In Phipps' Welcome Center Gallery during our Orchid and Tropical Bonsai Show, we invite you to enjoy the work of Deborah Sudran. A gifted painter fascinated with plants and nature, Sudran sought to communicate her emotional response to nature with compelling color and powerful imagery, including orchids, bromeliads and other species that complement the displays you'll see in the Conservatory. She used color as a tool to heighten the impact of her vision for her intensely vibrant portraits of plant life. Each painting moves in close to a particular image and isolates it from its surroundings so that a horizon line is not seen, emphasizing the mingling shapes and forms of the plants.

The art seen here is part of a generous donation from the estate of Deborah Sudran to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, now part of its permanent art collection.

About the artist: Deborah Sudran found infinite inspiration in nature and experienced that inspiration for decades. Sudran, who passed away in 2020, used color to heighten the impact of her vision and photography to create the groundwork for her intensely vibrant portraits of plant life. She attended the Kansas Art Institute and the University of Michigan. Her work has been shown in many museums and galleries, including the Museum of the Hudson Highlands, the Westport Nature Center, the Aldrich Museum of contemporary Art, The Arsenal Gallery in NYC and was featured in the Art in Embassies program in Guyana, South America.