Floral art a blooming marvel

Changing form: Rhonda Hall and Rae Baxter, of Winton with one of the works created by the 40 people who took part in two floral art seminars in Bannockburn.
Changing form: Rhonda Hall and Rae Baxter, of Winton with one of the works created by the 40 people who took part in two floral art seminars in Bannockburn.
It is important to keep the design simple when creating contemporary floral art designs, Rae Baxter and Rhonda Hall emphasise when they are demonstrating the art form.

The Winton-based women, of Artistic Adventures, are making a name for themselves in the field.
Their two seminars about floral art, held in Bannockburn during the past fortnight, attracted many supporters. ‘‘One of the reasons we actually came here was because of the landscape and the landforms and materials we can access here,'' Mrs Baxter said.

The seminars, based at Bannockburn Hall, included a trip to Bannockburn Inlet to gather natural materials. ‘‘Basically what we do is go to a site and use the materials that are there and create art pieces from what's there.''

Although no Central Otago people attended the seminars, there was a good turnout of local people to a public exhibition of the floral designs.
‘‘The ones that came to the exhibition on Thursday afternoon were quite abuzz with what they saw.
‘‘They were very upbeat about the contemporary nature of the work we concentrate on.
‘‘We are catering for a specific market. Not everybody likes contemporary design - concentrating on one material at a time instead of putting a whole half garden into a vase.''

The majority of the 40 women who attended came from the North Island to the two threeday seminars.

It is not unusual for North Island enthusiasts to pursue the pair - 32 of them and one Australian joined them on a European tour 18 months ago, visiting the studios of floral designers in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

The two intend to have a similar European tour and another workshop somewhere in Otago or Southland within two years.

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