Congratulations to GNSI member Linda Feltner for both a people's choice arward at the GNSI Members Exhibit this past summer and now two new awards for the same image! Linda has received "The Ethology award for the Best Depiction of Natural Behavior in Any Medium" and the "Western Art Collector's Magazine Editor's Choice Award" from the Society of Animal Artists (SAA), for "A Mischief of Jays".

Linda's image is a 20 x 24 pastel created as part of an ongoing series of animals, plants, and environment of the Sky Island Ecosystems in southeast Arizona.

Exhibits dates and location:
April 19-June 7, 2013
Atrium Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Lewiston-Auburn College
51 Westminster Street, Lewiston, Maine 04240

Call-for-Entries
An all media exhibit on artistic interpretations of pollination including flowering plants, pollinators, and the lively environment they intersect. Related topics can include seeds, flower anatomy, pollen grains, chemistry, genetics, and other areas that relate to the pollination process. Pollen vectors (pollinators) can include native bees such as orchard mason bees, miner bees, and bumblebees, beetles, flies (syrphid flies, hoverflies, etc), honey bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, and hummingbirds.

Taina Litwak, a long time GNSI member and past GNSI president, is featured in the Science Friday blog by Annette Heist. This interview led to another, in Science News.

Taina is both a biological and medical illustrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Systematic Entomology Lab. The image here is of the beetle Licracantha formicaria, a newly discovered species of ant mimic wood-boring beetle illustrated for Dr. Steve Lingafelter.

It’s been said that unless one studies the structure of birds, one will never really portray them well. This is especially true for birds, for they are cloaked in a soft covering that conceals most of their anatomy. The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds is a book that will guide the new or experienced bird artist with an in-depth approach to drawing birds.

There is a certain fear factor facing the novice bird artist. Birds have shape and form that demonstrate light and shadow, which are apparent from viewing the outside. Artists must also study and investigate what goes on underneath the feathers, how the feathers attach, and how all of this benefits flight.

Here is a Call For Entries for our upcoming GNSI-CA show "California Jewels" to be held from November 1 - December 31, 2012 at the Environmental Education Center in Tilden Regional Park (in Berkeley, CA).

Entries are due by September 1, 2012.

Even before 1981 (when Raiders of the Lost Ark was released) I have been trying (in an unfocused way) to pattern my life after that of Indiana Jones —or at least his predecessor, Allan Quatermain. Both men were, to one degree or another, able to balance the sedentary world of the intellect with the dynamic world of travel and exploration.

Like Dr. Jones, I have some advanced degrees in science-related fields and teach at a university. I have traveled to unusual and/or exotic locations. I have studied grasses in Kenya, collected scorpions in Jamaica, examined the stomach of a patient in a Michigan OR and painted Amazonian plants in Brazil. Unlike “Indy,” I like snakes (and sometimes collect them) and have not been chased by natives with spears, giant boulders or beautiful Nazis.

Two large events are coming. First is a big exhibit late next year that you need to be planning for now. Second is a long-term project we need your input on:

Exhibit Call

Plants, Birds & Pollinators Art Serving Science

Dorothia Rohner attended the 2012 conference technique showcase where she captured some photos of a new offering this year - the Field Sketching Kit Show and Tell.

If you have a Mac, a tablet for drawing, and want to have some fun, take a look at Sketchbook Copic Edition. The normal Sketchbook Pro is $29, but the Copic edition is free (but limited to Copic media) in the Mac App Store. If you were in Savannah, Terryl Whitlatch shared her techniques using these makers. If you are intrigued by this tool and adapting it to your needs, give it a try.

>Diploblubb by Terryl Whitlatch

>2012 Conference In Review

The 2012 Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Conference kicked off with a keynote lecture delivered by Dr. Jodie Holt. She is a professor in plant physiology specializing in invasive plants at University of California, Riverside. Jodie presented an interesting look at how people see or don't see, the importance that the plants have in the world. Outreach to the public through her research and her graduate students only gets you so far.

>Dr. Jodie Holt at 2012 GNSI Conference in Savannah, GA

As a guild, a group of like-minded professionals, we need to promote ourselves both for the benefit of our profession and our own careers. Using social networking tools is a powerful marketing strategy that if used collectively can bring more money and prestige to our field. I am very proud to be a science illustrator and unfortunately, most of the world has no idea who we are. People need to know who we are, why we are doing it and why this work is important. I’ll summarize a few of the most popular new media tools, including how to use them and why.

The GNSI is LOADED with talented people: illustrators, of course, but graphic designers as well. Do you enjoy graphic design? Are you skilled at all basic aspects of graphic design and can produce print and web-ready art? Can you spare some time now and then to help out your intrepid (and overworked) Communications Team with the occasional graphic design project? Then we want to hear from you!

We are talking simple brochures, flyers, and postcards. We are NOT talking about regular recurring projects and you would NOT have to commit to any set amount of time or a set number of projects. We would just like to have your name on file to contact when projects come up and we are otherwise swamped (like now!). If you are available and can help out, great! If not, that’s fine, we’ll move to the next name on the list.

The Huyck Preserve is accepting applications for the 2012 COM.EN.ART program (PDF Application Link).

COM.EN.ART (COMmunity.ENviroment.ART) is an Artist-in-Residence program for natural history illustrators offered by the Huyck Preserve, a biological field station and 2000-acre nature preserve in the picturesque Hudson Valley hamlet of Rensselaerville, NY.