Students display botanical illustrations in virtual gallery

composite of student works from botanical illustration intensive course

Students in the course Intensive Study in Botanical Illustration (PLHRT 3250) finished up their portfolios last week and selected three of their favorites for display in an online gallery. The course provides an opportunity for students to take a deep dive into advanced botanical illustration techniques, exploring diverse media such as pen and ink, watercolor, graphite and more, says course instructor Marcia Eames-Sheavly.

Although students in the course this semester encountered the same struggles coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and the closing of campus as other students, they made a surprising and exciting discovery, she adds: Immersion in drawing and painting could offer solace, stress relief, and an antidote to the challenges of scattered concentration, as well as a break from the intensive time spent on Zoom.

The spirit of one student, Laura Kramer, is a great example: “It’s weird to be wrapping up my first year at Cornell in my roommate’s basement, especially without access to the art supplies I was supposed to pick up from home over Spring Break,” she writes. “On the bright side, though, the plant life upstate is beautiful and I’m learning to adapt to the lack of fancy art supplies. My pieces featured here were done with a semi-broken fountain pen, some half-dried markers I found in my pencil case from middle school, and a set of kids’ Crayola markers that my roommate found.”

May we all be so resilient.

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