A Delicate Art highlights the paintings and photography of six artists in Alberta who with passion and long moments of observation have made an inspired contribution to wildflower art. Covering a period of one hundred years to the present, the story behind these creators Mary Schäffer Warren, Mary Vaux Walcott, William Copeland McCalla, Annora Brown, Robert Sinclair and Carole Harmon is also told.

A blend of biography, botanical and regional art history and commentary by the artists themselves about their treasured subject, A Delicate Art is intended for the lay reader and is accompanied by sumptuous reproductions of the artwork and an alluring overall design that will appeal to anyone interested in art, mountain-life and gardening.

Mary-Beth Laviolette is an avid hiker and independent art writer and curator based in Canmore, Alberta, who specializes in Albertan and Western Canadian art. She is the author of A Delicate Art: Artists, Wildflowers and Native Plants of the West and An Alberta Art Chronicle: Adventures in Recent & Contemporary Art, 1970–2000, and co-author of Alberta Art & Artists: A Survey. Recent exhibitions she has curated include Reckonings: Michael Cameron & Karen Maiolo (Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff); Pulse: Alberta Society of Artists at 80 Years (Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary) and Alberta Mistresses of the Modern: 1935 to 1975 (Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton). Mary-Beth is also a public speaker and enjoys engaging with the public about art whenever and wherever possible.

Mary-Beth Laviolette's profile page