Local beer, food trucks, ice cream and music by The Dirty Grass Players are all on tap when Adkins Arboretum’s Beer Garden returns on Sat., Oct. 23.

A four-piece new-grass band from Baltimore, The Dirty Grass Players are known for having one toe-tapping foot in traditional bluegrass while pushing boundaries with their blazing musicianship. Their ability to transition seamlessly from down-home bluegrass to spirited improvisation makes each performance a singular experience. Add some Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd or a dash of southern rock, and you’ll quickly understand what they mean by “dirty grass.” The 2017 winners of the Charm City Bluegrass & Folk Festival Band Competition, the band recently released their second studio album, “Beneath the Woodpile.”

Bull & Goat Brewery and Ten Eyck Brewing Company will be pulling premium craft beer, complemented by fare from Blue Monkey Street Tacos and Chesapeake Celebrations food trucks and small-batch “cow-to-cup” ice cream from Nice Farms Creamery.

The Beer Garden runs from 2 to 4 p.m., but food trucks will begin serving at 1 p.m. Seating is limited; bringing chairs or a blanket is highly advised. Advance registration is required. Only 500 tickets will be sold. Admission is $20 for adults, $5 for children ages 3–18 and free for children ages 2 and under. Register online at adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0     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.

Music will once again lilt through the trees when Adkins Arboretum hosts Forest Music on Sat., Sept. 25 from 2 to 4 p.m. Presented in partnership with Chestertown’s National Music Festival (NMF), the event will feature four musicians playing separately in the forest and then coming together for a brief quartet performance.

Forest Music is presented in honor of the Arboretum’s members, whose generosity supports Arboretum operations and makes possible free admission in 2021. All are welcome.

Yoshiaki Horiguchi has been acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun for his ability to perform with a “dazzling display of dexterity and panache.” A proponent of music accessibility, he is an active double bassist, a collaborator, a pedagogue and an educator who brings music to numerous communities in the Delmarva region and beyond. Although classically trained, his endeavors span a broad spectrum of genres. Horiguchi has also been an NMF apprentice and has performed as part of the NMF Resonance concert series.

Maria Rusu, a native of Romania, comes from a family of musicians. She began her musical studies at the age of six, first studying violin and then switching to viola. Rusu is heavily involved in the tri-state area music community, performing as a jazz singer and teaching violin, viola and jazz voice. She serves as core faculty at The Music School of Delaware in Wilmington and is a member of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra and the Newark Symphony Orchestra, as well as assistant conductor of the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has been an NMF apprentice for both viola and arts administration.

Ron Demby has been a music educator for Queen Anne’s County Public Schools for nearly 30 years. He is currently the band director of Sudlersville Middle School and previously held the same position at Queen Anne’s County High School. He holds a B.A. in music education from Elizabethtown College and a Master of Education degree from Salisbury University.

Nevin Dawson studied viola at Penn State University while earning a degree in forestry and has played with numerous symphonies and chamber ensembles, including Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. A versatile player in classical, folk, jazz and other genres, he plays with Shore Strings, the Dover Symphony, The Pam Ortiz Band, Harp & Soul and Front Porch Orchestra and is featured on eight studio albums. He currently teaches violin, viola and cello in Chestertown and serves as sustainable agriculture coordinator for University of Maryland Extension.

Musicians will perform solo from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and will come together for a brief group performance. Admission is free, though advance registration is appreciated at adkinsarboretum.org.

The National Music Festival brings together inspiring mentors and the next generation of gifted musicians, providing education, scholarships and affordable, adventurous public performances in and around Chestertown, Md. Held for two weeks in June, the Festival was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID precautions. It is scheduled to resume in 2022. Visit nationalmusic.us 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.

Biking his favorite loop near his home in Denton, Rob Brownlee-Tomasso spotted a row of birds perched on a power line. It’s a common sight on the Eastern Shore, but “Tree Swallows on a Wire,” the painting it inspired, is not what you might expect. Part of his show Natural Constructs, on view in the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through Oct. 30, these birds were painted in bold, sure strokes of acrylic, trimmed out along their edges right down to every spindly toe and pop riveted onto a slanting cobalt blue line on an oblong canvas encrusted with sand. There will be a reception to meet the artist and learn about his unorthodox techniques on Sat., Sept. 11 from 3 to 5 p.m.

