DeBerry Gallery
The Arthur S. DeBerry Gallery for Botanical Art & Illustration, a carefully designed side-room within the Pegg Exhibit Hall, provides an intimate setting for viewing selected two-dimensional works of art — botanically or nature-inspired drawings, paintings, and photographs.
Exhibits rotate every two months and feature works by local artists.
Are you an artist interested in showing in the gallery? Learn more on our Artist Information page.
May-June 2022
Garden Journeys: A Portrait Artist Explores the Landscape with Those Who Nurture It
Barbara Tyroler
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 1, 2-4 p.m.
Primarily an environmental portrait artist and editorial commercial photographer, Barbara first began rendering the natural landscape while meandering through the local hiking trails with friends and family. The “treescapes” emerged as beautiful shaggy and snarly forms, colors, shapes, and textures, reminiscent of her renown “seascapes” series, abstracted figures within bodies of water.
Her focus blossomed into a broader appreciation for the complex interconnectedness and social networking at play within the natural landscape. This subsequently shaped and informed the creation of her workshop, “Visualizing the Landscape: A Photographic Exploration into the trails of the North Carolina Botanical Garden.”
Natural Spaces: A Sense of Connection, appearing alongside Barbara’s work in May-June 2022, is a student exhibition of the work inspired by this workshop. Her students, many of them gardeners, all nature-lovers, bikers, campers, hikers, joggers…were interested in how photography and the camera’s lens could best be utilized as a tool to expand their creative vision while contemplating their personal relationship to the land:
Throughout the changing of seasons from fall, winter, and spring, some of our classmates focused upon trees, their roots, canopies, and connections to one another. Others focused upon creeks and forest edges and the wildflowers, native plants, and animals that flourish there. Others explored the intersection of nature and the fabricated world. During the traumatic effects of our pandemic, many of us have come to acknowledge that nature often heals, bringing happiness and joy during times of intense stress.
Classmates and teacher hope that their photographic work will contribute to the mission of the NCBG, “to inspire understanding, appreciation, and conservation of plants and to advance a sustainable relationship between people and nature.”
This project is supported in part with funds by the Orange County Arts Commission and the UBS bank.
July-August 2022
Welcome to My Garden
Susan Brabeau
After a successful career as a portrait painter and “magic realist” artist (including a side career in the jigsaw puzzle world), Susan Brabeau pivoted to exploring the flowers and vegetable plants of her garden using oil paints and iridescent enamels. These incredibly realistic oil paintings defy belief and create a two-dimensional garden that’s larger than life.
