This painting was from such a special memory. The first time I visited the Harry P. Leu botanical gardens in Orlando, I was so blown away with not just the beauty, but also the sheer amount of plants they could pack in there! I think botanical gardens are such an interesting creation of humanity, showcasing both our love of nature as well as our will to prune and bend it into something altogether manufactured. Some of the first picturesque botanical gardens in Britain had hand-dug ponds and rivers lined with trees and shrubs that were individually selected for maximum beauty. The idea of visiting a botanical garden was invented to create the experience of walking through a painting. To complete that circle, I've now made a painting of a botanical garden.
The trees layered in front of one another creates a deliciously lush composition that one can't help but want to walk through. With "Leu Gardens No.1" in your home, you can feel the thick summer air on your skin the way I did at the gardens, and imagine the warmth of the sunshine tickling your skin through the dense foliage.