Rick Kelly: Portraits Of A River

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Rick’s paintings often include birds that depend on the lagoon’s bounty. These ibis are shown at home among the many groves at the water’s edge.

Rick Kelly can probably rattle off facts about the Indian River Lagoon in his sleep. The lagoon encompasses three main bodies of water: the Indian River, the Mosquito Lagoon and the Banana River. It is over 150 miles long and its ecosystem includes the entire watershed, not just the water within its banks. If it rains 10 miles west of the lagoon, the water eventually joins the lagoon via one of the many freshwater tributaries and man-made canals that flow into it.

The quality of the water in the lagoon is vital to the health of the fish that live in it, and to the birds and other animals that subsist on it. And because the lagoon flows into the ocean, the health of that vast ecosystem depends upon the viability of the lagoon.

Rick Kelly is not a biologist. He is a fine artist who has joined forces with ecologist Camille Yates to produce a book that combines art with the history and biology of Florida. Treasured Waters: The Indian River Lagoon marries Rick’s landscape paintings of the lagoon with Camille’s text about its natural history and that of the people who have lived alongside it: aboriginal peoples and European explorers, settlers, ranchers and citrus growers. Illustrated with 80 color reproductions of Rick’s work, the book shows the natural places along the lagoon from Ponce de Leon Inlet to Jupiter Inlet, including Canaveral National Seashore, Merritt Island National Seashore, Pelican Island, Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, Savannas State Preserve and other areas where conservation trumps development. For readers who wish to experience these places in the flesh (most are on public access lands), the paintings’ scenes are located on a map in the book’s index.

Read the entire article in the February 2008 issue

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