BOOKMARK: Woodland Style

 

 

Sheffield, Mass., artist, teacher, and author Marlene Hurley Marshall brings the outside indoors with Woodland Style, a beautifully bound guide to home decorating using items—you guessed it—from nature.

 

Marshall draws upon the talent of forty regional and national artists within the book’s 160 pages, which boast full-color images of artwork and scenery by Stockbridge, Mass., photographer Sabine Vollmer von Falken. Chapters are divvied up by materials, such as “Twigs, Vines, and Roots” and “Moss, Greens, and Wildflowers,” and feature projects including floral-themed pottery by Ellen Grenadier, wooden garden sculpture by Peter Thorne, and organic mixed-media vessels by Carole Clark.

 

Appreciating foraged food as art, a “Wild Edibles” section covers various types of mushrooms, greens, berries, and even maple sugar, paired with mouthwatering recipes that transform these woodland finds into culinary delicacies like ramp bread pudding or morel risotto, both by Stagecoach Tavern chef Sarah Dibben.

 

Woodland Style rounds off these projects with the nitty-gritty on how to find, clean, and store various natural elements as well as big-picture spotlights on more extensive undertakings like a massive tree-house and installations of moss-covered walls (also known as vertical gardens) by French botanist Patrick Blanc.

 

Readers can get in on the action at several Woodland Style events: an exhibit of contributing artists’ work at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Mass., and a hands-on moss workshop at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Mass. All in the pursuit of preserving, cherishing, and enjoying our beautiful surroundings anew. [SEPTEMBER 2010]

 

THE GOODS

Woodland Style
By Marlene Hurley Marshall
Photography by Sabine Vollmer
von Falken
Storey Publishing

 

Woodland Style
Works by regional artists
Sept 4 - Jan 2
Book signing and reception
Sept 25 at 5-7
Berkshire Museum
/
Pittsfield, Mass.

 

Greening with Moss
Workshop by Marlene Hurley Marshall
Oct 30
Berkshire Botanical Garden
Routes 102 & 183
Stockbridge, Mass.