Love + Art on the Farm
Artist Julia Einstein reflects on the inaugural season of Artist in Residency at Raleigh City Farm, and shares the words of those who participated in the program.
“The farm is a living part of our neighborhood, and that was never more clear than when we participated in the Artist in Residency workshop!”
I fell in love with the farm in early spring from the very first flower seed sown for the artist’s garden – it grew to be the heart of my studio. The thrill in gathering flowers into studio bouquets truly exemplifies the term “farm to easel.” My walks through the planting rows to collect specimens “currently on view” for the monthly herbarium workshop brought out the teacher in me. While I created these learning experiences, new ideas opened up as I shared what was happening in my studio, my stacks of pressed flowers, books on my favorite floral artists, and the pages of my sketchbook with meandering marks and drawings of flora. All through the season, all ages attended the workshops and went home with a pressing book — filled with flowers, field studies, and memories from the day! All parts of the farm were explored and captured on paper! By midsummer my studio brimmed with a new body of work and heaps of inspiration.
“Drawing combined with reading poetry was fun and a new learning experience for me. Taught by a good teacher who engaged us by suggesting we first look at a flower to notice the details.”
Surprises are perhaps the sweetest part of a project, when unexpected outcomes take on special meaning. Workshops brought new visitors to the farm. For many, it was a first visit, and they expressed their delight in the behind the scenes tour along with an invitation to sit among the planting rows and make art. For several sets of sisters, parents and kids, and trios of friends it was the joy that came from sharing discovery and exploration. For Spoonflower, the sponsor for the Harvest Dinner, when reproducing one of my paintings onto cloth napkins, their response to the strong connection to the farm prompted a request for more information on my creative process and resulted in a spotlight video on their website. It was the conversational nature of a meeting in the aisles of art supplies between myself and the manager at Raleigh's Jerry’s Artarama where he shared the tradition of pressing the flowers into family bibles and scrapbooks, and guided my decision to use a book as the medium for my herbarium workshops.
“The Herbarium Workshop opened up a whole new way to experience Raleigh City Farm. My kindergartener and I have been there many times, but had never before been able to walk among the plants and actually pick a flower or leaf, then take the time to really observe it while we preserved it in our notebooks.”
My paintings have been described as “a walk into a garden room with an artist’s eye on nature in vivid compositions, elegant arrangements, and painterly surfaces.” In my studio I stand before my living subject as I capture the gesture with a flower held in my fingers for the best angle as a stroke of paint across the canvas, and my eyes squinted on a detail. It’s there and then that I connect with the hands-on farmer’s day with dirt, water, and weather. At the farm I wait and wait for a bee to fly from the flower before I reach for it, or watch the way wind ruffles petals while I make a sketch. It’s exciting to work from life. On my mind are the words of 19th century poet, artist, and collector of flowers Celia Thaxter who, when asked how does she make her garden grow, said, “It’s love, not butterfly lust, but love, true love.”
“An artist's perspective was especially invigorating to me, a curator of a scientific plant collection at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. Creating herbarium sheets has always been a wonderful balance between science and art and the farm was a perfect place to be reminded of that!”
By late fall here’s how it looked by the numbers:
3 series of paintings were created: Flower Power, Floral Portraits, and Modern Botanicals
75 participated in workshops designed for young families, art enthusiasts, and farm patrons
100 posts gave the community at-large an insider's view of “what’s on the easel”
300 followed the hashtag #artistrcf to view onsite and in-studio learning & making
1500 in revenue shared with the farm, from workshops and an auctioned painting
Too many to count smiles throughout this creative season
During the winter season I’ll delve into ideas started during the Artist in Residency in a new venture called Artist Eye Design in my studio in the Warehouse district of Raleigh. Stay tuned for the 2023 Artist in Residency when the program will expand to include interactive art experiences made possible by Spoonflower, a wonderful community partner, as well as a new neighborhood collaboration with the Pocket Gallery. I anticipate a great second season of creative work with Lisa Grele Barrie and all the smart folks who make it happen at Raleigh City Farm, and Brennon at Jerry’s Artarama who generously donated supplies for the program’s educational workshops.
