Artist in Bloom

Flowers are blooming in the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, where Mary Michel is the current artist of choice. Poppies--of the Matilija, Iceland and other varieties--appear in paintings blithely stuffed with color, either seeping or interlocking. Like the flowers themselves, the paintings blend delicacy and strength. The compositions are big and bold, with details as ethereal as the petals they portray.

Welcome to the unpretentious and deceptively light-hearted domain of Michel, the subject of this genial exhibition. She has a rightful place in this venue, relative to the twin poles of history and art. Michel has been an integral part of the local art community over the past 40-plus years, having landed in town with her husband, Don, and family in 1954. She had an impact on artists in town, too, as a teacher at Ventura College for more than 20 years.

Michel makes the comment, in the small catalog accompanying the show, that she has focused on painting flowers “because they’re readily available,” and that idea isn’t a disingenuous one. Some look askance at floral subjects in painting as the domain of artists concerned more with pretty pictures than with the investigative aspect of making art.

But the bad rap is a generality in need of redress. Flowers are natural miracles, which can be, for attentive artists, sources of wonder and paradigms of structure, aspects inherent in Michel’s approach. She creates large acrylic paintings in which the interplay of form and color is as important as the vegetation before us, particularly when she deals with the almost surreal and translucent qualities of poppies.

In the back hallway, other plant forms, such as “Water Lilies,” have their day. Orchids, those naturally bizarre specimens, are fair game for Michel’s eye, as well.

Also in the gallery and the hallway are examples of her serigraph work, of less interest than the paintings, but projecting a similar warmth and simplicity. Variations on the theme of Madonna and Child, and a multicultural selection of “Mother and Child” images have been used for greeting cards. Her printmaking technique employs interweaving of color in resourceful and sometimes poetic ways, an approach similar to her painting.

But the painting and the poppies are clearly the main event here. The most striking piece in the show is titled simply “Poppies,” in which the artist’s perspective is one literally buried within a plant, as in a macro-close-up view. She burrows into a flowery realm, where deep reds bleed into orange and lines grow indistinct, but never become vague.

This painting defines the artist at her best--making images that are pretty, but hardly frivolous.

* “The Art of Mary Michel,” through Feb. 14 at Ventura County Museum of History and Art, 100 E. Main St. in Ventura. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tue.-Sun; 653-0323.