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 on December 13, 2025. Members have received an email with the details of the event.
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.
Chicago Botanical Garden offers many botanical art courses both in person and online. Here is one coming soon:
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:
January 8, 15, 22, Feb 5 & 12 (no class on Jan 29), 10 am - 1 pm Drawing Fundamentals for Beginners, Zoom
The Most Sought-After Drawing Workshop Year After Year: An Intensive course with lots of detailed technique demos, meaningful assignments and constructive feedback. Informative PDFs prepared by Kim will help students understand the drawing process naturally and logically. Kim’s deep understanding on the medium helps students experience the whole drawing process from a completely different perspective.
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:
11 December 2025 - 7pm GMT Artist Together hosted by Julia Trickey
Three leading botanical artists compare notes on subjects such as recent projects, favourite tools, dealing with mistakes and top tips for students of botanical art.
SARAH MORRISH is an artist, tutor, naturalist and author who works in a range of media illustrating many aspects of the natural world and the surrounding environment.
LIZZIE HARPER is a freelance commercial botanical and natural history illustrator with a passion for the natural world and a real love for her work.
CHRISTIANE FASHEK is a colored pencil artist whose recent work focuses on enlarged lichens and fungi. Register HERE.
Domestika Botanical Courses
These course are often offered with a 97% discount!
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. Recordings are available for up to two weeks after the event.
Look here in the coming year for these presentations.
Call for Entry
Nature Artists' Guild / Downers Grove Library Show – January 6 through February 3, 2026
Wednesday, December 3, 2025 Registration deadline
Registration information HERE
Nature Artists' Guild / Arts and Cultural Center of the Wheaton Public Library Show – January 2026
December 12, 2025 Registration deadline
Registration information HERE
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
Exhibitions
Nature Artists’ Guild’s special exhibits at the Downers Grove Public Library and Arts and Cultural Center at Wheaton Public Library in January, 2026.
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)
Reed-Turner Botanical Artists Posters 2008 - 2024