Sketch Club in the Gardens
2025-09-26 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-03 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-10 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-17 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-24 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-31 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-11-07 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-11-14 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) and 18 more dates | Mobile Botanical Gardens, 5151 MUSEUM DR, MOBILE, AL, 36608, United States
What: A casual sketch club experience with oversight from Derek Norman, botanical arts instructor
When: Friday afternoons, 2-4pm*
Where: The Larkins Classroom OR at Magnolia Hill Studio
Cost: FREE for MBG Members, regular admission for nonmembers. (Benefits of membership) (Join Now!)
*The sketch club generally meets on Friday afternoons, subject to availability of space. Contact the office at 251.342.0555 to verify hours of activity on specific dates.

-=-The drawings and paintings shown here are by recent members of the Gardens Sketch Club and botanical art students of the MBG. They serve as examples of what can be achieved by those with none or very little previous experience drawing and painting.
We invite you to visit the Garden’s Sketch Club and to enjoy the therapeutic rewards of learning to draw and drawing to learn! Learn how art can transform and enrich your life plus enhance your physical and mental well-being.
We meet each Friday afternoon in an open studio where we usually work, study, draw and paint. We exchange information relevant to the business of botanical art, art in general and to the consideration of individual botanical art concerns.
Join the MBG Sketch Club. – a whole new world of infinite possibilities! -=-
-Derek Norman, Educator, Designer, Artist, Author, Curator & sometime Writer. 5th October 2024
Join Derek and several of his Botanical Arts students for an enjoyable afternoon of sketching the collections of MBG.

Botanical Art: Graphite Pencil Drawing
2026-02-27 10:00 - 13:00, 2026-03-06 10:00 - 13:00, 2026-03-13 10:00 - 13:00 | Mobile Botanical Gardens’ Larkins Classroom, 5151 Museum Dr, Mobile, AL, 36608, United States
The Art of Botanical Art: Graphite Pencil Drawing
10 AM – 1 PM on Fridays Beginning on 02/27/26
(See full Schedule Below)
Derek Norman – Instructor: Artist, Author & Educator
$125 for Not-Yet Members
$100 for Members (difference refunded after purchase)
Register Here!
If you have long held the desire to learn how to draw then this class is for you. And also, for those who simply wish to take their drawing skills to a higher level such as the intermediate and advanced student.
Students will progress, from learning appropriate graphite/pencil use and handling technique to developing a keen sound sense of observation. The fundamentals of drawing technique will be taught by a step-by-step process of analytical drawing exercises. Including the study of negative and positive compositions, convex and concave shapes and a range of botanical perspectives. As the class progresses each student will engage in drawing plant specimens as they learn to recognize and create form by understanding the importance of structure, surface texture and light as “value”.
Create a little magic! One step at a time – as you relish and rediscover the joy of drawing in pencil. You’ll see your flower drawings slowly emerge and come to life with shape, form, depth and dimension.
The Art of a Sound Drawing Technique – How to surprise yourself and amaze your friends!
Class Schedule:

February 27
March 6
March 13
March 27

Instructor: Derek Norman
Members $125 / Not-Yet-Members $150
(Discover the benefits of membership and Join Now)!

Register and Pay Here!

Blossoms & Bugs: A 6-Week Art Workshop with Artist Honey Dean
2026-03-05 13:00 - 16:00 | Mobile Botanical Gardens’ Larkins Classroom, 5151 Museum Dr, Mobile, AL, 36608, United States
Blossoms and Bugs: Drawing and Painting Botanicals and Insects
Thursdays from 1 – 4 PM
March: 5, 12, 19, 26 | April: 2, 9
An Art Workshop with Honey Dean
Register Here!
Presented by botanical artist and natural science illustrator Honey Dean, this workshop will cover the basic skills of drawing and watercolor as applied to traditional scientifically-accurate representations of flowers, foliage, and insects.
Students can expect to work with live specimens (except for some of the bugs, perhaps) as models and will complete the class having produced several small drawings and paintings in graphite, ink, and watercolor. Students of all ages and levels of training in art are welcome to participate.
Art supplies for the class will be furnished by the instructor, with cost included in the workshop fees. The Mobile Botanical Gardens will provide the blossoms and bugs.
Class Schedule:

March 5
March 12
March 19
March 26
April 2
April 9

$260 for Not-Yet Members
$240 for Members (difference refunded after purchase)
(Discover the benefits of membership and Join Now)!

Register and Pay Here!
A Brief Biography of Janice Neill “Honey” Dean
Honey Dean is a botanical artist and natural science illustrator who resides in Lucedale, Mississippi. Originally from the Mississippi Delta, Honey was trained in art at the University of Mississippi, graduating with an extended major in art and an additional major in English. It was the English degree that provided her livelihood—as her college advisor suggested, “Artists have a hard time making a living, but every town needs English teachers.” This proved to be true, and an advanced degree in English and a doctorate in Education furthered her career as a teacher, principal, and college professor. Art was her passion throughout, and she brought the Arts in Education program into several elementary schools in Greenville, Mississippi. She always created art herself, participated in several art groups in the Delta, Jackson, and Fairhope, Alabama area, co-owned The Studio, a frame shop and gallery, with her sculptor husband, Michael Dean, and showed her work at exhibits and galleries throughout the South. Honey has since retired from education and her art associations, but she continues to paint and occasionally enters art shows. Her home in Lucedale, The Honeycomb, serves as her studio and gallery. Her motto comes from an old tombstone in England: “The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colors, lights, and shades. These I saw; look ye also while life lasts.”
