A new art exhibit goes up at the North Carolina Estuarium today — one that will engage young and old viewers alike.

Pat Carlson and Joanne Broderick are the latest eastern North Carolina artists with work to be featured at the Estuarium. For 15 years, Environmental Educator Linda Boyer has been rotating art exhibits in and out of the Washington museum.

Boyer said, for her, the endless exhibit is about showcasing the place, a great fit for the museum that centers around the life abounding in the rivers and their tributaries of eastern North Carolina.

“We focus it on anything east of Highway 95, so we focus it on eastern North Carolina,” Boyer said. “I think I just like the different things that make an impression on the artists in our area. Sometimes it’s wildlife; sometimes, it’s old barns.”

The exhibits vary widely — watercolorists and textiles, photographs and decoys—and Boyer plans out a year’s worth of exhibits in advance, gathering artist new and old. Some contact her and ask if they can do a show. Others, she issues an invitation.  But it means that any visitor to the museum can enjoy scenes of eastern North Carolina through the region’s artists, regardless of whether visitors pay admission to the museum itself.

The current exhibit, “Florals and Foliage and Hidden Friends,” features the quilted artistry of Carlson, and Broderick’s watercolors. According to Boyer, the women asked to exhibit together, as they thought their styles complement one another’s work. Boyer also said it’s the only exhibit that she can recall in which the artists chose works oriented towards engaging visiting children.

“(Carlson and Broderick both) have a sense of humor and they wanted to include hidden critters for the kids, so they can look at the work and find the hidden critters,” Boyer said.

The women — both grandmothers — specifically chose pieces where little creatures can be found within the idyllic eastern North Carolina landscapes created in fabric by Carlson, and in the graceful curvature of local flowers by Broderick.

The exhibit will run throughout the month of August. Estuarium hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.