroline Foundation, Inc. provides economic support to organizations that provide medical and/or health-related services to residents of Caroline County, Maryland.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Garden Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, gardens

Adkins Arboretum’s 2022 Juried Art Show on View Through April

March 6, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Full of light and atmosphere, the artworks in Discovering the Native Landscapes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Adkins Arboretum’s 22nd annual Juried Art Show, tell of the astonishing and ever-changing beauty of our region. On view in the Visitor’s Center through April 29, this exhibit was juried by Teddy Johnson, a painter who serves as the director of Anne Arundel Community College’s Cade Gallery and an assistant professor of visual arts. He will speak about his choices at a reception on Sat., March 12 from 2 to 4 p.m.

In jurying this show, Johnson was excited by the diverse ways artists found to approach its theme. From a record 158 entries, he chose 22 artworks in a variety of mediums, including painting, photography, prints, ceramics and mixed mediums. Tracing the changing seasons, there are sultry sunsets, towering thunderclouds, golden marshes, winter grasses tinged luminous cinnamon brown and glittering ice sheathing the branches of a waterside tree.

“Autumn Pond” by John Eiseman

For the annual Leon Andrus Awards, named for the Arboretum’s first benefactor, Johnson gave First Place to “Autumn Pond” by John Eiseman of Hebron, Md. Aglow with colorful fall foliage reflected in the deep blue of a pond, this large, impressionistic oil painting shows a quiet stretch of water surrounded by trees and a solitary man fishing from a small boat.

“It transports me to a specific place,” Johnson explained. “It’s the atmosphere, time of day, season, and how the light changes as you move through the picture. It feels like an intimate experience of nature. It feels very personal.”

“Sandy and Molly on Wye Island” by Benjamin Tankersley

For Second Place, Johnson chose three wintry photographs of quintessential Eastern Shore landscapes by Benjamin Tankersley of Baltimore: “Spriggs Island, 2013,” “New Year’s Eve Milkweed Pods, 2020” and “Sandy and Molly on Wye Island, 2009.”

Speaking of the woman standing with her dog at the edge of a lonely shoreline in “Sandy and Molly on Wye Island, 2009,” he said, “I enjoy that she doesn’t feel posed. It’s a quiet moment when she’s able to reflect internally while also experiencing the environment. The natural spaces around us affect us internally. It’s part of the benefit that nature is so healing.”

Johnson awarded three Honorable Mentions. One went to “Thunderhead,” a tiny monoprint by Easton artist Maire McArdle in which a strange dark mass hovers above what may be a horizon line between green-blue water and an ochre sky.

“It’s open for interpretation,” he said. “I like a piece of artwork that doesn’t spell it all out for you, that you can bring yourself and your experiences to.”

Another Honorable Mention was awarded to Chestertown ceramicist Chris Neiman for his sculpture “Reflections.” Inspired by a walk along the Arboretum’s Blockston Branch creek, Neiman stained a twisted piece of driftwood with a horizontal “waterline” and dangled a row of slim ceramic tiles from it. Etched with intricate smoky patterns left from raku firing, they evoke the ripples and reflections he saw in the woodland creek.

Johnson said, “It projects a really beautiful internal quality and a very specific voice. It’s the artist trying to make sense of a personal connection to nature, which is something that drew me to a lot of the pieces here.”

He also awarded an Honorable Mention to two encaustic paintings by Cathy Leaycraft of Parkville, Md. Titled “Planetary Lines: Earth,” both are extremely simplified waterscapes in which the artist painted encaustic (a mixture of beeswax, resin and pigment) onto photographs, adding layers of lush, translucent texture until the photographs nearly vanish.

“The wax has a luminosity, and it’s creamy and just really gorgeous,” Johnson said. “I like how these are a little nebulous. You can’t really tell where you are in that space. It’s a very unusual abstraction where you have a landscape that almost disappears. There’s the feeling that you’re inside of the space instead of just looking at it from the outside.”

For Johnson, experimentation and exploration are crucial to creating exciting, engaging art.

“I do like an artwork that has an openness to it,” he explained, “that doesn’t necessarily nail everything down for us. When you hold off from depicting everything, it can bring you in to have a more broad and profound experience of the piece.”

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through April 29 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Garden Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, Arts, local news

Adkins Arboretum Announces Spring Native Plant Sale—Online!

February 27, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Prepare for spring in the garden! Adkins Arboretum, offering the Chesapeake gardener the best selection of landscape-ready native plants for more than two decades, announces its Spring Native Plant Sale. All proceeds benefit the Arboretum’s rich variety of education programs that teach about the Delmarva’s native plants and their connection to a healthy Chesapeake Bay.

To ensure the best-quality plants, sales will be conducted entirely online. Orders will be accepted Thurs., March 3 through Thurs., March 31 at adkinsarboretum.org and will be fulfilled via timed, scheduled pickup in late April and early May.

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) thrives in a wide variety of conditions and provides nectar for butterflies, including the monarch. Photo by Kellen McCluskey.

