The Community Garden at Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust, filled with fruit, flowers and vegetables, serves as the subject of two art workshops, “The Garden,” taught by artist Banjie Nicholas on August 4 and August 11 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm at Flanders, 5 Church Hill Road in Woodbury. The cost of the classes is $18 per class for Flanders’ members and $24 for non-members. The workshops are part of Flanders’ adult art instruction series, “Inspiration Comes Naturally,” at which students learn to paint or hone their skills under the tutelage of prominent Litchfield County professional artists and inspired by the natural surroundings of Flanders’ outdoor campus.
Instructor Banjie Nicholas, who works in egg tempera and silverpoint, holds a BA from the University of Connecticut and certificates in Natural Science and Botanical Illustration from The New York Botanical Garden. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches art at the Washington Art Association, The New York Botanical Garden, The Brookfield Craft Center and to private students in her studio.
With a background as a licensed wild bird rehabilitator, Nicholas is rarely without baskets of baby birds, from late spring to early summer, being fed and released back to the wild. The birds provide much inspiration for her work, which frequently features eggs, feathers and nests. For many years, she has also raised Cecropia and Prometheus moths and Monarch, Swallowtail and Painted Lady butterflies and is also inspired by the various stages of their metamorphosis.
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Art Series Continues Through October
Other upcoming art workshops in the Flanders’ series include:
Find out what's happening in Woodbury-Middleburyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
September 1 and 8 – “Stone Walls and Barns”
Students will learn to build a painting with texture, details and color, inspired by the miles of stone walls and antique barns on Flanders’ properties, under the instruction of Nancy White Cassidy. A professional illustrator, fine artist, web designer and teacher for more than 15 years, she holds an MFA in illustration and her works have been published extensively in books, magazines and professional journals.
October 6 and 13 – “Colors of Fall”
The fields and forests of Flanders, replete with the colors of autumn, serve as the subject of the session, taught by Nancy White Cassidy. She will instruct students in the consideration of color, line and composition as they paint the forms of fall.
Special Events for Artists at Flanders Nature Center
On September 10, Flanders hosts an “Artist Day Celebration” open to all artists, from beginners to advanced skill levels, who will paint or draw “en plein air” on the Nature Center & Land Trust’s 200-acre outdoor campus in Woodbury.
Those artists, as well as the adult art workshop participants, are invited to submit their artworks to Flanders’ “Art For Nature” Show and Sale and compete for awards, including the Natalie Van Vleck Best In Show award. Artwork will be on display at Flanders’ Autumn Celebration on October 1 and at the Woodbury Library, during the month of October.
For more information or to register for any of the art workshops, call Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust, 203-263-3711 or visit www.flandersnaturecenter.org.
About Natalie Van Vleck
Flanders’ founder Natalie Van Vleck developed a talent for art at an early age and went on to study full-time at the Art Students League in New York City, under the tutelage of legendary teachers Robert Henri and Max Weber. In the 1920s and 1930s, Natalie’s art encompassed three styles: cubist and abstract-influenced paintings, regionalist landscapes of the Connecticut countryside and tropical locales and arts and crafts, such as wood-carving and furniture-making. By 1934, she became more involved in the daily operations of her family’s Woodbury farm, now part of Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust, and gave up her art career completely.
