Harry P. Leu Gardens
1920 N. Forest Ave.
Orlando, FL 32803-1537
407-246-2620
Directions

Current Exhibit

“Reflective Nature”

Classic and contemporary images rendered from mirror, by Karen van Beest

November 6, 2007 – January 8, 2008

“The technique of my artwork started as an experiment. I wanted to give the illusion that this rigid and inflexible substance of glass was bending, curvilinear and flowing as in the bends and curves of nature. Mirror also has light qualities; I used exposed mirror to depict natural and unnatural light.” - Karen van Beest

In the past few years Karen has been busy showing her reliefs of hand-cut, painted glass throughout Florida, as well as in Virginia and New York. Honors include an Award of Distinction at the 30x30 Compact Juried Show held at the Maitland Art Center in September, 2005; a Merit Award in December, 2005 at the Palm Harbor Fine Arts Festival; and a third place award at the Mount Dora Center for the Arts during a juried show in February, 2006. In both 2004 and 2005 Karen was invited to participate in Walt Disney World’s Flower & Garden Festival, held in Epcot. This artist has contributed a number of her works to different fund-raising events such as the American Cancer Society, Green up Orlando, Crealde School of Art, and Habitat for Humanity.

Karen van Beest holds a Bachelor’s degree in art from the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

“Floral Flow”

Painted Botanicals on Silk by Jamie Kirkell

Dates: January 9, 2008 – April 14, 2008

“The nice thing about silk is the flow”- Jamie Kirkell

Jamie Kirkell’s large silk floral paintings bring a freshness and lightness to the exploration of both the orchid and the iris. His paintings are a direct result of his time spent in Java Indonesia where he studied batik and textile design under Master Batik Artist, Bambang Oetoro at the Batik Research Institute of Indonesia. While in the United States Peace Corps, he spent time in the Philippines and Southeast Asia furthering his interest in orchid collecting and floral design. Kirkell’s studies have also taken him to Ohio State University and the Art Students League of New York.

Kirkell’s works embody the spirit of botanical art, showing the complete and accurate depiction of flower leaf and stem. His technique and interpretive modes reflect the integration of classical and modern influences, characteristic in contemporary botanical painting.

Jamie Kirkell has exhibited his works across the U.S. including galleries and botanic gardens in New York City, San Diego, Miami, and Cleveland. Internationally his works have been exhibited in Israel and Aruba. Kirkell’s pieces are also in the collections at the Chrysler Building in New York, the Aish Hatorah Library in Jerusalem, Devi Sri Hotels in Aruba and the Turnberry Isla Resort in Miami.

Permanent Collections at Leu Gardens

Otfinoski Sculpture

for new Home Demonstration Gardens

With the financial support from the Friends of Leu Gardens, Inc., seven metal sculptures were commissioned for the Leu Gardens’ Home Demonstration Gardens. Leu Gardens’ Director Robert Bowden discovered Peter Otfinoski and his pioneering and innovative work at the Maitland Art Festival in 1999. The City of Orlando’s Public Art Coordinator Frank Holt and Mr. Bowden visited Mr. Otfinoski’s studio in West Palm Beach to see more of his handiwork.

Months later, seven imaginative, whimsical pieces were specially made for Leu Gardens, representing the imaginative spirit and creative environment realized in the ten new idea gardens. The Otfinoski collection will be the first of many Florida artist-rendered, contemporary sculptures to be placed within the fifty-acre botanical garden over the next several years. “In this contemplative setting, in the heart of downtown,” remarked Robert Bowden “the insertion of sculpture in various media confirms the artistic marriage of landscape design and sculpture as art forms. Both have their own definition of color, form and texture and when placed together within the context of a large garden ‘room,’ the individual characteristics of each enhance the other.”

“Leu Gardens by design,” continued the Director, “has a quiet, understated ambiance reminiscent of a Central Florida of years ago. The placement of modern pieces in the more casual theme of the landscape will certainly enrich our guest’s experience. We are most pleased to add Mr. Otfinoski’s inspired sculptures to our collection.”

Mulford B Foster

Eight Paintings:

Acreage, Cycadaceae, Orchidacae,

Polypodiceae, Palmae, Cactaceae, Pencil Cactus,

and Mexican Landscape

Oil on Canvas

Mulford B Foster moved to Florida from New Jersey in the early 1920’s to work as a landscape architect; he soon formed his own business Tropical Arts Nursery.

