Native Plant Portraits Workshop

It was a perfect day for visiting Native Plant Trust’s Garden in the Woods to get inspired!

First we went for a field trip to look for inspiration: what native plants were calling to us to make a plant portrait of? At @nativeplanttrust Garden in the Woods, it was hard to choose! So much beauty! And lots of native plants to get to know, or meet again! So many beautiful blooms, leaves, nuts, fruits, birds, and bees! Then we came back to the studio to draw our plants and research ecological relationships. Then to make quick and easy relief prints, we cut out craft foam, stuck it to repurposed cereal boxes, and used brayers to roll up the ink onto the plates. Then, we pressed paper on top, rubbed with our fingers, and peeled the paper up.

That peeling up moment of reveal – nothing beats it for adventure in printmaking! Thanks to all the brave printmaking adventurers to celebrate native plants and ecological relationships with this quick and crafty method of relief printmaking. Your enthusiasm was contagious!

I was so excited to see what gorgeous native plant portraits you all created! Brava!!! You’ve all earned your native plant portrait printmaking badges! I hope you will be inspired to make more native plant portraits at home!

Thanks everyone who joined me for a printmaking workshop to make native plant portraits! I really enjoyed meeting you all and the chance to encourage you to make art inspired by the plants that call to us! Send me your pictures of your prints up on the wall! Thank you!