Beginning in the opening month of 2023, Cypress Lawn Arboretum will be hosting our inaugural botanical art gallery exhibit, featuring several works by renowned local artist Pria Graves. This exhibit will launch on January 20th and will remain on display in the lobby of the main offices at Cypress Lawn (1370 El Camino Real) through February 24th. We hope you will visit the Arboretum to experience our living collection of trees and plants and spend a moment to witness the remarkable art of Ms. Graves, in living color!
Pria Graves has been creating botanical art since 1992. She now works primarily in watercolor but has also created pieces in graphite and colored pencil. Heritage fruits, vegetables, and bulbs became a particular passion after she and her husband settled in their 1904 home more than 30 years ago. She grows many unusual antique plants in her own garden, often planting subjects far in advance of painting them.
Pria’s works have regularly been included in the botanical art exhibits at Filoli in Woodside and in the Northern California Society of Botanical Artists exhibitions. She has also had pieces selected for the Tradescant’s Orchard exhibition at the Garden Museum in London as well as several American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) exhibitions, Botanica Exhibitions in Sydney, Australia, and both of the Susan K. Black Foundation’s BLOSSOM shows. Pria’s work has also appeared in a number of other local and regional shows in the US, the UK, and Australia.
DAHLIA ‘PRINCE NOIR’
Pria holds a Botanical Art Certificate from Filoli and a Certificate in Garden Design from University of California Berkeley Extension. She has studied extensively with master botanical art instructors, Anne-Marie Evans and Margaret Best, as well as with the late Charles Stasek, marine biologist, scientific illustrator, and artist. She has also taken master classes with such well-known botanical artists as Lizzie Sanders, Martha Kemp, Susan Fisher, and Jenny Phillips.
EMBOTHRIUM COCCINEUM
She is a member of the Northern California Society of Botanical Artists (a chapter of the ASBA) and the Botanical Art Society of Australia. Pria is a member of the Filoli Florilegium Guild and her painting of Filoli’s Conference Pears is included in their collection. Her works are also included in several private collections in the US and Australia.
Please visit her website at www.birketthouse.com.
QUERCUS RUBRA