Arts in Bloom complements CAC's Easels in the Garden

Chowan Arts Council Director Meredith Timberlake wanted an art display to complement the Cupola House’s Easels in the Gardens festival, which was held the weekend of April 26-27.

Her solution was simple and effective: Arts in Bloom.

Arts in Bloom is a series of flower arrangements by local artists and art patrons designed to complement specific paintings that hang on the Arts Council gallery’s walls.

“We did this at the same time Easels in the Gardens was going on to promote the art on our walls and the art of floral arrangement,” Timberlake said. “All the pieces done by the arrangers are under or next to the painting they chose.”

The floral arrangers came in weeks ago, Timberlake said.

“Each took a picture of the piece that inspired them,” she said. “The premise of the floral arrangement is to reflect the actual piece of art,” pointing out a miniature acrylic painting of a young woman playing the cello.

The floral arranger, Vonna O’Neill, “was inspired to do her arrangement in an old violin case, using cattails as the violin’s bow,” Timberlake said. “She used sheets of music as well.”

Some of the arrangements used more traditional floral designs that picked up the colors and texture of the paintings, while others were more whimsical.

One painting in the gallery features an image of a Monopoly game board. Under it, an arrangement features flowers pasted to a Monopoly board, with “money” from the game dangling from the arrangement.

“The reactions to the flowers were amazing,” Timberlake said, adding that the floral arrangements are not the only nod the arts council is making to Easels in the Garden. An interpretive dance troupe, sponsored by the CAC, was scheduled to perform in Edenton’s Waterfront Park on Saturday.