Alabama Newscenter One of an artist’s biggest challenges, Birmingham watercolorist Gail Cosby will tell you, can be deciding what to paint. So this past spring, when considering inspiring locations for fellow members of Alabama Plein Air Artists to spend a day drawing or painting in nature, Cosby turned to a vibrant subject she has walked and painted for 45 years. “The nice thing about the Gardens is there is always something blooming here, and for an artist, that means great color,” she says of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. “When you’re doing a painting, a lot of artists look for masses of color, or they look for interesting structures like the torii (gate) at the entrance to the Japanese Garden. I’ve actually, in the past, painted the Lady Banks roses on the big arbor in the Dunn Formal Rose Garden. When they’re blooming, they’re just beautiful.”