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by Beth Stone, posted by Deb Shaw
BAGSC members might like these two upcoming events at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens:
Lecture – Cochineal in the History of Art and Global Trade
Sunday, 12/10/17 at 2:30 pm
Garden Talk & Sale – California “Super Bloom” 2017
Thursday, 12/14/17 at 2:30 pm
by Diane Daly and Deb Shaw
The Opuntia cactus in the courtyard at the entrance to Bowers Museum. Another beautiful Fall day in Southern California. Photo © Deborah Shaw, 2015.
BAGSC members Diane Daly, Deb Shaw, and new BAGSC member Linda Carpenter spent a gorgeous Fall day at the Bowers Museum on November 22, demonstrating botanical art and talking with visitors to the Museum. BAGSC members are demonstrating in conjunction with the Bowers exhibition “The Red that Colored the World,” on display through February 21, 2016.
Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) is a scale insect that lives on Opuntia cacti. The insect produces carminic acid, from which carmine dye is derived. The females and their nymphs secrete a waxy, white web to protect them from the sun and predators. Photo © Deborah Shaw, 2015.
There is a huge Optuntia (Prickly Pear) growing in the courtyard at the entrance to the Bowers, serendipitously covered with Cochineal. We were lucky to have a large pad that had fallen to the ground, and, in addition to botanical art, we were able to show visitors the Cochineal scale insect, the color, and even some Mealybug Ladybird (ladybug) larvae who were feasting on the Cochineal. It was a whole world on one cactus pad. Visitors to the museum were fascinated (as were we!).
Live Cochineal (under the white on the Opuntia cactus paddle); dried Cochineal; and paint from the crushed insects. Photo by Diane Daly, © 2015, all rights reserved.
Diane Daly teaches at the Bowers Museum Treasures Program, which reaches out to senior centers, community centers, libraries, social service agencies and residential communities, engaging older adults who may be feeling isolated through art. The Thursday program focused on Cochineal as well, complete with demonstrations of crushing the bugs and using them to make paint. The seniors then painted an Aztec design using the paint. They could add lemon juice to some of the paint, which made it a lighter, warmer red.
Deborah Shaw will be teaching a a two-day color mixing class, “What’s Cool (and Warm) about Red” (with paint from the art supply store) on Saturday, December 12 and Sunday, December 13 at Bowers. Registration is through the Bowers website.
Additional BAGSC demonstration days in conjunction with the exhibition will be held in January and February. Come join us and learn about a color that changed the history of the world, that’s still in use today. (You’ll be amazed at how much Cochineal is still used in food, make-up and clothing dyes.) Email Deb to sign up!
by Deb Shaw
Image Credit: Detail, Sebastian Lopez de Arteaga, St. Michael and the Bull, c. 1650. Denver Art Museum Collection: Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 1994.27.
BAGSC member Deborah Shaw will be teaching a two-part introductory workshop at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California, Saturday, December 12 and Sunday, December 13, 2015, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm, “What’s Cool (and Warm) about Red: Color Mixing in Watercolor.”
Taught in conjunction with the exhibition “The Red that Colored the World,” this consecutive two-day workshop will use the flowers and fruits of the season as the basis for learning to mix a full spectrum of reds, both warm and cool. Delve into warm, fiery reds the first day, and cool, velvety reds the next. Explore transparency, undercolor painting and palette mixing. Suitable for beginners to advanced artists.
Location: John M. Lee Court in Bowers Museum
Price: Member $24 | General $30 | Students $20 with valid I.D.
Materials provided with a $15.00 materials fee payable to the instructor the day of class, and/or feel free to bring your own favorite materials.
Proceeds benefit Bowers Museum Education Programs. Tickets are non-refundable, may be purchased online or onsite. Questions? Contact Bowers by email or by calling 714.567.3677.
The exhibition, “The Red that Colored the World,” traces the history of cochineal and the seductive visual nature of red. It explores the quest for the perfect, vibrant red, which culminated in the Aztec marketplace of 16th-century Mexico, where Spanish explorers first encountered the American cochineal bug. More than 100 objects, which have all been tested to ensure they contain cochineal, come from all over the globe, and include textiles, sculpture, paintings, manuscripts, decorative arts, clothing and more. The exhibition was organized by the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, and made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and circulating through GuestCurator Traveling Exhibitions. Articles about the exhibition can be found on the Bowers Museum site, including coverage by the PBS NewsHour.
Bowers Museum is located at: 2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana, California 92706, 714.567.3600.
http://www.bowers.org
Deborah Shaw has a degree in fine art from Pomona College, The Claremont Colleges, where she also studied botany and native California flora. Ms. Shaw is an active member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California, and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, and has taught art and botanical art at numerous venues, including The Getty, Virginia Robinson Gardens and Bowers Museum.
Deborah’s work has been displayed in juried and non-juried exhibitions, and is in private collections. Her work is in the permanent collection at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University and other institutions. She has received numerous awards for art, illustration, design, product design and advertising. Her preferred media include graphite, watercolor, colored pencil, scratchboard, Illustrator and Photoshop.
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