In this unique mixed-media workshop you will be taught Nature Printing, a printmaking technique that combines plant-pressing, botanical printing, and hand coloring. The workshop will include demonstrations and a printing session where participants will learn how to create charming, hand-pressed compositions using fresh flowers, foliage, and feathers with ink and paper. The compositions will then be painted. All participants will leave the workshop with gorgeous works of art reminiscent of antique botanical prints.
The workshop will start by introducing participants to the rich history of nature printing, followed by a demonstration and actual printing session. We will continue to print as well as teach how to hand-coloring the prints with watercolor paints. The process is unassuming and approachable, and no previous art experience is necessary to achieve rewarding results. Unlike botanical illustration or wood block printing, creativity through this art form can be explored without the need to draw and requires no special training or talent.
Nature printing will feature the unique and beautiful flora from the Botanical Garden for "a super-easy-to-learn" fine art printing workshop made directly from leaves, flowers and feathers. We find that spending time creating, especially with plants, can be relaxing, meditative, and heart opening. Many find the beauty, diversity and mystery of plant-life wondrous.
Date: Saturday, May 28th
Time: 12:30-3:30pm
Participant fee: $150. ( SFBG Members receive a 10% discount).
What to bring: All materials are provided, but please consider bringing leaves or flowers from plants of your own if you would like!
About the Instructors:
Elizabeth Murray is an artist, author, and keynote speaker. Her mission is to celebrate Beauty, connect to Spirit and inspire others to weave a personal commitment to what they love, bringing purpose and meaning into each day. She is best known for her work Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France for the past 35 years. Elizabeth, a professional gardener helped in the restoration of Monet's gardens in 1985. She has returned annually to photograph, paint, and lead artist groups there. Elizabeth’s photographs have traveled with Monet’s paintings to eight museums, the New York Botanical Gardens and Chicago Botanic Gardens, and are permanent installments in public hospitals, corporations, and private collections in the United States, Europe and Japan. As a popular keynote speaker and educator, her workshops inspire creativity using photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, writing and time in nature. She has taught groups nationally and internationally and her clients have included local organizations such as Filoli Historic House and Garden, as well as corporate partnerships with Fed-Ex, Google, Imax Theaters, AT&T, Chevron, and Maybelline. Elizabeth lives in Monterey, California and holds degrees in Environmental Studies, Botany and Art. www.Elizabethmurray.com
Latifat Apatira is a plant enthusiast and artist. Raised in San Mateo County, California, she spent her youth exploring the expansive rural areas of the Peninsula. Her fascination with the natural world directly results from the wonders produced by observing the Peninsula’s oak woodlands, coastal scrublands, and redwood forests.
In 2018, she participated in Elizabeth Murray’s nature printing workshop held at Filoli Historic House and Garden in Woodside, CA and fell in love with the art form. Since then, she has served the community through plant and garden print commissions and her work has been displayed at several exhibitions throughout California, including the San Francisco Botanical Garden’s Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture.
Along with being an artist, she's also a physician and connection with nature and creating art beautifully compliments her mission of cultivating holistic well-being. Her prints and writings have been published by the Parks Stewardship Forum and The Permanente Journal. She is a member of the Nature Printing Society, the California Society of Printmakers, and the American Society of Botanical Artists. https://www.titilayola.com/