Celebrating 20 Years
Supporting Botanical Art and Artists!
The First Meeting of the Red-Turner Botanical Artist was on October 29, 2005,
Derek Norman convened the meeting.
“Botanical art connects science to people with one finely tuned, articulate voice. And it draws us to plants, to conservation, and to a sense of awareness and concern that without plants we are nothing. All of which makes the subject of botanical art so enormously relevant - more relevant today, perhaps, than it has been for generations.” -Derek Norman
Welcome to Reed-Turner Botanical Artists
Each year Reed-Turner Botanical Artist (RTBA) brings local botanical artists together to educate each other and the public about botany and the conservation of our natural resources through their artwork. Members have achieved success in presenting their botanical artwork at exibitions in the community. Members have also achieved success in national and international exhibitions, written articles in ASBA The Botanical Artist magazine and published books on botanical art. Reed-Turner Botanical Artist have made great strides in their 20 years.
Reed-Turner Botanical Artists is a Circle affiliated with the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA). Artists’ Circles are independent associations with a mutual interest in botanical art whose participants may be comprised of ASBA members and non-members. Reed-Turner Botanical Artists also maintains an ongoing relationship with the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Members meet monthly throughout the year. Meetings give members the opportunity to gather together with fellow botanical artists, learn botanical art techniques, become educated about botany, and share their botanical artwork.
Important Dates
November Meeting of Reed-Turner Botanical Artist Circle
Reed-Turner Botanical Artist Circle will not be meeting in November.
We are looking forward to our annual Holiday gathering in December.
Botanical Education Opportunities
This list is intended for the midwest area. It is in not all inclusive. The intention is to show the availability of botanical art education online or in-person this area.
Contact the RTBA website administrator HERE if you have a course coming up and would like it to be announced on the website or in the RTBA Newsletter.
Nature Artist Guild, Morton Arboretum, offers many botanical outings and workshops for their members
Several members of Reed-Turner Botanical Artists show their work with the Nature Artist Guild
Visitor to the Nature Artist Guild 2025 Autumn Art Exhibit can also watch demonstration of art techniques use in botanical art, including:
November 7, 2025, 1:30pm - 3:00pm, Ronda Nash demonstrates Scratchboard
November 8, 2025, 10:30am - 12:30pm, Techniques and Gear for Plein Air Watercolor with Maggie Mardis
Review demonstrations available HERE
Chicago Botanical Garden offers many botanical art courses both in person and online. Here are a few coming soon:
Colored Pencil on Film | Online with Marlene Hill Donnelly, scientific illustrator, The Field Museum
3 Sundays:
November 30 – December 14, 2025
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Colored pencil on film allows a different approach, using the translucency and luminosity of the film to make a subject glow. Take advantage of opportunities to layer and add to the subtlety and nuance of color. Register HERE.
Holiday Botanical Art in Colored Pencil | Online with Claudia Lane, freelance artist
3 Tuesdays:
December 2 – 16
6 – 9 p.m. .
Get inspired by winter and the festive holidays in your botanical artwork. From evergreens to holly to amaryllis, you will choose a subject that is memorable to you. You will work in both colored pencils and watercolor pencils to develop a finished artwork on paper or film. Create next year’s holiday décor, all from your own home. Register HERE.
Heeyoug Kim offers many botanical art courses both in person and online. Here are a few coming soon:
Nov 6, 13, 20, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm The First Step toward Bird Painting: Demystifying the Complex Bird Anatomy for Accurate Drawing and Painting
This third in the series of 3 workshops is designed for those who want to add faunal elements such as birds to their botanical paintings, but have not gotten courage to start yet, or do not have enough knowledge and experience about drawing/painting them. Kim will guid them from drawing to painting with easy-to-follow demonstrations.
