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"Prayer Rug 1" by Karen S. Davies interpreted by
Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co. |
The Cheltenham Art
Center once again invited our floral artists to their annual Art in Bloom,
Floral Interpretations of Paintings event. The event is a fundraiser benefiting
many of the wonderful programs that take place all year at the art center. Six
of our talented designers took to their workbenches to create their floral
versions of beautiful paintings by local artists.
Stein Your Florist Co. owner/operator and designer Patrick Kelly chose to interpret “Prayer Rug One” by Karen S. Davies. Patrick
chose a heavy stone container as the base of his arrangement and added matching
pebbles to the surface of the pedestal to accent the dark blacks and grays of
the painting. All the flora is dried and preserved, including: millet, hydrangea, Spanish moss, branches,
grasses, berries, seed pods, limonium, and heather. The dried materials have a
wonderful textural look, which complimented the painting’s dimensional
qualities perfectly. The painting’s artist was so impressed with Patrick’s
interpretation that she made a donation and bought the piece herself! She said
she simply couldn’t picture the painting without it!
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"Chaos in Purple/Blue" by Norman Soong interpreted
by Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co. |
Patrick also hosted a live
demonstration during the event, designing his interpretation of “Chaos in
Purple/Blue” by Norman Soong for the attendees. He created a chaotic
purple/blue design of his own with delphinium, agapanthus, statice, and novi
belgi asters, while also picking up on the painting’s flecks of orange with
hypericum berries. The arrangement is seated in a classic cobalt blue vase and
accented by a bit of ming fern. The painting’s artist recorded the entire
design process and the arrangement was awarded to the night’s lucky raffle
winner, who was thrilled to take the floral creation home with her!
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"Avelthorpe" by Dera Kapnek interpreted by
George Emberger of Stein Your Florist Co. |
Stein Your Florist Co. designer
George Emberger chose to interpret “Avelthorpe” by Debra Kapnek. He said was drawn to the
trees in the painting and created a dark forest of his own with white branches
and deep blue delphinium with pops of golden yellow solidego asters and wispy
accents of bear grass. He completed his forest floor with sheet moss and dark
gray river rocks. George was awarded Best in Show for Fun and Fantastic Design
for his interpretation.
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"Love Lies Bleeding" by Gail Fox interpreted by
Jessica Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co. |
Co-operations manager of our
Burlington, NJ location and designer Jessica Kelly chose to interpret “Love Lies Bleeding” by Gail Fox.
Unintimidated by taking on such a large painting (it was more than five feet
wide), Jessica chose a large clear glass cylinder for her design, which she
filled with stones and soil, wanting to display the unseen “underground”
layers. In the center of her arrangement she used red ginger, purple liatris,
and birds of paradise to capture the colors and the height of the painting. At
the base of her design she planted succulents and tropical plants and accented
them with cut tree fern, ming fern and hypericum berries. Jessica’s
interpretation was purchased by one of the attendees.
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"Baggage" by Nicholas Burns interpreted by
Jennifer Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co. |
Jennfer Kelly, Co-operations manager of our Burlington, NJ
location, head of social media and designer, chose to interpret ”Baggage” by
Nicholas Burns. Jennifer wanted to capture painting’s theme baggage, so she
used several vintage suitcases to stack around the design as well as to create
her arrangements in. To capture the flow of the painting she used a bundle of
curly willow, draping foliages like hanging eucalyptus, springeri and Thai
leaves and clusters of raffia. The flowers used are delphinium, solidego,
hydrangea, spray roses, hanging amaranthus, white agapanthus, calla lilies, a
pink antherium, and bird’s nest fern. She accented her bouquet with newspaper,
which was also present in the original painting. Jennifer was awarded Best in
Show for Mixed Media Design.
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"Your Majesty" by Edwina Brennan interpreted by
William Kirk of Stein Your Florist Co. |
Floral designer William Kirk interpreted “Your Majesty” by
Edwina Brennan. William said that the painting reminded him of his own,
sometimes chaotic, way of thinking and he thought the painting suited his
design style perfectly. He choose bright blooms of bells of Ireland, dendrobium
orchids, blue roses, lisianthus, and miniature carnations to pick up on the
painting’s colors and captured the black swirling strokes of the painting with
rings of dried grapevine. The painting’s artist was there to see William’s
interpretation in person and she was touched by his vision.
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"Rhythm" by Gerry Tuten interpreted by
Carl Mishinski of Stein Your Florist Co. |
Our final representation from Stein YourFlorist Co. was created by apprentice designer Carl Mishinski who
interpreted Rhythm by
Gerry Tuten. Carl built a freestanding armature on which to create his design
from Guatemalan river cane. He envisioned the painting as a tropical rainforest
and covered his structure with Thai leaves, hanging eucalyptus, hanging
amaranthus, leather leaf fern, ming fern, blue and black roses, and king
protea. Carl is also a graffiti artist so he called upon those skills to tint
some of his flora to mimic the colors of the painting. His work was one of the
largest pieces at the show and its’ impressive stature created quite the buzz!
Our designers have been invited back
to participate in the CCA’s event once again next spring. Two weeks prior we
will draw for spots to select from the art on display and plan our designs. We
are looking forward to another inspirational affair and we hope you will join
us.
Follow updates for next year's event by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
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"Chaos in Purple/Blue" by Norman Soong interpreted
live by Patrick Kelly of Stein Your Florist Co. |