Plants for sale include a large variety of native perennials, ferns, vines, grasses and flowering trees and shrubs for spring planting. Native flowers and trees provide food and habitat for wildlife and make colorful additions to home landscapes, whether in a perennial border, a woodland garden or a restoration project. Native honeysuckle entices hummingbirds, while tall spikes of purplish flowers grace blue wild indigo. Milkweed provides critical energy for monarch butterflies on their winter migration to Mexico, and native azaleas present a veritable rainbow of colorful blooms.

As always, Arboretum members receive a generous discount on plants that varies according to membership level. To join, renew your membership or give an Arboretum membership as a gift, visit adkinsarboretum.org or contact Kellen McCluskey at kmccluskey@adkinsarboretum.org.

For more information on plants, purchasing or pickup procedures, visit adkinsarboretum.org, send email to nativeplants@adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Garden Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, Gardening, local news

Adkins Arboretum Announces 2022 Soup ’n Walk Program Schedule

February 18, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Adkins Arboretum docent and Maryland Master Naturalist Julianna Pax explains the science behind fall color during a Soup ‘n Walk program.

Adkins Arboretum has announced the 2022 lineup for its popular Soup ’n Walk programs. Discover early blooms and wildlife, ephemeral flowers, sure signs of spring, meadow grasses, fall color and autumn nuts and berries. Following a guided walk through the Arboretum’s forest, meadow and wetland communities, enjoy a delicious lunch and a short talk about nutrition. Copies of recipes are provided, and all gift shop purchases on these days receive a 20% discount. This year’s offerings include:

Early Blooms, Songbirds & Spring Frogs

Sat., March 19, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Listen for songbirds and spring frogs while searching for early purple, pink and white blooms. Plants of interest include skunk cabbage, paw paw, spring beauty and bloodroot. Menu: country bean and red cabbage soup, quinoa-red pepper salad, pumpernickel bread with spinach spread, Black Forest cake with cherries.

Spring Ephemerals & Pollinators

Sat., April 16, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Look again! The blooms of ephemeral plants, trees and shrubs are here and gone in the blink of an eye. Look for pink, white and yellow blooms and listen for early pollinators. Plants of interest include pink spring beauty, may apple, dogwood, golden groundsel, spicebush, sassafras and white beech. Menu: ginger sweet potato soup, Eastern Shore crunchy coleslaw, wheat flaxseed bread with peach jam, almond cupcake with lemon frosting.

Beavers, Tuckahoe Creek & Beyond
Sat., May 21, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Observe the beautiful Tuckahoe Creek view while scouting for signs of beavers. Plants of interest include mountain laurel, beech, tulip tree, pink lady’s slipper, Solomon’s seal and may apple. Menu: minestrone, oven-roasted red beets and carrots, brown rice bread with raspberry jam, cinnamon crunch apple cake.

Sunny Meadows
Sat., Sept. 17, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Walk the meadows in search of golden-brown grasses and yellow and purple flowers while watching and listening for bluebirds and dragonflies. Plants of interest include milkweed, black-eyed Susan, goldenrod, Indian grass, big bluestem and sumac berries. Menu: lentil and greens soup, wild rice berry salad, anadama cornbread with salsa, ginger oatmeal walnut cookies.

Dazzling Fall Color

Sat., Oct. 15, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Fall colors dazzle the eye and pique the appetite. Listen for migrating birds and woodpeckers while watching for changing color on sweet gum, sassafras, tupelo, sumac, dogwood, paw paw, hickory, beech and tulip trees. Menu: cream of broccoli soup, black-eyed pea salad, dill cottage cheese bread with strawberry jam, old-fashioned pear cobbler.

Autumn Harvest

Sat., Nov. 19, 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Enjoy the autumn harvest as we hunt for nutritious berries, nuts and seeds and check for signs of beaver. Plants of interest include dogwood, hibiscus, partridge berry, oak, loblolly pine, juniper, verbena, ironwood and strawberry bush. Menu: kale and chicken soup, apple date salad, cinnamon raisin bread, baked cranberry apples.

Soup ’n Walk programs are $25 for members and $30 for non-members. Advance registration is required; early registration is recommended. Visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0 for more information or to register.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Garden Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, local news

Adkins Arboretum Offer 2022 Botanical Art Program Series

February 8, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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Adkins Arboretum has announced a series of botanical art programs taught by artists Lee D’Zmura, Anna Harding and Kelly Sverduk. Through drawing and painting, the series engages both beginning and experienced artists in capturing the details of the natural world. Programs include:

Botanical Art Open Studio
Second Friday of the month, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

A class for people who have previously studied and created botanical art at any level, the Open Studio with Anna Harding provides an opportunity to work in the presence of others who are working on a piece or are ready to begin a new project. Critique and guidance are offered, and a new topic or technique will be presented during each session.

Botanical Drawing I
Fri., Feb. 18 and 25, March 4, 18 and 25, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

Led by Lee D’Zmura, this introduction to botanical drawing focuses on developing the skills and techniques needed to capture the essence of flowers, fruits, pods and leaves. Each student will produce a detailed botanical study in pencil.

