Public Gardens Public Horticulture Year Two

It's been a very busy semester, and I added a new Saturday class to my roster: Public Horticulture 

which has brought me to some of the most beautiful gardens in the Philadelphia area.

We visited Jenkins Arboretum, a quick drive up the road

from Chesterbrook in Berwyn, PA to tour the grounds and

listen to Doug Tallamy discuss insects and their plants:

Come Out Tomorrow Fall Arts Fest

Getting packed up for the Art Fest! It's going to be HUGE!

 

Chili Cook Off, Live Bands, 200 art vendors, dancing,

lounges, ETSY, it's going to be amazing!

And no rain!

 

http://fallartsfest.blogspot.com/

Woodbury Fall Arts Fest

 

http://fallartsfest.blogspot.com/

 

 

I'm so excited to be participating in the Woodbury, NJ Fall Arts Fest on September 29th from 11-6 pm.  The location looks beautiful and the music and vendors will be amazing.

 

 

I've been busy getting prints made and framing new images taken at Bartram's Farm, the Spring Gardens Community Garden and the Ambler Arboretum.  As a grad student at Ambler, I get to walk the grounds in every season so I began photographing the woodlands and formal gardens with my square format camera during breaks in classes.  It's a beautiful setting to study in.

 

 

 Philadelphia, Bridge

 Spring Gardens Community Garden, Lamb's Ear

 

Dingman's Ferry, Fern Forest Floor

 



 Bordentown, NJ

 

 Smithville, NJ

 

 New Garden, Cucumbers

 

Burlington County Farm Show

 

 One of my new clay pieces                          New terrarium creations

 

Lots of local trips to farms and small towns, as well as camping and hiking will influence my booth, as well as the terrarium making we are engaged in for my Forest Ecology class. I also worked in a clay studio again this summer and some of my newest pieces may make an appearance at my table as well. 

 

And as halloween is getting closer, I'll be selling photo cards I made using pictures I took in Charleston and here in my neighborhood near Girard Ave.

Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education Bird Count and Hiking

Last weekend I attended my first Bird Count at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.  We joined a group in progress, in charge of one quadrant of the nature space, we had to keep our eyes peeled for any flickering in the trees or shrubs and our expert birder helped us identify and keep track of what and how many we found. There was a surprising variety of species for the middle of Winter in Philadelphia, but he said this was the southern migration location for many Northern birds.

Birding guide helps our group spot species in the meadow

My sister in her new owl hat

Walk Into The Woods Opening Night

Sneek Peek and Neighbor Thanks

Wellpoint Show is Getting Closer!

My photography show WALK INTO THE WOODS is getting closer: Friday, November 19th at Wellpoint Oriental Medicine at 2014 Fairmount Ave. The large prints arrived from the printer today and I am very happy with them. The show emcompasses two rooms and a hallway in the center and the opening will be from 6:00 - 8:30 pm.

There will be free massage and acupuncture demos, hot cider, wine, food, music and everyone who attends will get a raffle ticket to win a free signed print!

Upcoming Show: Space Planning

I'm currently showing work at Wellpoint Oriental Medicine in Fairmount in Philadelphia (2014 Fairmount Ave.) in an evolving show over the month. I had to move some work in to keep the walls from being empty as another artist moved out, but I only had the work sitting around my house to put up on short notice.

Starting next month, date TBA, I'll hang work in the waiting area, hallway and a second room that doors treatment doors open up to face. The space appealed to me because the eastern medicine, acupuncture and massage connects well with my nature photography and environmental conservation interest. It led me to start thinking about Feng Shui when I was hanging the nine pieces currently in the waiting room (the flowing water photo should flow into the building, not send energy out).

I wish I had more training in wall placement and creative show hanging. It's always a struggle to hang shows myself and feel like I did something to make the work more dynamic and not just static dots on the wall. Anyone teach a class in show hanging?

Come check out the results as they change from what I already hung in the space to the new pieces that go up in early November!

