Education
Join us for one of our many informative and practical lectures conducted by our Executive Director, Tim Lindsay, as well as other guest lecturers. Our educational program will present topics pertinent to garden lovers who would like to know how to create their own floral masterpieces as well as an array of topics about Art and Culture.
Please review the classes offered this year, mark your calendars and register now. We look forward to seeing you in the garden!
Have a question? Call 310-550-2068.
Gardening: Women in the Dirt (documentary film)
January 25 , 201210:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Pool Pavilion
$20 donations are welcome.
Lecture: Sheakspearian Sonetes w/ Jonathan Post
February 9 , 201210:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Pool Pavilion
Non-member: $65
Members: $55
Gardening: Native Plants with Lili Singer
February 15 , 201210:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Pool Pavilion
Non-member: $25
Members: $20
Lecture: Virginia Robinson Gardens - the book with authors Marcella Ruble & Tim Lindsay
March 8 , 201210:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Pool Pavilion
Non-member: $65
Members: $55
Gardening: Succulents with Patricia Cevallos
March 21 , 201210:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Pool Pavilion
Non-member: $25
Members: $20
Botanical Art Classes
July 2011 - June 2012
The Botanical Illustration Program at Virginia Robinson Gardens has a specific goal: to create a record that would permanently document through the ancient art of botanical illustration the plant collections of this historically significant garden, also known as a Florilegium. The program was created eleven years ago under the direction of renowned botanical art teacher from England Anne-Marie Evans who continues the tradition by returning every year to the Robinson Gardens. In addition botanical art teachers from Canada, England and America come to teach specialized courses during the year. Presently the program has local artists who produce works that are juried and worthy of inclusion in the Virginia Robinson Gardens Florilegium. In 2011 eight paintings entered the Florilegium contest and the work by Barbara Jaynes was chosen for the collection. It exquisitely depicts the semi-double pink camellia that was Virginia’s namesake. Additional illustrations were commissioned from master teachers themselves. They include a beautiful fuchsia by Margaret Best from Canada and a steely-blue hydrangea by Elaine Searle from England. All three flowers are part of the gardens permanent plant collection.
Upcoming classes for the 2011-2012 season will be offered in August and September by local botanical artist and teacher Deborah Shaw, who specializes in the drawing of botanically correct specimens, in October by world renowned artist and teacher from England Elaine Searle, who will demonstrate how to achieve texture on flowers and fruits and in February by Anne-Marie Evans who will return for the 12th year to teach beginners and advanced students her famous five step method to achieve a botanically correct watercolor painting.
DEBORAH SHAW
Deborah Shaw has a degree in fine art from Pomona College, The Claremont Colleges, and while there had the good
fortune to study botany and native California flora. She is the principal of db Shaw Studios, an award-winning, multi-disciplinary design
company, specializing in print, information design, interactive multimedia and web design, illustration, and scientific illustration. Ms. Shaw
is an active member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, Inc, the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California, and the Guild of
Natural Science Illustrators, and has taught botanical art at The J. Paul Getty Museum and the Virginia Robinson Gardens. She works in
graphite, colored pencil, scratchboard, watercolor, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and is enamored with the native flora of California and
the Southwest.
ELAINE SEARLE
Holds a BA Hons in Design and had a career in Graphics. Following an Introductory class with Anne-Marie Evans,
world renowned tutor in Botanical Art, Elaine was inspired. Keen for further study, she took short courses and then enrolled on the diploma
in Botanical Painting at The English Gardening School, London, graduating with distinction. Elaine Searle has work in The Highgrove
Florilegium, the permanent collection of The Hunt Institute and several private collections. In 2008 she was awarded a RHS Silver Gilt
medal for eight watercolors of succulents.
ANNE-MARIE EVANS
is one of the most prominent botanical art teachers in the world. She is in a large way responsible for the
renaissance of botanical art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has taught in many countries. Anne-Marie also suggested and
then followed-up the Florilegium of the Prince Charles’s Highgrove Estate and whose pages include paintings by several of her students.
Copies of the Florilegium can be viewed locally, upon request, at both the Getty Research Institute and the Huntington Library, Museum
and Gardens, San Marino.
Botanical Art Classes Calendar
Aug. 30, 2011 – teacher Deborah Shaw - cost: $150 (or $125 for member)
Sep. 23, 2011 – teacher Deborah Shaw – cost $150 (or $125 for member)
Oct. 4-7, 2011 – teacher Elaine Searle – cost $625 (or $595 for member)
Feb. 21-24, 2012 – teacher Anne-Marie Evans – cost $625 (or $595 for member)
Feb. 28-Mar. 2, 2012 – teacher Anne-Marie Evans – cost $625 (or $595 for member)
For additional information and to make reservations please call the Friends office at (310) 550-2068.
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