Art in Bloom

We're coming off an exciting weekend after having participated in the Milwaukee Art Museum's 4th annual Art in Bloom exhibition. For those that aren't familiar with the concept, the museum selects 41 pieces from the permanent collection that will be paired with botanical interpretations by the area's top floral designers. On a sunny day back in January all of the designers gathered together to come to terms with their destiny - aka the lottery drawing. We were very fortunate to draw a wonderful abstract, "Breath" by Gerhard Richter.

This is an enormous work that was created using a very interesting technique. Richter layererd many different deep hues of paint then covered the entire piece with plastic wrap. By pulling off the wrap, the various shades are revealed and a beautiful texture is formed. It is very impressive to behold and we knew we had to do it justice!

Our process started with selecting the colors we'd pull out from the painting, which were cobalt, fuchsia, yellow, some midtone greys and white. Then we decided which flowers would represent these shades and shapes that we'd require. The signature elements we chose were blue delphinium for its color and vertical shape, heather for the mass of raspberry and yellow callas for their color and ability of the stems to be manipulated as needed.

We went round and round on white choices - agapanthus? stock? - then it hit us. Birch! If you look at the vertical lines in the painting, especially along the sides, it resembles birch. With all our elements in place, we started composing.

And, voila, introducing, "Hush".

We love this event because of the artistic challenge it poses, the camaraderie we enjoy with fellow designers and the interaction we have with the visitors. The icing on the cake is that it is judged by floral design professionals on the first day of the event and daily by the crowd attending. We were pleasantly surprised to see the first day that we had received honorable mention from the judges...

...and First Place from the people who visited the last day of the event. Yippee!

While I was walking through the museum looking at all of the gorgeous designs, I decided to go and visit last year's painting, "It Was Red and Pink" by Georgia O'Keeffe.

As I was looking at it, three women walked through the gallery area and were talking about the green piece that was there the previous year, describing it in great detail, saying how "stunning" it was. I had to smile to myself and not say a word. :)

These photos were taken for me by my photographer friend, Molly, from M3 Studio.