Illustrated Phenology Wheel
Fri., April 1 and 15, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

A circular calendar used for recording observations of the natural world, a phenology wheel can focus on a particular area or chart the growth and habits of plants and animals throughout the year. Participants will complete a sample wheel with instructor Kelly Sverduk and then set up a fresh one to complete in the months ahead.

A graphite and watercolor study of a native pawpaw flower by botanical artist Kelly Sverduk.

Introduction to Watercolor
Fri., April 22 and 29, May 20 and 27, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Water is a versatile and expressive medium but can be intimidating at first. This class with Kelly Sverduk will focus on proper technique: brush handling, control of water, mixing colors using a limited palette and achieving gradients and textures with washes and layering.

Botanical Drawing II
Fri., Sept 30, Oct. 7, 21 and 28, Nov. 4, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
In drawing, light and shade communicate the three-dimensionality of a plant, with highlights and shadows introducing depth and form. This series taught by Lee D’Zmura emphasizes the principles of light and shadow and techniques for adding tonal shading to graphite drawing. Prerequisite: Botanical Drawing I.

Watercolor Wreath
Fri., Nov. 18, 10 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

Paint a decorative watercolor wreath featuring some of the Arboretum’s evergreens. This workshop with Kelly Sverduk will cover some watercolor basics, so it is suitable both for students who may be new to watercolor and those with more experience.

Program fees vary. Enrollment is limited, and advance registration is required. Materials lists will be made available for all participants in advance of the class. Register at adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

D’Zmura is an award-winning botanical artist whose experience as a landscape architect enriches her watercolors. An artist with work in collections throughout the country, she earned her certificate in botanical art from the Brookside Gardens School of Botanical Art and Illustration. She maintains a studio in St. Michaels, Md., where she draws inspiration from her neighbors’ gardens and from the native wildflowers of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Harding has studied botanical art with teachers around the country and works on paper and drafting film with colored pencils and graphite. She maintains a studio at her kitchen table.

Sverduk specializes in watercolor and is passionate about making and teaching art. With a background in both art and natural sciences, she finds the field of botanical illustration to perfectly mesh her interests. Sverduk holds a B.A. in studio art from Messiah College and a certificate in botanical art from the Brookside Gardens School of Botanical Art and Illustration. She lives with her family in Greenwood, Del.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Filed Under: Garden Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, gardens, local news

Journeys Imagined, Paintings by John Moran, on View at Adkins Arboretum

January 9, 2022 by Adkins Arboretum Leave a Comment

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John Moran’s paintings are like stories in the process of unfolding. On view at the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through Feb. 26, Journeys Imagined, his exhibit of watercolor, oil and acrylic paintings, brims with rich, glowing color and animated trees, hills, clouds and abstract forms. There will be a reception to meet the artist on Sat., Feb. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Although his paintings almost always suggest landscapes, they hover strangely between representation and abstraction. Colorful, inviting and often playful, they are full of the dreamlike, half-formed shapes you might glimpse in your imagination.

There’s a curved, cream-colored shape in “Nearing the Distance” that seems like a boat afloat in a sea of purple and violet water with islands and dark hills beyond. But none of it is distinct. The “boat” might just be a reflection of a pale cloud in the upper left or a shimmer of moonlight across the water.

Moran’s paintings are evocative of many things, but you can never be quite sure of what, and it’s this uncertainty that makes them so appealing. With no idea how a painting will turn out, Moran begins with some washes of color, then he paints in more colors and shapes, alters them, scrapes some paint away and paints some more. It’s a process of continual change as he experiments with how colors and shapes react to one another.

“It’s never planned,” he said. “I’m working on a painting now that’s all blue, but yesterday or the day before it was all red.”

John Moran, “Nearing the Distance,” oil on canvas, 18” x 24”

Now living in Chester, Moran grew up in Washington, D.C., and began taking art classes in his late twenties at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. For 25 years, he lived in West Virginia and continued to paint, mostly creating plein air watercolor landscapes, while raising his family, farming and working at a government job. After his retirement in 1997, he chose to concentrate on art and in 2006 earned an MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Over the years, Moran has developed his own very distinctive style, though occasionally there’s a nod to Arshile Gorky, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali or some other artist. Because he is so fascinated with the process of painting, he relishes the work of many different kinds of painters, listing Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Wayne Thiebaud as some of his favorites.

For Moran, the process of painting is almost more important than the finished work, and he enjoys the unexpected accidents that happen along the way. Dripping paint might turn into tree trunks or a coal-black mass might suggest a rocky seacoast, while a band of sooty red and luminous scarlet shapes below it call to mind molten lava churning deep in the earth.

There is much that is unpredictable and even slightly mystical in his paintings. Moran likes to think of them as visual poetry, never static and always open to new interpretations.

“I don’t know why these are what they are, and I can’t explain it,” he said. “I think it’s another language. Painting expresses something that can’t be said in words.”

Journeys Imagined is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Feb. 26 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0

Filed Under: Arts Notes Tagged With: Adkins Arboretum, Arts, local news

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