Two artists sat side by side at the demo table. Diane T. Sands wrestled with a live turtle who didn't want to pose; Megan Gnekow hovered over her laptop, flipping between "nestcams"--live video streams from birds' nests around the country. At the beginning of the evening, Gnekow found a pair of red-tailed hawk parents feeding their chicks. "What a treat!" she exclaimed, and began to sketch.
Sands and Gnekow were participants in the First Friday Art Tour on May 4th at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History's exhibit "The Art of Nature." Throughout the museum, behind permanent display cases of stuffed foxes and a marine touch pool, the walls were covered with artwork from the California Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.
The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History has been hosting an annual science illustration exhibit for twenty-three years. It began as a showcase for the graduating class of the UC Santa Cruz science illustration program, but when that program moved to CSU Monterey Bay, the end-of-year show moved with it. ("Illustrating Nature" is now on display at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History--I'll be reporting next week.)