Bouquets to Art 2009 – The Upper Galleries Continued

Next year, when I go to Bouquets to Art, someone has to stop me from taking so many photos. I hope you are not growing weary of the same topic, but how could I not honor these great artists? Here comes another installment in my Bouquets to Art miniseries. Today I will complete the upper gallery level which houses art in America up to the 20th century.

Do you remember, back in the 2007 Bouquets to Art, the faboulous use of black satin for Robert Henri's "Lady in Black with Spanish Scarf"? This year, there are more examples of fabric use to reinforce the connection between floral art and painting, like the perfectly draped, rich red robe featured above.

Mary Ann De Moss struck just the right note with the traditional bouquet of hydrangeas and white tulips floating on a cloud of blue tulle.

 

The blue ribbon on the arrangement for Joseph Wright’s portrait of John Coats Browne was just the right touch.

If you hadn’t noticed the cane in this portrait before, you will never forget it now:

I like how this piece mimics the shape of the bonnet without overtly looking like a bonnet:

Church Street Flowers turned in a very clever entry. Not only did they echo the pipe in the painting with a real pipe but they added the pipe-shaped nepenthes pitcher plants and “smoke” from the smoke tree.

 

Speaking of clever, I thought Neil Hunt’s inverse swan silhouette was very clever:

 

And how clever to use the vase to connote the essential form of the John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Caroline de Bassano, Marquise d'Espeuilles:

 

This maypole was positively enchanting:

 

 

Here, David Alexander’s boatload of “clouds” gently float by the Mississippi river:

Like I mentioned in the last post, there were several entries that seemed to apply to more than one work of art. As I recall, this was the intended target.

 

But the silver protea leaves also worked beautifully with these fish.

 

Succulents continue to be wildly popular both in the gardening and floral worlds:

Sometimes all that’s needed are some loosely arranged magnolia and camellia branches, freshly cut from the garden. I can imagine the lady in the portrait completing this arrangement just prior to stepping back inside the painting.

Next time, I will take you back downstairs to see floral creations for the 20^th century contemporary art. For more photos and a sneak peek of what's to come, see my flickr set here.