Register HERE for any in this series
Julia Trickey Talks are one hour presentations from award winning botanical artist and experienced tutors. Here are a few coming soon:
6 November 2025 - 7pm GMT PLANTS WITH ATMOSPHERE with Alice Rosa
Through her botanical portraits, Alice encourages viewers to experience plants from new perspectives. In this talk, she will share her progress on a recent artwork, with a particular focus on creating depth through atmospheric perspective. She will explain how her work as an art conservator influences her approach and her coloured pencil techniques. Register HERE.
Domestika Botanical Courses
Julia Trickey Domestika
Julia Trickey course taught through Domestika , includes 15 lessons focusing on painting a botanical portrait of fruit Register HERE.
Vincent Jeannerot, Botanical Watercolor Illustration: Cross-hatching Technique
This 15 lesson course, taught through Domestika, focused on building layers using washes and a dry brush technique of cross-hatching. The course includes several lessons on vellum. Register HERE.
ASBA offers many botanical presentations and tutorials online: most of these workshops are $15 for members and $25 for non-member. Here are a few coming soon:
November 13, 2025 - 1pm, The Studio Is a State of Mind with Kerri Weller. Members register HERE
Exhibitions & Events
Through the Eyes of Piping Plovers: Flora, Fauna & People of the Waukegan Shores
Waukegan History Museum, 1 N. Sheridan Rd, Waukegan, IL
September 12 - October 31, 2025
In collaboration with Share Our Shore - Waukegan (Lake County Audubon) and Waukegan History Museum at Carnegie, Heeyoung Kim, and 14 artists from Brushwood Monday Open Workshop and Tuesday Eco-Botancial Zoom Workshop of HK Botanical Art Academy took on a new theme, shorebirds, migrating/residential birds, and other fauna and flora in the dunes ecosystem, mainly of Waukegan shores.
Reed-Turner Botanical Artist, Charlene Riffer, has five pieces in this local show. She is displaying her playful botanical art where leaves and found natural objects create people.
Nature Artist Guild 2025 Autumn Art Exhibit, Morton Arboretum
Artists reception: November 7, 2025, 4:30pm - 7:00pm
Open from November 7 - 9, 2025, 10:00am - 4:00pm
The exhibition will feature more than 200 works by members of the Guild, including many by Featured Artist Kathy Steere.
Demonstrations, special displays, raffles, and handmade ornaments will be available to visitors throughout the exhibit, and a reception, open to all on Friday evening, will also include light refreshments and the opportunity to meet many of the artists. Look for more information HERE
Call for Entry
29th Annual International American Society of Botanical Artists and Society of Illustrators
Exhibition: September – December, 2026
Submission Deadline: Friday, April 24, 2026
Botanical specimens. Work may have appeared in regional exhibitions, but may not have been shown in another international juried exhibition of ASBA.
Details of this Call for Entry HERE
ASBA Orchids: Jewels of the Plant World / The Sixth New York Botanical Garden Triennial
Opening February 2027
Submission Deadline: March 11 - September 11, 2026
The theme for The Sixth New York Botanical Garden Triennial is all about orchids, whether terrestrial or epiphytic, found nearby or anywhere in the world. The diversity of orchids is incredible; there are over 30,000 species and over 100,000 hybrids.
Details of this Call for Entry HERE
From Our Blog
Botanical Sketches and Rambles
Chronicling the interests and activities of Reed-Turner Botanical Artists Circle
Dues are $25 for the year. These dues are put towards programs, website and exhibition costs.
Memberships are for a calendar year, January through December.
Benefits
Shared community of local botanical artist with common goals
Stay up-to-date with the botanical arts events
Workshops, lectures, and field trips throughout the year
Annual local exhibition opportunity
Listing of members websites and artwork in exhibition galleries
Contact us for more information about joining Reed-Turner Botanical Artist
Membership
Background artwork: George Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770)
Lure of the Local IV presented by The Mundelein Arts Commission
All Saturdays and Sundays, October 16 - November 17, 2025
Archer Business Center - 175 N. Archer Avenue, Mundelein, IL
Reed-Turner Botanical Artists Posters 2008 - 2024