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Full flowering of floral art

The talent of floral designers is put to work creating complements to the traditional works at the Museum of Fine Arts.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published March 13, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Add floral designers to the artists whose work is on display this week at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Art in Bloom, where flower arrangements interpret paintings and sculptures on exhibit at the museum, opens to the public today. The event has become so popular a draw that the museum has extended hours on Monday, traditionally a day when it is closed to the public.

Think Tournament of Roses without the parade floats.

Several arrangements are homages to the work of Impressionist painter Claude Monet. A dozen of his paintings are the linchpin of the current blockbuster exhibition, "Monet's London: Artists' Reflections on the Thames, 1859-1914," which has sent thousands of visitors teeming into the museum.

Cassie Osterloth's "Seasons Over the Thames" uses four large pedestal urns on footers and a myriad of blooms in a 14-foot-long representation of London's arched Waterloo Bridge. The structure is the subject of four Monet canvases in the museum's current showing. Delphinium blossoms in varying shades of blue form the river beneath.

Security requirements forbid floral installations in the areas where the works in "Monet's London" are on display; Osterloth's creation decorates the museum's Great Hall, the entryway to all of the galleries.

The flowers in each urn represent the four seasons, just as Monet's works feature similar views seen at varying times of day and year.

Osterloth, a floral designer who also is operations manager at St. Petersburg's two Carter's Florist and Greenhouses stores, guessed she used more than $600 worth of flowers to create the arrangements, and that's at wholesale prices.

They incorporate birch, quince, forsythia and cherry branches and a rainbow of roses, stock, Fuji chrysanthemums, button poms, alstromeria, baronia and caspia.

The floral River Thames began with 15 bunches - 150 stems - of delphinium.

"It's a lot of flowers," Osterloth said. "From an artist's perspective, it's fun."

Art in Bloom began in 1997, inspired by similar celebrations at other art institutions throughout the United States. Mary B. Perry, who chaired the inaugural event, modeled it after the annual event at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

"With my love of art, and being a flower arranger myself, I wanted to bring the two together," she said. "The main goal was to bring people into the museum who had never been into the museum before and say to the public that flower arranging is a form of art."

Bruce Wilson and Wil Simoneau from the Flower Centre of St. Petersburg, for example, assembled a lavish mixed floral arrangement in a black urn to reflect a similar bouquet portrayed in a 17th century Dutch painting.

Simoneau, who is one of the store's owners, and Wilson, its manager, used lilies, gerbera daisies, agapanthus, snapdragons and French tulips in their tribute.

The museum and its Stuart Society are co-sponsors of Art in Bloom, which runs through Wednesday.

WHEN: Through Wednesday WHERE: Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg

TODAY: Museum open 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

MONDAY: Museum open 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

TUESDAY: Museum open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tea in the Garden: 3-4 p.m. Homemade pastries, sandwiches and tea in the Membership Garden, $5 in addition to museum admission; reservations requested.

WEDNESDAY: Museum open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Spring Marketplace: 1-4 p.m. Local vendors offer handmade and other items including plants. Informal modeling by Stein Mart. Light refreshments. $10.

ADMISSION: Adults, $12; seniors 65 and older, $10; college students with current ID, $10; youth (ages 7-18), $5; children (ages 6 and younger), free.

INFORMATION: 896-2667; www.fine-arts.org

[Last modified March 13, 2005, 00:22:15]