Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Sept. 24-Nov. 23, 2025

The Reedy Gallery at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope

Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Stillness in Bloom invites visitors to experience the balance between silence and vitality through an immersive collection of artworks exclusively for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum by Rowan and Bly Pope. The Pope Brothers use various mediums including pencil, charcoal and paint to explore themes of growth, pause, quiet beauty, the sublime and nature's majesty.

From blooms frozen in time to vast wilderness, the Pope Brothers' works beg you to take time and focus or risk missing out on the rich potential found in each art piece. The exhibition speaks to the power of stillness in our fast-paced world and offers opportunities to connect more deeply to our natural surroundings.

Wendy DePaolis, Art Curator

Welcome, art lovers, to a fascinating journey into the world of Rowan and Bly Pope’s artistic creations.

This exhibition celebrates the extraordinary skill and patience of twin brother artists who capture the world with astonishing precision, using charcoal, paint, pencil, pastel and conte crayon. Each piece you see is a meticulous, breathtaking interpretation of our natural world - rendered by hand.

The artists don’t just mimic what they see; they interpret it, bringing their own unique vision to the canvas or paper, revealing the delicate textures and astonishing complexities of subjects often overlooked.

As you explore, we invite you to slow down and feel a sense of wonder and curiosity in the abiding connection to nature expressed through these works.

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Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Rowan Pope

Rowan Pope is a professional studio artist whose work explores the human condition by telling visual narratives. Many of his drawings and paintings are inspired by great stories from literature, particularly the dark and brilliant work of Franz Kafka. Rowan also draws and paints landscapes and botanicals, which celebrate the vast beauty and quiet peace of nature, and humanity’s humble place within it. The botanicals in this show are meant to inspire viewers to discover the “extraordinary within the ordinary,” to witness boundless and miraculous worlds “in a grain of sand,” as William Blake described, and to explore in wonder the profound and exquisite universes in even the smallest of things. Rowan has worked extensively with genocide and Holocaust survivors, and some of his art derives from the devastating real-life stories told by those survivors. He works in an imaginative style of hyperrealism in which he integrates photographs into digital collages and transforms those collages into meticulous drawings.

Rowan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University and received his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota where he has been an Adjunct Professor for 12 years. He has also taught design and color theory classes for 10 years at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where he received a Faculty Development Grant to travel to Prague, Czech Republic, to research the life of Franz Kafka. In 2013 he created an illustrated book based on the stories of Holocaust survivor Joe Grosnacht, for which he received a Major Arts Grant from Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Council. His artwork has been shown in many national and international exhibitions and has won numerous awards. Many private collectors have acquired his work, including Erwin and Miriam Kelen and Ralph and Peggy Burnet, and his public collections include The Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center.

Bly Pope

Bly Pope is a professional studio artist with a continuing interest in hyperrealism and traditional fine arts. He graduated from Stanford University and received his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota, where he has been an Adjunct Professor for over 15 years, teaching classes in Drawing, Graphic Novel Illustration, and Artistic Interpretation from Vintage Cinema. He has also taught at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design for 10 years, in Foundation: 2D, and The Interactive Visual Novel. His work has been shown and awarded in numerous exhibitions, and has been purchased by The Cafesjian Museum of Fine Art in Armenia and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. His drawing, “Maryanna,” was selected to be a part of the National Portrait Competition Exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery throughout 2013-2014 and was purchased by the Minneapolis Institute of Art for their permanent collection in 2017. His drawing of the Minnesota poet, Robert Bly, was acquired by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2025. His work has been collected by many private collectors, including: David Lévy & Associates (Brussels), James Faber (London), Elena Sparling, Rachel McGarry, Jennifer Phelps, Zeno Wicks, Teo Nguyen, Robert and Ruth Bly, Meg and Wayne Gisslen, Jaime and Kyle Gearhart, Nancy and Jim Fawcett, and others.

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Lilies After the Rain

35 x 29 pastel

$4,400

6 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

36 x 29 pastel

$4,200

8 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope

Red Rose in Bloom

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

40 x 32 pastel

$4,400

Rowan Pope Pink Roses in Sunlight

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

32 x 38 charcoal

$4,800

12 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope

Bright Rose

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

7 x 10 pencil

$1,800

14 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope

California Cone Flowers

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Prairie

14 x 9 pencil

$1,500

16 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope

Storm

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Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Wisconsin Storm Breaking 12 x 10 pencil

$1,800

18 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

Grapes on the Vine 15 x 10 pencil

$2,500

20 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope

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Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

24 x 19 conté crayon

$800

22 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope Wild Tree

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

9 x 6 pencil

$1,200

24 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Rowan Pope Garden

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

Three Trees

11 x 14 etching

$1,600

Rowan Pope

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

30 x 40 charcoal

$3,700

Bly Pope Anemones

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

$3,900

Bly Pope

Apple Blossoms

30 x 40 charcoal

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

30 x 40 charcoal

$3,400

Bly Pope

Japanese Snow Flowers

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

Roses in Morning Light

30 x 40 charcoal

$4,400

Bly Pope

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

60 x 48 oil

$2,300

Bly Pope

Flower Silhouette 1

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

60 x 48 oil

$2,400

Bly Pope

Flower Silhouette 2

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

60 x 48 oil

$2,400

Bly Pope

Flower Silhouette 3

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

60 x 48 oil

$2,400

Bly Pope

Flower Silhouette 4

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Cascading Begonias

40 x 32 pastel

$3,900

Bly Pope

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

40 x 32 pastel

$3,800

Bly Pope

Pink Garden Roses

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

$4,800

48 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Bly Pope Rose with Dew 40 x 32 pastel

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

40 x 32 pastel

$4,900

50 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Bly Pope

Red Roses in the Leaves

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape

Bly Pope

Southwest Sky 18 x 21 charcoal

$2,400

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

Patch of Earth

60 x 60 pencil

$18,000

Bly Pope

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

Bly Pope and Rowan Pope

Sunlight Through Clouds

32 x 40 charcoal

$4,800

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

San Francisco Waves

30 x 40 charcoal

$7,200

58 — TO PURCHASE visit the Arboretum Membership Desk or call 612-301-1257

Bly Pope and Rowan Pope

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape —

Bly Pope and Rowan Pope

Rose with Raindrops

30 x 40 charcoal

$4,800

Rowan Pope and Bly Pope | Stillness in Bloom: Botanicals and Landscape