Bushkill and Dingman's Falls

Bushkill Falls in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania is about a 2 hour drive north of Philadelphia and has some beautiful hiking trails and waterways to explore, including more waterfalls than you can count. Bushkill trails include many, many stairs and the red and blue routes are fairly challenging, like a hour on the stairmaster. You'll feel the burn. These pictures are from both Bushkill Falls (a series of falls along a 4 mile trail) and Dingman's Falls (two falls) only about a 20 minute ride apart from each other on route 209. If you keep traveling north on 209 you'll pass many other falls and lakes as you drive along the Delaware river. Bushkill is a tourist magnet, so get there early to avoid the crowds. They also have animal talks where you can see and learn about rescued animals from the region including owls, skunks, frogs, turtles, possums and more.

PHOTOGRAPH GIVEAWAY:

Giveaway Day Has Arrived!

And the Winner is...............

Paintingpam!

Congrats! You'll be getting a free 8 x 10 photograph of your choice from my etsy shop, www.allisonostertag.etsy.com

You can follow Pam at her blog: http://paintingpam.blogspot.com

I went old-school and put everyone's name on a piece of paper, folded it, put it in a bag and asked a unbiased party (Emily, my coworker) to pick a name. Sorry for those of you who didn't win, but I was really excited by the response so I'll be doing this again soon! Check back for more info! Thanks everyone who is now following my blog! BTW, I would have held the drawing at noon, but we had an office meeting until 2!

FREE 8 x 10 PHOTOGRAPH GIVEAWAY!

I'm giving away one free 8 x 10 Photograph of your choice, and you can choose from any image in my etsy shop that is 8 x 10 or larger! All it takes to enter is to leave a comment someplace here on my blog (any posting)! When you leave your comment, be sure to mention you'd like to be included in the giveaway! The drawing will be in two weeks and I will notify the winner by e-mail.

Mt. Airy Focus on Local Art Friday and Sat. Nov 6, 7

Come join me for First Friday in Mt. Airy 6-9 pm or on Saturday the 7th from 12-6 pm for the Mt. Airy Focus on Local Art Exhibition. I'll be at the storefront at 7167 Germantown Ave., between the Bank of America and North by Northwest. I'll be showing my newest work from Awbury Arboretum which focuses on connecting with nature.

Here are some of the many images that are part of the show:

I posted a few of these on etsy already (click on the shop link at the left)! I'm going to print them large for the show and frame them. I'm also going to have a magnet collage of the trees you can play with and arrange! There will be food and drinks at ours and the other venues both days. Shops will be open upand down Germantown Ave. and there are lots of great restaurants, coffee shops and old school main street type shops and locals to make it a fun day.

Guided Tree Walk in Fairmount Park

Mr. Sibley with Sweet Bay Magnolia Fruit

Bur Oak

Linden

Sawtooth Oak Acorn

Bur Oak Leaves

Fruit Laden Linden Branches

Fringe Tree Fruit

Pin Oak

Swamp White Oak

Sweet Gum Leaves

I was really excited to see that the author of the Sibley Guide to Trees, David Sibley was leading a walk in Fairmount Park as part of the author events for the Philadelphia Free Library. After meeting at the Recreation center at the start of Boathouse Row we walked into the Azalea Garden and he showed us the ways you can look at acorns and other fruit, branch direction, leaf shape, bark texture, overall tree shape and leaf arrangement to determine what tree you're looking at. We stopped at about 10 trees including a Bur Oak, Swamp Bay Magnolia, Red Oak, Linden, Ginko and Kentucky Coffee Tree.

I was amazed to find out he paints every illustration in his books and he still does not consider himself an expert in trees, despite working on this guide for 7 years. His bird guides he painted in gouache, but he found that impossible to use when painting lights and darks in trees, so he had to teach himself how to use acrylics for this book.

There was a big group of people on the walk and I was the youngest member by 30 years until a group of three college aged girls showed up. There were two actresses at the event, maybe they are filming some movie locally? but the rest of the group were birders and nature lovers (why are they all so old?).