Paul Gervais – An Endangered Landscape; Recent Paintings of the Hypoluxo Scrub

Paul Gervais happened upon Hypoluxo Scrub by chance. Passing by on the Brightline returning from Miami he noticed a swathe of land that seemed to be untouched by development. Googling it he came upon the Natural Area and visited it the very next day. “It’s the way all of this looked before Europeans arrived,” Gervais explains. “This is the real South Florida, so intently maintained by those visionaries who chose to preserve it as an invaluable reference, a fragment of Florida ecology all but lost by now.” Distinctly different from mid-nineteenth century landscape painting, such as that of the Barbizon artists, these works make no descriptive reference to any moment in time. There are no figures present and no signs of human activity; we’re shown only the white sands of the scrub and its starkly characteristic vegetation of palmetto and oak. Feat. Art: Early Morning in Hypoluxo, 2023, Oil on linen, 28 x38 inches