“People who come to this preserve tend to be passionate about it,” Lynn Whitelaw tells me.
Whitelaw is talking about Brooker Creek Preserve, an 8,500-acre nature preserve in north Pinellas County, stretching from Tarpon Springs all the way down to Oldsmar. It’s “the largest single tract of wilderness remaining in Pinellas County,” according to Pinellas County’s Environmental Lands Division.
In addition to Brooker Creek, the Preserve is home to sandhills, pine flatwoods, freshwater marshes plus rare wildflowers like Catesby’s Lily, buku wildlife, and art shows.
That’s right, I said art shows. When you think “nature preserve,” art probably isn’t your first thought. Most people go to nature preserves hoping to see some wildlife. And there is plenty of that at Brooker Creek Preserve. I challenge you to drive through the preserve at sunrise without spotting some white-tailed deer or wild turkey.
The preserve also plays host to one of the largest gopher tortoise populations in Pinellas County. “Gopher tortoise can be seen [in Brooker Creek Preserve] almost anytime, munching on grass on the side of the road, but usually towards the end of the day — around 5 or 6 p.m.,” says board member and volunteer, Barbara Hoffman.
But there’s more to Brooker Creek Preserve than the wildlife. Thanks to an enthusiastic group of volunteers called the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve, the Preserve also hosts art shows, photography hikes, and group painting events throughout the year.
Brooker Creek Preserve started hosting art shows in 2004, when its Environmental Education Center first opened. That initial show featured the artwork of Christopher Still, an award-winning Tarpon Springs-based artist known for his realistic, Florida-inspired paintings. Still had just completed 10 mural-sized paintings for the House of Representatives in Tallahassee illustrating Florida’s history and wildlife. The Preserve displayed the limited edition prints.
In 2008, the recession put a halt to art shows at the Preserve. The dry spell lasted until 2017, when the Friends of Brooker Creek appointed Lynn Whitelaw as Gallery Director. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Whitelaw was the founding director and curator of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art up until his retirement in 2015.
Since then, the Preserve has exhibited nature-inspired works from photographer Lisa Fitch, abstract artist John Gurbacs, watercolor artist Taylor Ikin, the 2017 National Audubon Society Best Avian Photography winners, and members of the Tarpon Springs Art Association. Earlier this year, as the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve celebrated its 25th Anniversary, the gallery restaged the 2004 Christopher Still show. Still donated the prints to the Preserve’s permanent art collection.
“I try to find artists who use nature as inspiration,” says Whitelaw.
Whitelaw is launching the 2019-2020 season this September with an exhibition of 20 drawings and paintings from Nathan Beard’s Pond’s Edge series.
Unlike most of Beard’s work, which is more patterned and abstract, Pond’s Edge is based on real observations made in parks and preserves in and around the Tampa Bay area.
“The whole [Pond’s Edge] series started in Crescent Lake Park in St. Pete,” says Beard, “I used to take our daughter down to the playground there every day, sometimes twice a day.” There’s a small retention pond next to the playground where Beard taught his daughter new words, like “duck” and “frog.” One day, while watching the sunset with his family, Beard noticed an abstract pattern of reflections on the pond’s surface.
“That’s where [Pond’s Edge] started,” says Beard, “and it’s kind of grown from there.”
Most of the 80 drawings and paintings in Beard’s series were inspired by St. Pete’s Crescent and Sawgrass Lakes.
“Then there’s a period in there where pictures are from some trips we’ve taken to Silver Springs, in the Ocala/Gainesville area,” Beard tells us, “There’s a big boardwalk out there, and I remember at the end of that boardwalk, taking photos that served as a reference for several works.”
With the upcoming Brooker Creek show, Whitelaw encouraged Beard to draw or paint some Brooker Creek-inspired landscapes. For Beard, who often settles for retention ponds, sluice canals and roadside puddles for inspiration, the Brooker Creek exhibition gave him the opportunity to explore a truly wild place.
“I didn’t have to go far,” says Beard, “the Creek is within a five-minute walk of the buildings.”
At the time of writing, Beard was working on a 4.5-by-3 foot painting inspired by the Preserve.
“That scene has got to be maybe a 2-by-1-foot actual piece of landscape,” says Beard, “It’s like really zooming in, and focusing in on this really small space. I’m really excited about that big painting, because there’s a lot of stuff going on in it. There’s a lot of shadows, there’s a lot of leaves. So it’s going to be kind of a complex composition. But there’s a lot of room for play too.”
By the time all is said and done, Beard will have completed four drawings and two paintings based on photographs he took that day at the Preserve. All six will be on display, along with one of his reference photos, at the Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center Auditorium this fall.
If you needed an excuse to visit Brooker Creek Preserve this fall, Beard’s Pond’s Edge exhibition is a good one, but it’s not the only one.
Professional photographers Karl and Kathleen Nichter are also hosting two photography hikes. SPC Biology Professor Craig Huegel is taking 20 lucky people off the beaten path in search of the threatened Catesby’s Lily in parts of the preserve normally not open to the public. The popular Fall Wildflower Festival and Owl-O-Ween also returns to the preserve this year, and you can see our fall events calendar for dates and times.
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This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 5, 2019.