It’s difficult to find a natural landscape in the South today that resembles the presettlement wilderness described by William Bartram in his famous Travels. It can also be difficult for a contemporary southerner to read the Travels without assuming that Bartram was indulging in hyperbole. Centuries of intensive land use have transformed the South since the 1770s.
Inspired by Bartram’s Travels and my own longstanding desire to see the presettlement South that he described, I embarked on a series of paintings to offer a region-wide vision of the landscape that Bartram would have seen over two hundred years ago. Sixteen of these paintings are included in a new book, Bartram’s Living Legacy, the Travels and the Nature of the South. They, and over fifty others, including several of the paintings on display here, will be exhibited at the Telfair Museum in Savannah from January 28 to May 8, 2011.
In this exhibit I have assembled much of the field work that has been critical in helping me to understand Bartram’s experience. All of these paintings were begun, and most of them finished, in the short amount of time allowed by the passage of the sun or other ephemeral elements. They were painted in beautiful, uncommon, sometimes remote, and often imperiled places that still have the ecological and aesthetic qualities that Bartram observed. In visiting and painting these natural remnant landscapes, I believe I have come as close as possible to actually setting foot in Bartram’s eighteenth century wilderness.
The exhibit will be held in conjunction with a book reading event on September 24th when Phil Willliams reads from The Flower Seeker and Dorinda Dallmeyer from Bartram’s Living Legacy. Philip will display and talk about the paintings on the cover of these two books at the event.
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Montgomery Island, Arkansas
June 23, 2010
Oil on canvas
18 x 14 in. (45.7 x 35.6 cm)
Artist's collection
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Broad River, Wilkes County, Georgia
April 30, 2009
Oil on canvas
14 x 18 in. (35.6 x 45.7 cm)
Private collection
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Broad River, Wilkes County, Georgia
April 30, 2009
Oil on canvas
14 x 18 in. (35.6 x 45.7 cm)
Private collection
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Ocala National Forest, Florida
June 26, 2009
Oil on canvas
14 x 18 in. (35.6 x 45.7 cm)
Private collection
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Colleton County, South Carolina
July 28, 2004
Oil on paper
10.5 x 10.5 in. (26.7 x 26.7 cm)
Private collection
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Montgomery Island, Arkansas
June 22, 2010
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Artist's collection
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Moody Forest, Appling County, Georgia
May 19, 2010
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Moody Forest, Appling County, Georgia
May 19, 2010
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Moody Forest, Appling County, Georgia
May 19, 2010
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Apalachicola National Forest, Florida
May 31, 2010
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Alabama
June 17, 2010
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Fontainebleau State Park, Louisiana
August 26, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Grand Gulf, Mississippi
August 27, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Artist's collection
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Columbia County, Georgia
May 14, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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McCormick County, South Carolina
May 15, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Athens-Clarke County, Georgia
May 19, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Oconee Station, South Carolina
June 11, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Oconee Station, South Carolina
June 12, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Juniper Springs, Ocala National Forest, Florida
June 26, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Alachua County, Florida
June 27, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Alachua County, Florida
June 27, 2009
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Greene County, Georgia
March 2008
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Apalachicola National Forest, Florida
May 16, 2001
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Apalachicola National Forest, Florida
May 16, 2001
Oil on paper
10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Ocala National Forest, Florida
October 23, 2009
Oil on paper
8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Georgia
March 2008
Oil on paper
8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
Private collection
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Manatee Springs State Park, Florida
May 30, 2010
Oil on paper
6 x 7.5 in. (15.2 x 19.1 cm)
Private collection
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Manatee Springs State Park, Florida
May 30, 2010
Oil on paper
6 x 7.5 in. (15.2 x 19.1 cm)
Artist's collection
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Chickasaw Wildlife Management Area, Mississippi
August 28, 2009
Oil on paper
6 x 7.5 in. (15.2 x 19.1 cm)
Artist's collection
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Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
June 6, 2006
Oil on paper
6 x 7.5 in. (15.2 x 19.1 cm)
Private collection
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Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
June 6, 2006
Oil on paper
6 x 7.5 in. (15.2 x 19.1 cm)
Private collection
