WGCU will announce the 2017 Makers inductees on December 1

Matlacha artist Leoma Lovegrove is among the group of women who have been nominated as Makers 2017 for leaving a special, lasting impact on the people, environment, economy and/or culture of Southwest Florida. Leoma Lovegrove is known for impressionist works characterized by exuberant strokes (applied to canvas not only via brushes of all sizes and shapes, but with her fingers and hands as well) and a palette bursting with vivid tropical color.

 

Her mural, The Catch of Matlacha Island, greets visitors to the island, and she has work in the City of Fort Myers and Florida Gulf Coast University public art collections. Her subjects have included former President Jimmy Carter (who hung his portrait in his presidential library in Atlanta) and Sir Richard Branson (whose portrait was commissioned for Virgin Airlines’ headquarters in London). Her work can also be found in the presidential library of George W. Bush and the private collections of actress Sharon Stone, actor Jesse Metcalf, and uncounted collectors across the United States, in Europe and Canada.

 

Leoma has worked tirelessly over the years to promote Southwest Florida and attract tourists and other visitors to the area both for the Lee County Tourism and Visitors Convention Bureau and as the creative force behind a line of casual wear, totes, luggage, beach towels, Tervis drinkware and more that is available in each of Bealls’ 74 department stores in the State of Florida, as well as online.

 

For all she's done and continues to do to promote the arts, education and culture in Southwest Florida, Leoma Lovegrove has garnered a nomination for inclusion in the select group of women who've been chosen over the past five years as MAKERS.