Arrange Flowers Like Marc Chagall’s Granddaughter, Master Florist Bella Meyer

When Bella Meyer was a university student in Paris, she would take the night train to the south of France to spend two or three days with her grandfather, Marc Chagall, one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century. She would sit in his studio and watch him paint and he would talk about what he was searching for in his paintings. “Every day it was a new quest for him,” says Bella, who was deeply inspired by her grandfather and now operates the popular floral design studio Fleurs Bella https://www.fleursbella.com/ at 55 East 11^th Street.

Bella was born in Paris with a twin sister; her mother Ida was Marc Chagall’s  daughter. The family moved to Switzerland where Bella’s father was the director of the art museum in Basel.   As a child, she enjoyed visiting her grandfather.  “I had no idea he was famous or known,”  she says. “I listened to every word he said. Being very shy I never asked him any questions.”  She grew to share his love of art and went on to study Medieval art history in Paris and earned a PhD.  Later Bella moved to New York City and worked in costume design and puppet design.

Through all of her work, she was always attracted to colors and making them shine, just as her grandfather had explored the power of color in his luminous paintings throughout his career, prompting Pablo Picasso to famously observe, “When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is.” In New York City, Chagall’s rich, swirling colors are perhaps best viewed in his gigantic murals, which light up the walls of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.

Flowers were often a subject in Marc Chagall’s paintings.  

Bella was introduced to the flower market In New York City when she offered to build a chuppa for friends who were getting married. “I saw the extraordinary colors of the flowers. It was the richest world of colors I had ever seen.  I thought if I really was to understand colors I had to use these beautiful flowers. I was very much wanting to share them.” She started a floral design business and opened her studio shop on East 11^th Street in 2011, working with private and corporate clients, and cultural institutions including BAM, Sotheby’s, the Public Theater and the Jewish Museum. Though right now the business is on hiatus until the fall, Bella is offering in-person and online Zoom classes in floral arranging; email info@fleursbella.come for more information. 

Memories of her grandfather continue to inspire her. “He said, ‘Love is the most important thing,’” recalls Bella. “He always wanted to know if we found love. When he first met my future husband, he looked at me with such joy and said, ‘Now you understand my paintings.’ What my grandfather said day after day in his paintings is that in our existence we have only to love. Follow your passion, follow your love, follow your inspiration. To create and give. That’s what has become very important to me.” 

Read on for some of Bella’s tips for arranging summer flowers:

• Many summer flowers grow very tall because the sun is strong and there is so much light — delphinium, hyacinth, larkspur, snap dragons, sun flowers, big hydrangeas, even daisies.   So in summer, think big!
• It’s important when you cut flowers or buy flowers give them water as soon as you can. If you cut wildflowers or flowers in your garden do it the morning when it is cool. 
• Bring them into a cool place and put them in cool water. Prep each flower. Clean the stems that are going to be in water from any leaves as that creates bacteria in the water very quickly. Condition them by cutting the stems on a diagonal. 
• Prepare whatever vases you are going to use and fill them with cold water.
• Then you start arranging. Start with a structure that will surround the arrangement like branches or stronger grasses. I love using curly willow to create a nest inside the vase to create a grid or base to put the stems in. Or use several stems to crisscross inside the base. Then you build from there. 
• Think about where you will put each flower. Then cut the stem again on the diagonal before placing it in the vase. 
• I like to work with groups of colors. But don’t choose too many colors. Make it simpler than you initially thought. 
• Look at the flower or branch and see where it wants to go. Follow the flow of the flowers. 

The movement and feel will let the blooms shine.