An avid birder who loves biking and hiking, Brownlee-Tomasso is a keen observer of nature who always carries a sketchbook for making drawings and notes about what he sees along the way. But while his paintings are inspired by the birds, trees and glimpses of blue water of our familiar Eastern Shore landscapes, they don’t just hang politely on the wall. Painted on large, decidedly un-rectangular shaped canvases, they are exuberant, colorful and full of drama. Textured with earth or sand he has collected on his travels and often incorporating an actual tree branch found along the way, they glitter with pop rivets or other bits of metal.

The inclusion of hardware in the paintings is startling and almost comic, but it also serves as an acknowledgement of the inevitable human presence in the landscape. There’s quite a bit of humor in Brownlee-Tomasso’s work and an obvious fondness for the natural world. Every bird, tree or plant has its own distinct personality, and, while never sentimental, each painting asserts its animated aliveness.

Along with drawings, his sketchbooks are scribbled with thoughts about what he has observed and notes on bird identification, as well as the bold color and composition studies that are preliminary to his larger paintings.

“I’m big on sketchbooks,” he said. “I love pencil sketches and color studies, and when I go on vacation, I do vacation logs.”

Although vacations may take them to more distant places such as Key West, Brownlee-Tomasso and his wife are frequent visitors to Adkins Arboretum and Tuckahoe State Park, as well as Pickering Creek Audubon Center, Solomons Island and Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, all places that appear in his paintings.

In “Tuckahoe State Park (Creekside Cliffs),” where occasional bits of hardware glint along the edge of a path winding along a stream, a branch he picked up in the park forms the left edge of the slanted canvas.

Brownlee-Tomasso began using branches in his paintings during a residency at Annemarie Garden on Solomons Island in 2014. He was building his canvases at the gallery when he realized he hadn’t brought enough wood along.

“I thought I could use a branch for one of the edges and that would save me wood,” he said. “I really liked it, so I carried it through on a bunch of paintings.”

Incorporating branches and earth found in the places that inspire his work gives Brownlee-Tomasso’s paintings a striking physicality that matches their audacious enthusiasm and disconcerting perspectives. Full of compressed energy, each of these paintings is like a captivating story unfolding before your eyes.

Natural Constructs is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Oct. 30 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.

Have you ever wondered what William Shakespeare was thinking as he wrote The Taming of the Shrew or Richard III? Well, who better to introduce Shakespeare’s plays than the Bard himself? Join Shore Shakespeare for A Little Touch of Shakespeare, an exploration of some of the playwright’s most famous works, Sept. 18 and 19 at Adkins Arboretum.

In this original production, seven actors take on roles in eleven scenes from ten of Shakespeare’s most famous works, including Richard III, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and more. Narrated by Shakespeare himself, the show takes the audience behind the scenes to see what the Bard may have been thinking as he wrote some of the wittiest, most charming and, in some cases, darkest dialogue ever. The scenes themselves explore the Battle of the Sexes and revolve around the theme of love, all while showcasing Shakespeare’s incomparable wit, wisdom and poetry. In addition, the show features seven of Shakespeare’s sonnets, also dealing with issues of love, placed strategically throughout the scenes.

Performances are Sat., Sept. 18 and Sun., Sept. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Arboretum Pavilion. Participants should bring a blanket or chair and are welcome to bring a picnic. Admission is $15 for adults, $5 for children ages 3–18 and free for children ages 2 and under and can be purchased in advance at adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

A Little Touch of Shakespeare was written by Shore Shakespeare Company co-founder Chris Rogers in 2012. Sadly, Chris passed away in June 2020. This production will serve as special recognition of his passion and legacy within the local theatre. Proceeds will benefit Shore Shakespeare and Adkins Arboretum.

Shore Shakespeare is a pan-community theatre group established to present the classic works of the theatrical repertoire and to encourage its audiences to support local community theatre all over the Shore.

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.

In Sheryl Southwick’s paintings and collages of trees, there are dreamy forests filled with glints of light and shadow, enticing paths winding back under the trees and color-drenched glades where every detail seems to be dancing. On view in the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center July 6 through August 28, every work in her show, Woodland Sketches, shimmers with surprising colors and textures.

