Washington Winter Show 2023

49 design the Rose Garden. Less well known is her loan of two McEwen body colors on vellum to the Kennedy White House. An associate of artists such as Jim Dine, Cy Twombly, Kenneth Armitage, David Novros, and Ed Ruscha, McEwen is now recognized as one of the most influential of twentieth century artists who worked with botanical subjects. His inspirational work was itself inspired by the work of many of the artists from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that are represented in Bunny Mellon’s library. An exhibit of McEwen’s work will tour America beginning in 2023. Bunny Mellon’s life was imbued with the privilege of time. Nothing was done in a hurry. She devoted time to her many projects, as well as the people in her life. She developed relationships with talented architects, artists, collectors, and designers, and she reveled in the creative moments they shared. Engaging in the processes of artistic creation was just as fulfilling as the result. Bunny Mellon was an agile innovator and restless experimenter. Nothing was permanent, as new items were acquired or as new inspirations and influences emerged, she would modify and adjust. She once said, “A garden is always in state of becoming.’ It was a philosophy and practice that applied to every dimension of her creative life. Fernand Renard (1912–1990), Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, south wall, glass doors opening to the arbor, 1959–60. Diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, 1021/2 x 427/8 inches. Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, Virginia. Photo by Jim Morris.