Is there a greater beauty given to us mere mortals than in the form of nature itself? Think about the Grand Canyon or maybe even the flowers in your own back garden. If being honest, Mother Nature is the only true artist in the universe. Humans attempt perfection where nature does it naturally. Pun intended!
Yet we require, simply must have, artistic avenues to express ourselves to one another or maybe to just to ourselves. Thus, an event that pairs floral designs with paintings is about as close to perfection as an art gallery can get which The Marion Art Center (MAC) proudly boasts during their annual Art In Bloom event, which opened on June 14.
Throughout the exhibit, one finds color matches between the manmade and the nature world, transporting the viewer from the three dimensions we inhabit to the two dimensions artists paint before being casted back to the three dimensions of flowers. As for the fourth dimension, time, well that is suspended when one breathes in the exhibit.
Janet Gendreau and Peter Hussey, whose paintings are in the main galleries until July 6, were the inspiration for local floral artisans. Those participating in this year’s event were Leslie Bernert, Helen DeGroot, Kitsie Howard, Judy Hagan, Bernadette Kelly, Connie Dolan, Karilon Grainger, Michelle Poirier, Suzie Kokkins, Diane Kelley, and Terry Aufranc.
Aufranc’s magnificent piece resting on the piano in the second-floor gallery features a large dried leaf, such as a banana leaf, employed as the vessel to hold strong, upright dried stems in counterpoint to delicate snowflake-like petals. This piece can be viewed in front of Hussey’s painting titled “Three Sisters”.
Also in this gallery is the whimsical, yet bold arrangement created by the team of Kelly and Hagan whose sunflowers, hosta leaves, and wooden stems bearing spotted bird eggs sits on a black and white checked pattern reflective of the Hussey painting “Neighborhood Upgrade”.
Downstairs in the first-floor gallery is the delicate, dream-like piece done by DeGroot that seems to capture the essence of Gendreau’s painting style. A natural combination of berries, mosses, evergreen tips, and lilies in vibrant blue, orange, pink, red, and green are viewed through a thick oblong clear glass vessel. The strength of the vase, with its massive, nearly two-inch solid bottom and quarter inch continuous wall allows the observer to enter the space where water fills the bottom, covering the mosses while the flowers extend, as if reaching towards the light above the rim. You get the sense you’ve entered one of Gendreau’s marshland themes such as “Coquina Beach Path”, “Heather Marsh”, or “Twilight Marsh”.
In striking, shockingly playful companionship to Hussey’s “Screen Door With Lily” is Kelley’s blue paint can and brush floral offering. The paint can is dripping with dried blue paint, nearly the same shade depicted in the painting, repurposed as a flower vase. The unusual vase sports creamy dogwoods, vibrant orange daylilies, dried stems, and various evergreens, supported by a paint ladder. The floral scene includes a paint tray upon which a wide paint brush rests – as if just set down for a moment by a housepainter, until one realizes it is sprouting bright blue flower heads. So joyful and so rich in color!
It is probably cliché to say that the paintings and the flowers are “a feast for the eyes”, but it is the only way to describe the experience. Once again, the “small but mighty” Marion Art Center has proven that size doesn’t matter when it comes to bringing together art in all its many forms and with such celebration.
Visit www.marionartcenter.org to find upcoming events and gallery hours.
By Marilou Newell