Grasses Workshop 2020 – Southwest Society of Botanical Artists

Grasses are underrepresented in botanical art, especially when compared to their importance in our food chain as represented by wheat, rice and other grains. They lack the spectacular flowers of other plant families, but they have their own beauty, especially if you look close enough at them. SWSBA held a grasses workshop on February 13, lead by Katherine Callingham and held in the herbarium of the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden.

Katherine began the workshop by describing the various types of grasses and then provided samples of grasses for the participants to examine and sketch by eye, with hand lenses and even under the herbarium’s microscopes.

Katherine holds a degree in Biochemistry from Bowdoin College. She is a medical and legal illustrator as well as a botanical artist. She has taught a number of art classes at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. She splits her time between Phoenix, Arizona and Alamos, Mexico.