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Botanical Garden & Nursery
The Garden Unfolding: A Plein Air Flower Study Series
By Resident Artist Jessica Shaffer
This immersive series invites participants to capture the garden’s vibrant seasonal transformations through sketching and watercolor painting. Meeting every other week from spring through summer, we’ll explore a progression of blooms—from early azaleas and rhododendrons to later native wildflowers—documenting each stage of the season.
Participants will learn approachable techniques for observing and painting flowers directly from life in a relaxed, supportive environment. Emphasis will be placed on slowing down, seeing with intention, and translating the beauty of the garden onto paper.
A small materials fee includes a watercolor sketchbook, paints, and pre-printed watercolor cards featuring line drawings to guide your work or serve as inspiration.
About the Artist
Jessica Shaffer is a Rhode Island–based landscape painter specializing in coastal scenes in watercolor and oil. Living and working in South Kingstown, she has spent more than thirty years observing the shifting tides, marshes, rocky shores, and luminous light that define coastal New England.
Jessica’s work reflects a deep connection to place. Whether painting en plein air beside the ocean or refining compositions in the studio, she aims to translate the feeling of being outdoors—the salt air, the quiet rhythms of the bay, the changing color of the sky—into artwork that invites calm and a sense of presence.
Her paintings resonate with residents and visitors who want to bring the experience of coastal Rhode Island into their homes and workplaces. She exhibits her work in local artists’ cooperatives and galleries, offering original paintings ranging from intimate plein air studies to larger statement pieces. Her work appeals to collectors who appreciate coastal living and a refined sense of place.