"Garden Fantasy," an art exhibit of various media, is on display through June 28 in the Center Gallery at the Sautee Nacoochee Center.

Kathy Blandin, executive director of the Sautee Nacoochee Community Association, said local watercolorists Carol Cutts, Madeline Epp and Becky Threlkeld are featured in the exhibit, along with mixed media artist Ann Thompson and several other SNCA artists.

"Every year the gallery committee sits down and they rotate the shows eight times a year," Blandin said. "They're looking seasonally, and certainly, you know, (in) spring, everybody kind of turns to the garden. And they know a lot of their artists really focus on landscape work, which really fits into the theme."

Each artist had a different view of the "Garden Fantasy" theme. "For featured artists, really we ask them to create work specifically with the theme in mind," Blandin said.

The artists created bright paintings blooming with flowers - some in the garden, some as part of still lifes and others that focus close up on the shapes of individual blooms.

"We're not necessarily talking realism, although some of the pieces are," Blandin said.

"Becky has a piece of work called ‘We're Back,' which is very realistic, but then Carol's got a piece called ‘Big Pink,' which is a real close up of a flower," she said.

The center requires that exhibiting artists live within a 50-mile radius, Blandin said, so all the artists featured are local.

The next exhibit at the center will be "World Around Us - Slice of Life," which will feature wood turners and "pyrographers," or artists who use wood-burning tools to create their work. The show will be on display July 3 through Aug. 9, with a reception 6:30-8 p.m. July 11.