Join Dr. Keri Watson, associate professor of art history at the University of Central Florida, for an engaging Florida Talks history program: “Picturing Paradise: From John James Audubon to the Florida Highwaymen.”at the St. Lucie (Village) School, Saturday, November 14th at 2 p.m. 

The program is presented by Florida Remembered Society through an America250/Florida 250 public programs grant from Florida Humanities, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Jacarlene Foundation.

Dr. Watson’s succinct discussion explores how the Florida landscape has provided aesthetic inspiration to artists for centuries. These Landscape artists have included Titian Ramsay Peale and John James Audubon, who came in search of native flora and fauna, followed by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Martin Johnson Heade, George Inness, Winslow Homer and Henry Ossawa Tanner, who were lured by its natural beauty and warm climate. In the mid 20th century, A. E. “Bean” Backus and the Florida Highwaymen of the Treasure Coast also created canvases filled with the beauty of Florida’s nature and varied landscapes.