Art Treatise: Paint by Flowers

Flowers and foliage inspired the Dutch Masters and French Impressionists create enduring still lifes with paint and brush or palette knife. The classic masterpieces influenced teams of florists and floral designers to recreate the famous paintings with fresh foliage and flowers.

Jan Frans van Dael’s Vase of Flowers Grapes and Peaches

By Julia’s Florist

The painting inspired the use of heavy rich beautiful flowers. The designer focused on several elements. The first element was recreating the pops of light throughout the arrangement. Magnolia and Italian ruscus leaves allowed light to dance on their shiny surface. She incorporated the whimsical twisting and turning of stems which played out well with the use of tulips. Then the designer recreated the rich jewel tones bringing in a dramatic almost heavy feel to the piece by incorporating the thick garden roses and large faced hydrangea. — Dana Cook

Flowers

Italian ruscus parrot tulips garden roses blue iris hydrangea delphinium larkspur magnolia Queen Anne s lace dendrobium orchids purple dahlias.

Designer

Nancy Oravetz

Vincent van Gogh’s Roses

By Fiore Fine Flowers

I m always intrigued by van Gogh s work. I was inspired by the color scheme and the rough asymmetrical shape of the arrangement.  I saw a lot of possibilities in the white clustered blooms and thought it would lend itself to a variety of materials and flowers. — Chelsea Fritts

Flowers

Phaelanopsis orchids hydrangea scabiosa cotton sticks/branches bay laurel and seeded eucalyptus.

Designer

Chelsea Fritts

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Bouquet of Spring Flowers

By Verzaal’s Florist

The Renoir I chose touched my heart from the beginning. I ve always loved that particular work of art and was so excited to create my inspiration from it.

It speaks to me of old Wilmington. Forest Hills  older homes camellias azaleas antique furniture and wrought iron gates. Alan Perry was kind enough to loan the swan ginger jar for this project. — Robin Cox

Flowers

Camellias peonies roses dahlias hydrangeas and magnolia greens.

Designers

Robin Cox and Christina Cooke

Henri Matisse’s Bouquet of Flowers in a White Vase

By Julia’s Florist

Drawn to Matisse s work the designer found the bright and cheerful color theme smile inducing. The playful feel of the painting made her happy. She chose a variety of greens to recreate the dramatic highlights and lowlights Matisse painted. The addition of cockscomb gave the arrangement the strong red flower cluster look but allowed the design to maintain its free flowing airy composition. She chose circus roses that contributed an infusion of both the yellow and red working together in the same flower.  — Dana Cook

Flowers

Circus roses cockscomb dusty miller tulips sword fern spring rye fern red alstroemeria yellow spray roses.

Designer

Marita Eriksson