The colors almost literally jump off Tom Stephens' canvases hanging in the Christy Payne Mansion at Selby Gardens, tropical hues turned up to near fluorescent levels.
They are almost abstract, almost landscape, and despite the name of the exhibit, "Along the Rainbow River," are works of imagination rather than interpretations of what Stephens has seen.
"It's not a place I've actually been to," said Stephens of the actual Rainbow River, which flows through Marion County, southwest of Ocala. But the river and its springs inspired him from a distance.
Tom Stephens's canvases are paired with live plant arrangements by Maida Lara at Selby Gardens. / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS
"I wanted them to be more about the emotion of a place, the look of a place, the energy of a place," he said. "It's funny how things that inspire me find their way into the work. I'm not even really conscious of it. Things just fall into place sometimes."
Stephens, a 1997 graduate of the then-Ringling School of Art and Design, has been a practicing artist in Sarasota ever since, with numerous group shows and the occasional solo exhibition on his resume. He's grown successful enough as an artist to finally give up his moonlighting gig as a charter boat captain.
Before the Rainbow River canvases, some of which are quite large, Stephens concentrated on smaller and more abstract works, he said.
Tom Stephens with one of his canvases in the Christy Payne Mansion at Selby Gardens. / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS
"The bigger pieces are much freer for me," he said. "It gives me room to compose the piece."
Whether the works are landscapes or abstracts, they share particular elements, Stephens said.
"The element of space, and color is very important," he said.
But viewers often are more comfortable with a recognizable format, which lead Stephens to landscapes over abstractions. He's reminded of Clyde Butcher's statement that clouds are Florida's mountains, so when viewers see "mountains" in his Florida landscapes, they're really more atmospheric than physical.
One room in the mansion has paintings of a more subdued, "natural" palette.
"This has a different energy, it looks different, it feels different," he said. "Color has such a way of speaking about energy."
"Palm Garden" by Tom Stephens / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS
Stephens works in a combination of oils and acrylics, building up texture through layers of paint.
The paintings are paired with arrangements of live plants created by Selby Gardens' botanist Maida Lara, who often creates arrangements for events within the gardens.
"I tried to mimic the same color palette that he was using within the arrangements," said Lara. "It gave me more artistic license, as opposed to something that was being sold to a particular customer."
She grew from the gardens' strength: orchids, bromeliads and ferns, for the three large arrangements she crafted (the paintings and the arrangements are all for sale).
"It was definitely a really fun endeavor," said Lara, who did research into the way florists created arrangements inspired by the paintings at the Ringling Museum for the annual Ringling in Bloom event.
"Blue Bird" by Tom Stephens / HERALD-TRIBUNE PHOTO BY NICK ADAMS
"I'd been looking at those arrangements and getting some inspiration from that. It was really fun and really easy," she said.
Marilynn Shelley, manager of community classes and exhibits at the gardens, said Stephens' show "goes along with Selby's mission to get people out into nature."
Standing beside a painting with some dark, elliptical forms in the foreground, she observed, "It looks like the eye and teeth of an alligator…you can't just glance at them. You have to dive in."
EXHIBIT PREVIEW
ALONG THE RAINBOW RIVER. Paintings by Tom Stephens, live plant arrangements by Maida Lara. Through Sept. 13 in the galleries at Selby Gardens, 811 S. Palm Ave., Sarasota. (941) 366-5731. selby.org
