The fourth annual Art Blooms exhibit brought flowers and color to Solomons last weekend and, this year, featured a floral design demonstration.
The Calvert Garden Club recruited designers from around the state to create their best floral arrangements for the art show, which ran July 19 through 21 at Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center. Last Saturday, garden club members demonstrated for eight local floral aficionados how to put together one of the designs.
“We want to show people how you can be inspired by a piece of art,” Calvert Garden Club President Joyce Fletcher said during Saturday’s demonstration.
Fletcher, of Huntingtown, and fellow garden club members Mary Smolinski of St. Leonard and Shahla Butler of Huntingtown showed up at Annmarie with buckets of fresh blossoms ready to be joined into a masterpiece that, like the other Art Blooms pieces, was inspired by a work of art in either “Elements in Balance: earth, air, fire, water” or “Text/message: a teen art exhibit,” two exhibits currently displayed at the arts center. They chose to use a mosaic, “Earth Medicine Wheel,” by Lori Goodman, for their inspiration.
“What we want to do today was go over the process of what you see around here,” said Butler.
Even though a group of designers had already created a representation of the same piece, the three ladies said they thought it would be helpful for the audience to see an alternative method.
Smolinski said she and the other garden club members wanted to create a piece to “compare with other interpretations” and show their guests different options they have when making a floral arrangement. The main difference attendees could notice was how Saturday’s creation was a flat adaptation, and the original Art Blooms designers had constructed their interpretation vertically.
The flat approach is a technique known as “pavé,” the club members said.
The piece they worked on Saturday was a much more literal interpretation than the one presented at the art show. The designers adopted the shapes and colors almost directly from the artwork, while continuing to teach their audience about the different approaches they can take when designing.
“It’s not always the colors we pick up on,” said Butler. “Sometimes it’s the shapes, sometimes it’s the feel.”
The garden club members started out with a block of Oasis floral foam as their base and continued to place flowers in the designated pattern.
The arrangement began with the dark leaves of a coleus plant, as the artists worked their way to the center of the piece with a variety of blooms. They enlisted hydrangeas, carnations, coxcombs, thistles, lily grass, eucalyptus leaves and St. John’s Wort buds to complete their interpretation.
Eventually, it was all hands on deck as the club members recruited their audience to help finish the design.
The hands-on approach helped those in attendance understand the process better, as well as enjoy the demonstration more completely, according to visitors who participated in the demonstration.
“It was ambitious when they started,” said Roseanna Vogt of Chesapeake Beach. “It certainly opens your mind to what you can do. It was worth coming down for and seeing how they balance the art and the flowers.”
Many attendees left Saturday’s demonstration saying they felt inspired to complete a floral arrangement of their own.
“We don’t have any restrictions for this, which is why a lot of people like it,” said Butler. “You just get to be creative.”
“This is a wonderful blend of everything I love — art and flowers — so I always show up,” St. Mary’s Garden Club member Karen Doherty said of the Art Blooms exhibit. “It’s a wonderful show this year.”
The Art Blooms weekend is a joint effort between Annmarie and the Calvert Garden Club. Annmarie decides on a theme for the show and puts the word out to local artists, said exhibit co-chair and former Calvert Garden Club president Denise Moroney of Huntingtown. The club finds interested designers and assigns each team or individual a piece of artwork to interpret, she said.
This year’s exhibit was inspired by an array of artwork from “Elements in Balance” and “Text/Message.” The floral interpretations were paired with their corresponding pieces and displayed for the weekend only. The annual corresponding Art Blooms Gala reception was held July 19.
The public is welcome to submit designs for the Art Blooms exhibit. Those interested in participating in the 2014 event should go to www.annmariegarden.org for more information.
Speak Your Mind