Garden workdays and an art workshop are among the activities planned by the Porter County Parks Department at Brincka-Cross Gardens, located at 427 Furness Road in Pine Township.

Garden workdays will be held on Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 18 from 10 a.m. to noon, and Monday, June 6, from 1 to 3 p.m. Wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes and gloves will be available. For more information, contact Recreation Supervisor Gayle O’Connor at 548-0219 or goconnor@porterco.org

“Celebration of Colors” is a series of activities, such as decorative painting, meditation, and yoga workshops, that will be offered over the next two months at Brincka-Cross. Call 465-3586, e-mail pcparks@porterco.org

 or check the Porter County Parks and Recreation Facebook page, www.facebook.com/pcparksandrec

 for dates and times the events.

A botanical art workshop will be offered on Saturday, June 18. This one day intensive workshop offers participants the chance to work with instructor Olivia Petrides, who has illustrated two guides to trees in the classic Peterson Field Guide Series, along with four other manuals to trees issued by Stackpole Press. Petrides is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Painting and Drawing Department and the Visual Communications Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The workshop will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is designed for students of all levels who love botanical forms and wish to document them. Students will be instructed on how to capture the details and defining characteristics of plants in pencil and watercolor. The cost for this event is $125. To register, contact the Lubeznik Center for the Arts at 874-4900, or e-mail jbloch@lubeznikcenter.org

Posted 5/1/2011