Display will be first in new Pegg Exhibit Hall

to get to the garden

n The North Carolina Botanical Garden is located off of US 15-501 at 100 Old Mason Farm Road in Chapel Hill.

n Admission is free and the garden is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday 1 to 6 p.m.

n More information can be found at http://ncbg.unc.edu.

From staff reports

CHAPEL HILL -- The N.C. Botanical Garden will host an exhibit of detailed nature drawings made by North Carolina artist Robert Johnson, opening Monday and running through Dec. 21.

"Notebook Pages from Nature" will display 30 of Johnson's 8x11-inch nature journal pencil/watercolor drawings as well as one 36x52-inch composite. The larger portrait, titled "Signs of Spring Across North Carolina," brings together Johnson's observations made this past spring as he traveled across North Carolina recording the season in the state's natural habitats.

Johnson's work will be the first display in the Eleanor Smith Pegg Exhibit Hall of the new Education Center, which also includes a botanical art and illustration gallery where former botanical illustration students are exhibiting their work this fall.

While visiting sites from Ocracoke to Mount Mitchell, Johnson created the 8x11-inch drawings, recording the landscapes and their associated flora and fauna and labeling the works with both common and Latin names. Many of the drawings also have personal notations about weather conditions at the time or other observations.

Johnson, a native of Burnsville, has been painting, drawing, exhibiting and selling his work for nearly 20 years. He was most recently commissioned by RDU International to provide images that were reproduced in a 2,500-piece ceramic tile mural depicting North Carolina's ecosystems, located inside the pedestrian tunnel connecting the airport's parking garage with Terminal A.

Johnson sketches his surroundings in his notebook before taking them home to develop his paintings from them.

"The notebook pages have really turned into a more finished product over the years," Johnson said. "Now I spend more time on them."

This fall, the N.C. Botanical Garden is also hosting its annual Sculpture in the Garden exhibition: 40 three-dimensional pieces by N.C. artists displayed throughout the gardens. Selected artists were asked to interpret the theme "Celebrating Life Forces -- earth, air, fire, water, spirit." Twenty-four different artists used various mediums, including clay, steel, copper, stone, brass, aluminum, concrete and found materials, to create their sculptures.

Sculpture in the Garden continues through Nov. 15, with an awards reception at 3 p.m. today. Visitors are encouraged to return to the garden several times this season to admire the changing of the sculptures as their surrounding vegetation evolves with fall's progression.