Someone asked me if that picture was of a zucchini! :)
It's actually a spruce needle. There is a very very tall Norway Spruce outside my house. In the dead of winter, I decided to paint it. So, it's the needle, but magnified a lot.
More pictures
The classes I take are at the Minnesota School of Botanical Art...
The classes are REALLY great - you learn lots of technique that art schools generally don't teach. A lot of the emphasis is on precision of conveying the plant, and also making beautiful art. So far I have taken a lot of classes:
Beetle Illustration
Carbon Dust
Drawing I & II
Texture Drawing
Watercolor I
Master Class with Katie Lee