Hot House, an exhibit of botanicals celebrating the abundance of spring, opens April 5th at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts. A reception for the artists will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited.
“Flora 24” – Stacy Frank
This exhibit is a euphoric visual landscape of flora and fauna, featuring a range of media—works strong in color, eccentric in design, and loaded with enthralling details. Media used to create botanical paintings include watercolor, colored pencil, pen and ink, oil, and graphite. Botanical art is a centuries old art form that has a long and colorful history dating back to the 1400s BCE. With the advent of photography, botanical art was dormant for nearly a century but saw a rebirth in the latter part of the 1900s.
Artists include Kamille Corry, Stacy Frank, Frank Galuszka, Ken Hale, Andrea Johnson, Nancy Lawton, Claire Lerner, Susan Manchester, Stephanie Martin, Michel Medinger, and others.
“Fall Chrysanthemum” – Stephanie Martin
A marriage of art and science, botanical art immortalizes the plant world. After closely observing a plant, the artist discovers amazing details. The subject is carefully measured, drawn, and painted to capture its graceful movement and intriguing personality.
“Floral 21” – Claire Lerner
The most skilled botanical artists are those who understand plants scientifically, but also see and describe their subject with the eye and hand of an artist. Artists for the current exhibit also see botanicals through the lens of expressionism.
While plant paintings can be delicate and painstakingly exact and larger landscape canvases boldly imaginative, both are evidence of an extraordinary life in which sensuous love and religious conviction intertwine with scientific discovery.
Hot House: An Exhibit of Botanicals can be seen through May 4th during regular gallery hours: Wednesday through Friday from 11 to 4 p.m., Saturday noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment.
Pictured above: “Cascade” – Kenneth Hale
