Statement

We represent members of Guild of Natural Science Illustrators living in southern Wisconsin, northern Indiana and northern Illinois. Most of our meetings are held in the Chicago area.
We hold meetings about three times a year. Great Lakes meetings include lectures, workshops, exhibits and field trips. Our goals are to encourage and support the profession of scientific illustration and encourage networking among scientific illustrators. We share information, learn new techniques and network about our experiences in freelancing, exhibiting and staff positions.

November 19, 2006, 2 pm
Business Meeting!
Please join us as we plan next year’s events as well as elect new officers! We need your ideas, opinions and your votes! The meeting is at 2 pm at Barbara Papamarcos’ 212 Coolidge Avenue, Barrington, IL 60010

December 02, 2006
Sketching at the Garfield Park Conservatory
300 North Central Park Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624-1996
(312) 746-5100
www.garfieldconservatory.org
Saturday, December 02, 2006
10 am meet at the entrance
Call Rocio Jaramillo at 708-383-0453 for details.

September 16 - Nov 12, 2006
Great Lakes Chapter Report

Kenosha Public Museum hosted an exhibition for the GNSI from September 16 – Nov 12, 2006. Twenty-eight works were chosen from 14 submitting illustrators across the United States. A reception was held Sunday afternoon, Sept. 24, 2006, from 1–4 pm. Exhibiting illustrators were invited to demonstrate their techniques for the public on weekends during the duration of the exhibition. Carla Schmakel did so Sept. 23 with an acrylic and colored ink demo of insects and botanical; Nancy Halliday (pen and ink, paleontological) and Rocio Jaramillo (oils, anatomical) demonstrated during the reception. Others such as Holly Butlett (watercolor, botanical) and Mary Reynolds (graphite, botanical) will fill the succeeding weekends.

The exhibition gallery was an excellent space with overhead and directed lighting. Illustrations ranged from strictly scientific to works in the wildlife art genre. Exhibition cases in the middle of the gallery area tastefully displayed mounted specimens and other artifacts that related directly to the paintings and drawings on the wall.

After the reception, a group of GNSIers met for dinner at a local restaurant and planned our upcoming election of officers for the Great Lakes Chapter.

The Kenosha Public Museum is located at 5500 First Avenue in Kenosha, Wisconsin on a spectacular site on the shores of Lake Michigan. See their website at www.kenoshapublicmuseum.org.

The day may have been gloomy for early spring in Chicago, but that didn't keep members of the Great Lakes Chapter from braving the cold to meet at the Lincoln Park Zoo for a day of sketching. About 10 members gathered to sketch zoo animals, have lunch and share drawings and news. Highlights of the zoo were a sleeping aardvark, lively fruit bats, and the small animal and primate houses. Guild members completed gesture and movement studies of primates and small mammals, portraits of the lizard at the petting zoo, turtles (afterall, they sit still so nicely), and other great zoological subjects. During lunch, the group discussed future meetings and sketching techniques.

Asian Turtle and Fruit Bats Feeding, sketches by Amelia Janes