On Sat., July 10 from 3 to 5 p.m., there will be a reception to meet the artist and learn about her fascination with trees and the many ways she depicts them in oil paintings, hand-colored monotypes and torn-paper collages. This reception is shared with the 2021 Outdoor Sculpture Invitational and will feature a guided sculpture walk in the Arboretum’s forest.

For Southwick, trees are vital to our lives—not only for their strong, versatile wood, cooling shade and scenic beauty but also for the ways they affect us emotionally, raising our spirits and sparking our imaginations, so much so that they frequently make their way into fairy tales, books and movies.

During the COVID shutdown, Southwick was invited to stay at her friends’ house while they were away. Sensing an opportunity, she took her paints and collage materials along.

“I was focusing on the forest next to the house,” she said. “That’s when I decided I’d make the show about trees.”

Southwick loves to experiment with different art mediums. Whether she’s creating oil paintings, monotypes or collages, she often explores the same scene over and over again, playing with the effects of light and shadow and how one color will affect another. As a result, each artwork seems to hum with energy, as if something is about to happen.

“Making the work energizes me,” she said. “In collage, it’s the inherent beauty of each piece of torn paper. In paintings, it’s the thrill of seeing what one color does immediately adjacent to another color. The texture created by the paper or the paint stroke is exciting. The whole process is captivating.”

Born into a creative family, Southwick grew up in Baton Rouge, La., and fell in love with color at an early age. After earning her BFA at Louisiana State University, she studied color theory with several prominent teachers, including Washington Color School painter Leon Berkowicz at the Corcoran School of Art. She teaches at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, where she has lived since 1987, and exhibits in galleries in Easton, Annapolis and Baton Rouge.

In “Orange Whispering Woods,” several trees stand like sentinels amid the confusion of colorful underbrush surrounding them. But although the trees seem still and quiet, the whole scene is filled with motion. Look closer and you realize that the short, playful brushstrokes describing both tree trunks and underbrush all seem to be talking with one another. It’s as if you’ve suddenly become privy to one of the forest’s secret stories.

“Whenever I walk in the woods, I’m mesmerized,” Southwick said. “I would like my work to create a connection with a viewer, by making them want to come closer to see what is happening.”

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view 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.

There are glittering crystals, lichens crocheted from yarn and rivers of sticks glowing brilliant red under the green leaves of the Adkins Arboretum forest. After a year’s postponement due to the COVID-19 shutdown, once again the woodland trails are full of surprises as the Outdoor Sculpture Invitational returns.

Responding to the show’s theme, Artists in Dialogue with Landscape, seven artists from the mid-Atlantic region and California have created eight sculptures along the wooded paths. The show is on view June 1 through Sept. 30. On Sat., July 10, the artists will talk about their work during a guided sculpture walk from 3 to 5 p.m.

As might be expected as we emerge from months of quarantine, the pandemic has deeply affected these artists. One of the show’s most playful works, “Containment Conundrum,” is also one of the most serious. Columbia, Md., artist Jillian Storms, assisted by her daughter, Katherine Elicker, used the spiky seedpods of sweetgum trees to call to mind the uncertainty surrounding the spread of COVID. Tangled amid spiraling vines, they are both comical and menacing as they appear to leap from the sculpture onto surrounding vines and branches, just as the virus spread in unexpected ways.

“Shelter in Place,” by Bridgette Guerzon Mills of Towson, Md., is a cozy pair of chairs and a small table tucked under a pine tree. Encrusted with an enchanting array of mosses, twigs and nests mingled with crocheted lichen and leaves, it invites thoughts about how the natural world became a haven for people seeking solace and renewal in nature. While not specifically about the quarantine, “Chorus,” by Marc Robarge of Falls Church, Va., presents a ring of branches sprouting strange ceramic pods that look almost as if they are singing. With a disk of oak providing an inviting seat at the center of the circle, this sculpture offers a meditative place to sit and listen to the forest’s sounds.

“Frozen,” by Laurel, Md., artist Melissa Burley, considers another pressing issue—climate change. Burley travels frequently for her job as an art handler and has encountered sudden weather events like the unprecedented cold and blizzard conditions that hit Texas last winter. As if hoarfrost had suddenly sprung up under the trees, glinting mirrors and sparkling shattered glass lie on the forest floor, while crystals from an old chandelier hang like icicles in nearby branches.

