Hosted in 101 Art Gallery was a fun and enjoyable exhibition that was perfectly themed for Mother’s Day. Peter Sheppard curated a delightful collection of floral pieces across a range of media that was open to the public from April 29th – May 10th.

I sneaked in on Saturday, the last day of the show. Smart move because I got to have a little informal chat with Peter, who has been using the space to host exhibitions, since the owner Mark Pereira was killed a few Decembers ago.

The title, he tells me was tongue in cheek, and he was concerned that putting it up during Easter would have been too cliched. I’m glad that he gave into the inherent humour of the show theme and put it up for Mother’s Day.

There was a lovely mix of colour and texture on display. My favourite was Bunty O’Conner’s Floating Rose. There were chubby clay roses that you could purchase by itself or with others to create a bunch that can stand in a vase and never need watering. Or be placed on top an artbook on your coffee table or bookshelf. It was a really intriguing piece I could see finding pride of place in a well-designed home.

Greer Jones Woodham’s Mancuna Bennettii was a set of four paintings of the scarlet vines she designed to appear as through it was winding its way across a trellis. Jones Woodham makes her own frames, and for this series she fits a small square painting within a donuted square frame. Meaning you make decide to mix and match the frames or display them separately as you wish.

Tessa Alexander’s watercolurs were also on display. I featured her Peace Lily at the top of this post. Alexander has been on a journey through her heritage, which she shared in her recent show at the Art Society a few weeks back (a review is coming). Some of that exploration is included in this exhibition via her Phenomenal Woman series.

Other big names in local art who were on show include Beverly Fitzwilliam Harries whose Mango Flowers was a favourite, as were Karen de Verteuil, Randall Fulchan and Margaret Sheppard.