SOGETSU ANNUAL EXHIBITION

 

Hello all,

Our Sogetsu group held our annual exhibition last weekend at the Abbotsford Convent, in the Linen Room. As this was a generous space, we were offered the choice of making a second arrangement each.There were about 45 arrangements of various sizes. Some members had borrowed a container from amongst the number that had been donated to the chapter by the family of Sherry Glasser, a member who has recently passed away. I'm sure Christopher will upload the arrangements into our website in due course. 

In the mean time, I thought, the exhibition warranted its own blog post, featuring the arrangements made by my some of students and myself. The photographs were taken by our own Lei Wang, who is studying photography, so they are of a much better quality than I would have taken.

The photograph, above, is of the arrangement made by me. At 3.5 metres long, perhaps it qualifies as an 'installation'. The long, twisted piece of wisteria is from my garden and had been earmarked for some time for a future exhibition. Finally the time came to cut it. I used corderlines, viburnum opulus flowers, green goddess lilies and arum lilies in a large urn of indeterminate material. The colour scheme was mostly green with a little bit of white.

My second arrangement ended up much larger than I had intended. I used fresh, green bamboo to create a cube, which I tipped on its side and then added strips of split bamboo in a fan shape to the front and back. The strelitzia flowers added to the illusion of a bird cage.

Lucy, also, made a very large arrangement or installation. Her main structure was a lucky find by the side of the road but it took Lucy's creativity to see its potential. She placed palm leaves, stripped in half along the length of the 'ball', then added gymea leaves and green goddess lilies on the inside.

Lucy's second arrangement was also made with material she found by the roadside. It's a long, metal, copper coloured strip, which she cut and curved to create swirling movement. The cymbidium orchid finished it beautifully.

Jenny used one of Sherry's baskets. She kept the arrangement simple so as not to detract from the intricate weaving of the basket. She used a type of blood lily (haemanthus) and arum italicum leaves.

Her second arrangement was on the theme 'Colours in the Same Tonal Range'. She used yellow stemmed dogwood (Cornus sericea flaviramea) and yellow clivia in a yellow and white, ceramic vase.

Vicky, also, borrowed one of Sherry's, ceramic containers and used a twisted wisteria branch, tulips and flag iris.

For her second arrangement, she used her own tall vase with a piece of dried wood, strelitzias and singapore orchids.

Cym used two very different, red containers and a wooden structure she had created at our last Masterclass. She added Japanese maple and strelitzias.

Lei's arrangement featured a dry palm spathe into which she had brushed gold paint. She added arum italicum leaves and anthuriums in a ceramic container.

Mary used a glass container, into which she scrunched cellophane and added one New Zealand a flax leaf and some cumquats.

Bye for now,

Emily