The bloom is certainly on the rose. And that was just one of the paintings that fetched a tidy sum on April 26 at the ninth annual edition of Artists in Bloom.

Nearly 200 people assembled in 5B.1 6 to see 22 student-artists in Fine Arts and Illustration and Design create artistic works before a live audience over a two-hour period. Subjects ranged from a lonely boater - the evening’s most popular painting fetching top dollar at $,000 - to flowers and abstracts, and portraits of a baby and a young woman.

All told, $8,454 was raised in sales, door and bar, bringing the total collected by the nine Artists in Bloom events to more than $60,000 for medical charities.

The beneficiary of this year’s event was the Montreal General Hospital’s Special Care Trauma Unit, an inspired choice as it was where most of the students injured on September 3 were treated, and where in many cases, their lives were saved.

Dr. Tarek Razek, who heads the team at the Trauma Unit, attended the event with his family and some of the unit’s staff. He gave a moving speech on how our two communities would be forever bound, as neighbours and institutions serving Montreal, and how humbled he was in the face of the students’ determination to survive.

After the serious part of the evening was concluded, auctioneer Rob Lurie, usually a reporter for CTV News, began the proceedings, urging participants to raise their hands and their bids for a good cause.

Artists in Bloom is an activity of Dawson’s Blue Ring. This dedicated group of students, led by Majenta Whyte Potter-Mäl and coordinated by Carey-Ann Pawsey, worked behind the scenes to make this a successful event. The organizing committee comprised Simon Davies, Giuseppe Di Leo, Mary Di Liello and Lucy Trahan.