NEWS

N.C. Botanical Garden to auction diminutive nature art

By LANITA WITHERS
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Towering trees, wild animals and beautiful flowers will be scaled down to artists’ renditions only inches in height for the N.C. Botanical Garden Diminutive Nature Art Show.

The fourth-annual art show will run from Nov. 18 through Dec. 31 in the garden’s Totten Center classroom. The exhibit, showcasing nature subjects, will include art that measures diminutively: 3 inches by 3 inches, 2 inches by 4 inches or 3 inches by 5 inches. Local artists – including some participants from the garden’s botanical illustration classes – created the works. Watercolor, pen and ink, colored pencil, pastel and other media will be represented.

A silent auction will be held Dec. 2 through 8 for those wishing to purchase the diminutive nature art. Winning bidders may pick up their original art at 4 p.m. Dec. 8. Color copies of the originals in the exhibit will replace those bought during the auction. All proceeds will benefit the garden and its programs.

"Last year’s show displayed more than 200 works of art and raised more than $1,000 for the garden," said Dot Wilbur-Brooks, program coordinator.

The garden, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also will present a holiday tree decorated with handcrafted ornaments of pine straw, pine wood and pine cones in the classroom Dec. 8 through 22. Pine ornaments from the tree – including renditions of critters, gnomes, birdhouses, birdbaths and tiny hand-woven baskets – will be on sale, with proceeds benefiting the garden and its programs.

The garden is on Old Mason Farm Road at Fordham Boulevard. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

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(Withers is a senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication from Reidsville.)

N.C. Botanical Garden contact: Sandra Brooks-Mathers, (919) 962-0522