Marie Selby Gardens

Wednesday
It was another overcast start to the day, but according to the forecast, it was going to improve, so in the morning we visited Marie Selby Gardens in Sarasota. They have a special exhibition on at present, you could say an Art meets Nature exhibit, in the context of a botanical garden.
This exhibition takes as its inspiration the well known Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s screen prints based on Monet’s world-famous paintings of waterlilies and haystacks. Lichtenstein was a great admirer of Monet’s work, and had visited the Giverny gardens in person. Selby Gardens have been transformed into Monet’s famed gardens at Giverny as seen through the Pop Art lens of Roy Lichtenstein, including iconic elements of Monet’s garden such as Monets house, the green Japanese bridge, trellises, and benches. The house may appear pink, as it is in reality, but in close-up is actually red dots on a white background. The gardens are located on the shore of Sarasota Bay and are absolutely stunning, from their vast orchid selection, their collection of air-plants , to their amazing banyan trees, bamboos, figs, live oaks, palms, mangroves, succulents, wildflowers and more. As we toured the gardens, (taking many photographs!), and stopped for a drink at their cafe, the skies slowly began to clear, and by the time we got back to the island, the sun had won through, so after carefully protecting ourselves with sunscreen, we went out and spent several hours on the beach, enjoying a good refreshing swim, reading and walking.
Step count: 11,530