|
|
|
Leaf and Bark and Limb and Bough - Landscapes of Jerry Cutler
Gallery: "Everglades, 2004‑2009"
|
While on sabbatical in 2003-04 I held an Artist Residency Fellowship at the Everglades National Park. Since then I have gone back to the ENP to find more material, make more sketches, and study this unique and endangered wilderness. Back in Gainesville these sketches provide the material to make the paintings you see in this section.
Wild and difficult, the strange and the beautiful abound in the park. Open, flat, and soggy savannah, characterizes the vast majority of the ENP acreage, but I've spent my time exploring the pine ridges, tree islands, cypress domes, and mangrove forests. I am a tree painter so what I look for in the ENP is the trees.
They can be curiosities. What the trees lack in romance (think Giant Redwoods) they make up for in strangeness. The Red Mangrove and the Strangler Fig may represent some of the most off-beat looking trees you're likely to find. They are a complication and a trial to draw, so easy to treat as a cartoon. I have to respect the shape and placement of each prop root and each strangling branch in order to find a way to set it in space.
The Cypress Domes are also impressive. They are gardens where Bromeliads abound. Huge masses of thin, arcing leaves attach themselves up and down almost every tree around the pond, each shooting out flowering sprouts. Near the water level a variety of ferns form thick skirts around the spreading tree bases. It's a great place to make drawings, as long a you keep an eye on the resident gator. |
| |
|
|