May’s Flowers

Jeanne Reiner’s watercolor Paeonia lactiflora-Peonies Multi, shown in 2017

 

April showers bring May flowers and our April focus on the intersection of art and the environment leads us naturally to artists exploring and portraying the bounty of botanicals. Over our 90+ years of exhibitions at the Greenwich Library, we’ve revisited a few themes regularly, and these lush harbingers of spring are amongst our favorites. Apart from their sheer beauty, they tell stories of international travel and touch on the sustainability of native plant life.

Flowers have bloomed in our still life shows, been portrayed in landscapes, and were featured in flower-specific exhibits that included community participation. 1996’s Art in Bloom, reviewed in the The New York Times and featuring Ning Yeh, was one of several shows we’ve curated which included floral installations created by local garden clubs. Our most recent one in 2017, also titled Art in Bloom, a group show which included Bill Scott and Jeanne Reiner, featured weekly arrangements inspired by individual artworks as did 1991’s All For the Love of Flowers. And the special events for 2010’s Beyond Botanicals included a painting demonstration by local artist-educator Hazel Jarvis. Jarvis was earlier featured in 2006’s In and Out of the Garden.

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