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The reference photo for this painting was taken at The Disney Wilderness Preserve in Kissimmee, Florida.
Once a cattle ranch located at the head of an Everglades watershed, this preserve was nearly lost to residential and commercial development.
In the early 1990s, The Walt Disney Company purchased the property and gave it to The Nature Conservancy to preserve and restore the wetlands. Disney also aqcuired 3,000 additional acres bordering the preserve to guard against invasive construction.
The preserve is now a refuge for more than 1,000 species of plants and animals, including the endangered Florida panther, gopher tortoise, and Southeastern big-eared bat.
The boat in the painting is an eerie presence. It was found drifting among the cypress trees of Lake Russel, a sand-bottom lake protected from private boats. Unmarked and recently used, the owner was nowhere in sight.