Casuarina Trees
Mary Lee’s painting focuses on the naturalistic details of her chosen subject: the weathered trunks and wind-bent branches of a pair of Casuarina Pines. An invasive species, the Casuarina is now prevalent throughout Grand Cayman, providing shade along the length of Seven Mile Beach and elsewhere along the Island’s coastline. Lee’s style is very much reflective of the wider realist aesthetic promoted locally by the Visual Arts Society and practised by many artists in Cayman in the 1980s and early 1990s.
About the Artist
Mary Lee
Mary Lee was part of the circle of artists associated with the formation and early development of the Visual Arts Society in Cayman in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These included the likes of Jeremy and Joanne Sibley, Chris Mann, David Bridgeman, John Broad, Lorna Griggs, Lois Brezinski and others, who brought with them their art skills and supplies, and (in some instances) formal fine art training. As with many of her contemporaries, Lee’s work is primarily engaged with picturesque depictions of Cayman’s landscape and tropical surroundings.