Two artists depict vanishing flora, fauna and wildlife.
By Patricia Letakis
Close your eyes and try to imagine how the landscape around this part of the state looked a century ago, in the 1920s, before the proliferation of subdivisions, strip malls and parking lots.
Heck, you don’t even have to imagine. A visit to Natural Florida: Art by Emma Sears Marsh and Joy Postle, which runs through December 1 at the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens, will take you there.
In fact, the 66 plein air watercolor paintings in the exhibition will surely heighten your appreciation of our vanishing indigenous plants, wildlife and habitats and make you (even more) nostalgic for Old Florida.
It worked for Tamie Diener-Lafferty, curator at the Polasek, when she first saw the paintings of Emma Sears Marsh. Diener-Lafferty thought the collection would make a stunning exhibition. After all (and especially in Winter Park), who doesn’t love to gaze at beautiful watercolor images of flowers?
The works by Marsh, a native New Englander who was a resident of Lake County when she died in 1960, are now on loan to the Polasek from the Lakes and Hills Garden Club in Mount Dora.
“Emma’s paintings are gorgeously detailed and so meticulous,” says Diener-Lafferty. “Her technical skill is impressive, and those plants can be identified today from her technical paintings and drawings.”
However, with more research, Diener-Lafferty—who is a member of the Tarflower Chapter, Florida Native Plants Society—discovered Joy Postle’s collection of even larger watercolors, many of which featured Florida’s wading birds.
The works by Postle, a native of Idaho who was a resident of Gotha when she died in 1989, are on loan to the Polasek from the University of Central Florida Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives.
“Joy was quite a character, a true plein air painter,” says Diener-Lafferty of Postle, who earned a national reputation as a wildlife muralist. “She’d travel out and climb trees, cross creeks and tolerate insects to get her paintings.”
Natural Florida groups paintings by habitat: wetlands, sandhill uplands, moist uplands and flatwood scrub. Among Marsh’s works are watercolors of such flowers as blue spiderwort, coral bean, passionflower, coral honeysuckle and partridge pea. Most interesting is her depiction of the male and female longleaf pine.
Among Postle’s most noteworthy watercolors is Rhapsody in Rose, featured on the cover, which pictures roseate spoonbills frolicking in wetlands. She painted both the great egret, a stately white bird marked by its black feet, and the snowy egret, shorter in stature and distinguished by its yellow feet.
The artwork is stunning all on its own, but the museum has added descriptions of the habitats and information on the plants to each display, as well as educational programming on how to incorporate native plants into yards and landscaping.
Ancillary activities will include “Creating a Homegrown National Park” (Wednesday, September 11) by Deborah Green, president of the Orange Audubon Society, who’ll discuss practical ways to create habitats for birds and wildlife in your own backyard.
Up next is a “Gallery Walk & Talk” (Wednesday, September 25) by Catherine Bowman, former president of Tarflower Chapter, Florida Native Plant Society, who’ll share her knowledge of the plants and ecosystems featured in the artwork.
And you won’t want to miss “Edible Natives for Your Landscape” (Wednesday, October 9) by Stacey Matrazzo, executive director Florida Wildflower Foundation, who’ll focus on the edible, medicinal and nutritional properties of native plants commonly found in yards.
Family Day (Sunday, November 17) is a free event that will feature activities for kids, demonstrations, workshops, a plant sale and gallery talks.
Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens is located at 633 Osceola Avenue, Winter Park. For more information, visit polasek.org or call 407.6476294.
Among the works on display at Natural Florida: Art by Emma Sears Marsh and Joy Postle.
