Hybrid art blooms at downtown gallery
Growing into her vocation
Sue Anderson finds expression in bold florals.
“I finally figured out what I wanted to do when I grow up,” says watercolor artist Sue Anderson, who celebrated her 90th birthday in February. “I started painting while in retirement, when I met a woman who painted flowers, and took weekly lessons from her for about five years.”
Anderson, who minored in art in college and later attended workshops at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, evolved into a professional painter and art teacher. She also discovered a fresh outlet to express her lifelong love of plants and flowers, the subjects she most enjoys painting.
In March, she will exhibit her work at Art MoB Studios & Marketplace in Hendersonville, in a show titled A Floral Symphony by Sue Anderson. In collaboration with painter and floral artist Simone Wood, the gallery opened an in-house flower shop in October, the Blue Blossom Floral Apothecary, and subsequently launched an ongoing monthly program, Artists & Blooms.
“This is a brand-new series for 2021,” explains the venue’s owner, Michele Sparks. “With the pandemic, people have been by themselves and feeling disconnected. We thought this would be a good way to bring the community together, and also to challenge artists outside of their creative comfort zone.”
Each month, a different visual artist is featured. Wood interprets selections from those exhibits through floral arrangements, and a wordsmith offers a written interpretation. For this exhibit, Hendersonville writer Dianne Petit will pen a poem, as she did in February for the debut of Artists & Blooms.
“It’s exciting to see the harmony between three different art forms,” Sparks says, “and what each person comes up with based on inspiration from another artist. They converse with one another through their own area of expertise.”
“It really is fun,” Wood adds. “You match wits, so to speak, with what the artist was thinking, while telling a story that is a continuation of their work. I get into this creative zone, another realm of thinking, looking at the artwork and using color, form, texture, and size to create my own work of art.”
To complement one of Anderson’s canvases, “I plan on creating an exaggerated, large mass arrangement in purple tones, with splashes of yellow, in realistic faux florals,” reveals Wood. “However, as the seasons change, I will begin using more natural materials from my garden.”
Art MoB Studios & Marketplace and the Blue Blossom Floral Apothecary, 124 4th Ave. East, downtown Hendersonville. A Floral Symphony by Sue Anderson will be on display during March for free public viewing during Art Mob Studio’s normal business hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11am-5pm; Sunday, 1-4:30pm. For more information, call 828-693-4545 or see artmobstudios.com. (Art Mob is carefully adhering to COVID-19 health and safety protocols, but hopes to eventually expand the interpretative exhibits to include live music and dance.)
