“I would like people to feel a oneness with nature,” says artist Linda Van Beck. “That’s the inner core of it. We don’t exist without nature.”

Van Beck’s “Springtime” is an expansive, topographical meadow that brims with deep reflection and untapped possibility. The ruts along the painting’s landscape are flooded with blue waters and bright lavender brushstrokes.

This particular Van Beck piece can be found in the “InZpired by Nature” exhibit at the Council on Culture & Arts’ Artport Gallery this spring. 

In partnership with LeMoyne Arts, the Council on Culture & Arts will show Van Beck’s works alongside Karl Zerbe’s, the subject of the citywide Zerbe Zelebration which kicks off the 2021 Chain of Parks Art Festival. This multi-exhibit event celebrates Zerbe, an internationally recognized expressionist painter, and the 50th anniversary of his retirement from FSU. 

Van Beck remembers the first time she heard Zerbe’s name come up at a party in Winter Park, Florida. Later, when she and her husband moved to Tallahassee, Zerbe coincidentally lived next door to the only other people they knew in the area.

Van Beck was heavily involved in the junior women’s club and LeMoyne Arts at the time. She attended exhibit openings and co-mingled with local artists. Her art was shown in the gallery as well. One day, while seated at the end of LeMoyne’s staircase, a long-legged and imposing man grabbed her arm and took her over to her painting.

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