A Good Age: Marshfield artists delight in how their paintings 'bloom'

MARSHFIELD – It was one of the best days Rich Cal said he's had in a long time.

After spending much of the past year in the hospital and rehab, Cal arrived early at the Marshfield Senior Center where one of his paintings from Fred Dolan's art group was included in the annual show "Art in Bloom."

Cal, using a wheelchair, was eager to see how his oil painting of a lighthouse and seagulls, viewed from a distance across the water, had been interpreted by a member of the Seaside Gardeners, a Marshfield garden club.

Gardener Deb Lehman, of Duxbury, chose Cal's painting to interpret with flowers, "because I happen to love the complimentary colors of orange and blue that he used. It also reminded me of Bug Light, and it's a late summer scene."

"I feel blessed," Cal said when he saw how Lehman had used blue bachelor's buttons, yellow dahlias and orange canna lilies with natural grasses to reflect the colors and shapes in his painting.

"She did a wonderful job. It matches perfectly. After being in the hospital so long, I was finally able to come to classes again here with my friends. And now to see this, it really helps."

Cal, who has been painting at the center for 12 years, is a volunteer at the Marshfield Fair, where he will have an artist table in the agricultural building on Friday, Aug. 19.

The annual senior center Art in Bloom show, held last Tuesday and Wednesday, is a popular summer event. It is modeled after the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' annual event, which held its 46th Art in Bloom in April. Plymouth Center for the Arts, local libraries, other art groups and museums have also picked up the idea in recent years with their own "art in bloom" and "books in bloom" events.

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This year, 34 paintings from several art programs at the Marshfield senior center were entered in the show.

The gardeners chose which art works they wanted to interpret. They used flowers and plants from their gardens and natural settings to reflect the colors, shapes, textures and themes they saw in the art work.

The event is also prized for the creative connections it forms between artists and gardeners, as Beth Cook, of Marshfield, found out.

Cook chose to interpret a painting by John Murray of a half dozen artists' brushes in a vase.

"I really like the painting and I thought of things that looked sort of like paint brushes but weren't exact," she said.

"This is a monarda, a bee balm. And these grasses are in flower right now – I have them in my yard." She bought some protea to bring out the burgundy color in the paint brush stems.

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Her goal: to create something "pleasing and similar, but not a replica of the painting. It came together once I started playing with it."

The most rewarding part was "putting the flowers together into a cohesive theme. It is fun to look at the pictures and think how I could do it (with flowers) a little differently."

Murray was so pleased with what Cook did, that he gave her the painting.

Sometimes, both the gardeners and the artists will stand near their entries and listen to the comments of people who come by. "It is very satisfying to me, especially when I hear other people commenting that they see it as I see it," Cook said.

Participating in the show motivates both the artists and an occasional gardener to keep on painting. "I've always wanted to try painting, and now I think I might," Cook said.

Sheila Connors, a past president of Seaside Gardeners, started the event in 2008 with retired volunteer art teacher Marcia Ballou.

This year's show included a tribute to the people of Ukraine, with several paintings of sunflowers, "In Support of Ukraine Sunflowers." Gardener Jean Leahy brought in this year's bountiful sunflowers from her yard "to honor the people of Ukraine."

Carol Hamilton, director of the senior center, said she and her staff work hard to encourage new activities.

The senior center has many choices for art instruction and fellowship: a Tuesday art studio led by Joan Herman, a Friday drop-in watercolor class with Gail Loik and Betty Rogers, Fred Dolan's drop-in Imagination in Painting on Tuesday and Free and Easy Painting on Friday and Learn to Draw with Tess Webber on Thursday. This fall, Jeanne Broulette will also offer Watercolor Basics for Beginners.

For more information, call 781-834-5581, drop by the center at 230 Webster St. or visit the senior center website.

Contact Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com. 

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Marshfield artists thrilled to see how gardeners make paintings bloom