Several of the artists explore natural cycles of death and renewal. For “An Ending Is a Beginning,” Elizabeth Miller McCue of Yardley, Penn, wound vines sprouting hundreds of green patinated bronze leaves in and out of two fallen trees to conjure the irrepressible urge of nature to renew itself. In his second sculpture, “Seeds of Light,” Robarge also focused on nature’s potential by hanging seed-like shapes made of ceramic and stained glass from a cedar arched over the mossy path. On a sunny day, light glows through the pale green glass at the center of each seed.

In two large sculptures titled “Wood about Wood I & II,” Bozman, Md., artist Georgia Goldberg and her collaborator, Marco Hyman-Romero of Oakland, Calif., highlighted two large fallen trees by laying bright red sticks along their sides. Often unnoticed in the forest, these decaying tree trunks are vital to the forest’s ecosystem as the slowly rotting wood provides habitat and nutrition for both plants and animals. As with all the works in this show, these sculptures invite thoughts about the intricate ways that nature constantly revitalizes itself, humans included.

This show 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 Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410-634-2847 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.

Like fleeting moments of pure joy, Julia Sutliff’s small plein air paintings capture the sensation of being outdoors in a specific place at a specific moment in time. On view in the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through July 3, her show, Swimming in Eden, is an exuberant collection of intimate encounters with nature.

This show marks the reopening of the Arboretum’s indoor gallery, newly renovated during the Covid shutdown with fresh paint, new carpet and gallery lighting. A reception for Sutliff’s work will be held on Sat., May 15 from 3 to 5 p.m. with refreshments under the outdoor pergola adjacent to the gallery to allow for social distancing.

Although its Visitor’s Center was closed through the months of quarantining, the Arboretum’s forest and meadows became favorite places for people seeking calm and rejuvenation in nature. Sutliff herself long ago realized that she feels better—and paints better—outdoors. Searching out whatever remaining pockets of nature she can find near her home in the suburban sprawl of Cockeysville north of Baltimore, she works in every season of the year.

One August day, she painted the dancing leaves of meadow plants reaching for the sky. In January, she captured the warm glow of sunlight shining through orange-red briers and, in February, the chill of snow on wintry trees. On a wet April day, she painted the spreading rings of raindrops falling into a pond in “Lily Pads in the Rain.”

“It was pouring,” she said. “That’s why the lily pads are green in the middle. It’s water collecting in the middle and reflecting.”

Oil painting has been Sutliff’s focus for many years, but recently, she has been exploring the spontaneity she can achieve with pastels. Although the Visitor’s Center show is exclusively her oil paintings, a companion virtual show on the Arboretum’s website includes several of her pastels.

“Pastel is so much fun!” she exclaimed. “You know how they talk about the Impressionists’ love of pure color? Well, that’s what it’s like with pastel. Everything is pure color, so what you end up with is just sparkles of color.”

Sutliff was awarded an arts residency to teach pastel landscape painting in the spring of 2020 for the Young Audiences Arts for Learning program with Baltimore City Schools. Because of the Covid shutdown, instead of taking her 11^th-grade students outside to work, she turned her residency virtual.

After sending a package of materials to each student, she showed them a video of her own hand speedily sketching a lively scene of a pond, and talked with them about how the Impressionists created a new way of looking at landscape painting by quickly capturing the emotional impact of light and color. Then she instructed them to make pastel paintings from photos of landscapes, completing them in only 45 minutes.

This quick, spontaneous method of working, which Sutliff calls “direct-response painting,” freed the students from any expectations of particular results and allowed their creativity free range. Fresh, vibrant and pulsing with color, their pastel landscapes were compelling, energetic reactions to what they were seeing.

“Most of them had never used pastels before,” she said. “The pieces they created were so amazing!”

“Part of my commitment to painting has to do with my commitment to nature itself,” she explained, “that it’s important to appreciate, respect and protect nature, both because our environment is an inestimable treasure and because it has the power to inspire, heal and rejuvenate us at all stages of our lives.”

This show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view 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.