EUGENE–Love sensitive, sensuous science? Adore ferociously accurate art? Scientific illustrators don’t have to choose between these disciplines–they can harmonize science and art.

Several Oregon science artists will share their techniques and experience with middle school students and families at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural History’s "Technique Boutique" from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 12.

The science art demonstration is set in the courtyard garden and exhibit hall of the museum, 1680 E. 15th Ave. The event is free to museum members and others pay $2 per person or $5 per family. Free parking is available in the UO parking lot behind the museum.

Visitors who participate in all of the activities will be entered in a drawing for art supplies, pizza coupons and passes to Wonderland donated by community sponsors. The drawing will take place at 2:30 p.m.

Five artists, whose professional work is on display through Dec. 23 at the museum’s new scientific illustration exhibit, "Sight & INsight," will lead ongoing mini-workshops in watercolor technique, scratchboard technique, computer transfer and illustration, and the carbon dust technique. Visitors will have a chance to try some of the techniques on their own, using microscopes and other professional tools at the junior illustrator table.

Participating illustrators, all from western Oregon, include Barbara Gleason, Elaine Hodges, Rick Jones, Kris Kirkeby and Andy Sudkamp.

Sudkamp, a Eugene wildlife artist, will work with visitors at the illustration table.

"Kids will learn to draw with geometric shapes, using taxidermy mounts as models–squirrels, a muskrat and some other things," he says.

Sudkamp recently spent two years in Slovenia where he "botanized in the Alps, taught English and contributed to Ljubljana Life magazine." His work also has appeared in the journal of the Native Plant Society of Oregon, the American Cottage Gardener and Greenprints, and several projects for the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

Gleason, a birds and wildlife artist from Eugene, will show how to use Photoshop and Illustrator computer programs to change an original pencil drawing into an enhanced digital image.

"Mastering computer tools makes an artist’s life much easier, once we learn how to integrate their use into our drawing routines," she says.

Gleason and her ornithologist husband, Dan, are the authors of "Birds! From the Inside Out." A longtime graphic designer and illustrator for ad agencies, publishers and public agencies in the Pacific Northwest, she is a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the Audubon Society.

Kirkeby is a natural science and children’s book illustrator, and past president of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. She will demonstrate the scratchboard technique, using clay coated board and India ink to make white-on-black drawings.

"This is an interesting technique for the artist," Kirkeby says. "It’s an exercise of thinking in the negative–of thinking of images being made in white lines."

Kirkeby also will teach a four-hour class on field sketching on Saturday, May 19. Aspiring natural science artists may register for that class during the "Technique Boutique."

Marine wildlife illustrator Rick Jones of Corvallis will work on a watercolor painting, give tips and lead visitors in a simple project of their own.

"I’d like viewers to see the techniques and tools of this popular media in action!" he says.

He is a freelance illustrator whose clients include National Geographic, Scientific American and the California Museum of Science and Industry.

Hodges, a natural science and insect illustrator, will teach carbon dust drawing. She also opened the "Sight & INsight" exhibit in April with her lecture, "Eyes on Science."

"The soft tones created with dust nicely duplicate flowers and leaves, skin tones or whatever one’s imagination creates," Hodges says.

The technique, used mostly by medical and biological illustrators, can create a photographic effect. A detailed drawing of a symmetrical insect, showing two sets of wings, may take 45 hours to produce.

The "Technique Boutique" is part of the museum’s new exhibit, "Sight & INsight," which features the work of 24 Oregon scientific illustrators. The illustrators use scientific observation and technical skill to create fine art for practical purposes. Subjects the new gallery show range from diaphragmatic hernias to monkey flowers and from insect anatomy to oak galls. The effect is a penetrating look at the Earth’s biological wonders.

Museum of Natural History exhibits and the museum store are open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday on the UO campus near the corner of East 15th Avenue and Agate Street, behind the Knight Law Center. Free parking is available in front of the museum with a permit from the front desk. Regular admission is by $2 donation, with UO students and museum members admitted free.

For information about the "Technique Boutique" or other museum programs, visit <http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/> on the Web, call (541) 346-3024, or send e-mail to <mnh@oregon.uoregon.edu>. For a 24-hours-a-day taped message about museum exhibits and activities, call GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone, 485-2000, ext. 3447.

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