A self trained naturalist he traveled throughout Mexico, discovering 200 new species of bromeliads in addition to species of amaryllis, cacti, palms and peperomia. His discoveries include Aechmea fosteriana (bearing his name) and Aechmea orlandiana, named after the city of Orlando.

Mulford Foster

Aracae (Ariod Family)

1992

Oil on canvas

Gift of the Foster Estate

Mr. Foster introduced the Tabeuia tree to Orlando and their large yellow blooms can be seen blossoming around many Orlando city lakes. He was awarded the Herbert Medal in 1951 for his work in promoting amaryllids.

He published articles in National Geographic, The Smithsonian Annual Report, and The Journal of the Bromeliad Society. He published a book with his wife Racine, on their plant collecting travels to Brazil. He was the leading figure of the formation of the Bromeliad Society in 1948. He served as its president for twelve years and edited its bi-monthly bulletin. He died at the age of 89 as the "father of Bromeliads" and a world-renowned horticulturalist.

Mulford Foster

Cactaceae (Cactus Family)

1992

Oil on canvas

Gift of the Foster Estate

These abstract works of M.B. Foster earned him the name "passionate plant philosopher" and have been on display at the Maitland Art Center, and shows in New York and Pennsylvania before finding its permanent home at Harry P. Leu Gardens. The Foster Estate presented the paintings as a gift to the City of Orlando in 1992.

Frank Farmer

Flowers For Janette

Enamel and Aluminum

Rose Room

Flowers For Janette is a six-foot buy ten-foot piece by artist Frank Farmer in 1995. Frank Farmer’s pieces are well known in Miami, Philadelphia and New York. Created by painting enamel flowers on aluminum, this piece resembles an impressionistic rendering of flower groupings, yet the colors are strong and bold.

Frank Farmer was quoted as saying he is "so happy to have the painting in such a splendid location- the room, the building and the garden. I hope visitors will enjoy it …and that the painting will become not only a focal point but, part of the fabric of a pleasant and civilized setting.

Claire Garret

Dreaming Trees IV

Ficus benjamina and mixed media

Claire Garret graduated form Cornell University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts In Boston. Her three dimensional pieces have been described recreations of sculptural forms as they once related to nature.

Garrets primary medium is the aerial roots from the Ficus benjamina, a tree indigenous to Florida. She also uses other natural mixed media. Her uses of natural fibers cause us to examine their relationship to the manufactured space the piece is being shown in. Not only concerned in the relationships the piece conjures, Garret also focuses with the emotional or spiritual resonance of nature. Dreaming Trees was purchased by the City of Orlando for Harry P. Leu Gardens in 1992

Garry Mealor

Palm Halves

Watercolor

Palm Halves was purchased by the city in 1992 from Gary Mealor. It is a representational image of the well-known Florida Palm. Mealor is a water-colorist from Tampa. In the past twenty years he has been selected in numerous juried exhibitions, winning awards in over half.

He has received commissions for two sets of limited prints, one of 90 and the other of 50. Some recipients of the prints are Sears, Abbot Laboratories and GTE. His work can be seen in the permanent collection of Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, WI and the Tampa Public Art Collection. He is a transparent watercolorist so he does not use white or opaque color in his palette. He uses sable as well as airbrush in his application of transparent wash.

Richard Carner

Evidence of Organsity

Wooden Vessel

Carner became interested in art and the development of craft related skills while pursuing his Ph. D. in Counselor Education from the University of Florida.

Carner moved to North Carolina in 1978 and established a cabinet making business that specialized in restoration, where he first began working with lathe wood. In 1987, his work in the Mental Health community brought him to St. Augustine where for the past several years he has been perfecting his technical skills. Working with logs that can initially weigh 800 pounds he transforms them into wooden vessels with walls sometimes less than a ¼ inch thick.

Carner likens this transformation from log to form to a "chrysalis". He "cherishes the moments in which his clarity of vision is successfully translated into concrete action."

Bill Rollo

Camellias

Watercolor

John Catterall, Grove Diptych

Chrissie Mervine, Tree of Life

Mosaic

Sarah Owens, Cillia-Pod

Stoneware

Why are we given a mouth if we are not to taste? Why are we blessed with skin if we were not to feel? If we are to enjoy anything out of life, it should begin with a celebration of the sensual.

These forms began with nothing but the intentions of showing the sensuality of the clay body in its raw honesty. This included incorporating elements such as the stoneware's rough texture, the naturally deep warm-orange color, and the way the clay lends itself to twisting, turning, bulging, and curving. The appreciation for these elements is directly related to my own experience with nature and a desire to appeal to our truest, uninhibited state of being.