PLEIN AIR Sketching at the Farm: A Floral Field Journal in Pencil & Watercolor
August 4 - 25
This summer, be inspired by nature and the beauty of the land @ BMoCA!
Presenting three, multi-week classes in conjunction with BMoCA’s summer exhibition agriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land.* Class held onsite in BMoCA’s stunning classroom event space, with lots of natural light. (Where indicated, some classes will be held offsite.)
Class Description:
Boulder County has a rich agricultural history. Farmers provided food sources of all types to the mining community. During this plein air art workshop discover the artistic and meditative benefits of field journaling when we visit 3 Boulder farms that grow much of the produce and flowers available at Boulder Farmers’ Market. Lettuces, beets, potatoes, carrots, kales, rocket, and late summer flowers of all types will fill your sketchbooks!
Bring your camp stool and portable “art studio” and experience the joy of working plein air. Follow Marjorie as she teaches and demos the creation of the “narrative” flora-centric field journal using graphite and watercolor. Learn how gesture lines evolve into expressive floral shapes. Practice the “color to value” method to quickly build color and forms. Then turn your focus to the composed page — interweave your botanical portraits and details with labels and descriptions. Perfect your new skills as your pages record your farm visits!
Instructor: Marjorie Leggitt
Marjorie Leggitt is an award-winning professional science illustrator based in Boulder, Colorado. Specializing in traditional and digital illustration for professional journals, education-based publications and museum exhibits, she also creates art for commercial clients.
A self-taught artist, Marjorie began her career dissecting and illustrating Australian land snails at Chicago’s Field Museum but soon returned to her passion – drawing plants. While illustrating the first of many botanical field guides, she was contracted by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to collaborate with Dr. Kirk Johnson, world-renown paleobotanist and Sant Director of the National Museum of Natural History, to visually recreate extinct floras for 7 permanent exhibits. These illustrations continue as the “standard” for prehistoric flora research.
agriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land is on view at BMoCA and Longmont Museum, June 8-Oct 1, 2023. This multi-venue exhibition features 15 artists working in diverse media, creating place-based and site responsive works in collaboration with the Longmont Museums and multiple Boulder County farms. This exhibition will explore historical and current issues related to farming in Colorado.