Flowers have key role in Palouse Art Walk

Nelson Duran

Fiery hues of yellow, dark rouged veins, fragrances only nature is capable of, velvety blues that put Solomon to shame, scarlet ribbons curling around rockets of white- these characteristics of flowers have not escaped the creativity of Palouse artists.

The kickoff dinner of this year’s annual Palouse Art Walk is a dinner that heavily relies on the delicate flavors of flowers.

And upstairs will be a two-month-long exhibit of Art and Floriad, in which artists will combine natural flowers with artwork.

Art Walk begins July 10, when most downtown Palouse businesses will feature a piece of artwork in their front window or inside.

The first reception will be July 9 at 6 p.m. in the Palouse Grange Hall. The opening reception will be July 10 at 1 p.m. in the Bank Left art gallery.

Reservations for the dinner can be made until July 8; cost is $25 per person. The starting salad will be tossed with pansies and nasturtium, picked fresh.

The main course will be chicken with a flowery twist.

“We’re going to be serving chicken made from a rose sauce- rose infused,” Gallery director Nelson Duran said.

The cake following the meal will also be infused with rose, including caramelized rose petals.

Duran said he is particularly excited about their art and floriad show this year.

A room decorated with the art of flowers can be powerful, he said. In honor of his late mother, he designed a room he felt reflected her life, using flowers as his medium.

He placed a carpet of roses on the floor, moved in a bed, and placed in the room the last letter his mother wrote to him.

“I have the last letter she sent me before she passed away,” he said.

The floriad display will take up five bedrooms on the second floor and has already been reserved by five artists.

“It’s a visual on how art and nature co-exist,” Duran said.

Colfax artist Betty Jo Fitzgerald will be one of the second story artists for the Floriad show. Fitzgerald has done several paintings of single flowers she grew in her garden.

Touching up the intricacies of a flower has been a life-long passion of hers, she said.

“I put them in a vase and painted them on the spot. I got real inspired by the light,” Fitzgerald said.

Not all Fitzgerald’s paintings will be flowers.

In her garden grows a smattering of wildflowers that burst to life every spring.

Evening primroses, sunflowers, California poppies and other wildflowers all grow in her Colfax garden.

“When you paint, they say paint what you’re passionate about. I always go back to the flowers,” she said.

Duran said he’ll leave the entire exhibit up until mid-August, even allowing all the fresh flowers to die and preserving their natural, dried, color.

“You let them go back to the earth. Little by little, they dry up,” he said.