Lombardo’s ‘Retrospective: Larger than Life Watercolors’ at Cape Coral Art Center
Pine Islander artist Zan Lombardo said some of her painting scrolls, currently on display at the Cape Coral Art Center, are as big as 30 feet long.
“They are big and they are hard to imagine. You need to be with them in person to truly embrace the work,” Lombardo said.
She described the shape of the art center building, saying since most of her work remains unframed, that leaves finding a home on the walls a very fitting circumstance in which her art lives and breathes. Beneath the 30-foot scroll, she explained, is a color wheel with bright, fully saturated outer edges and contrasting dull, muted, center colors. Each section offers different subject matter along with a different texture, she said.
“The whole gallery is directed by the colors on the color wheel,” Lombardo said.
Her painting currently in the midst of the art center, she said, is based on an actual banyan tree in Punta Gorda, which was planted in 1917. This tree, she explained, grew in a circle before reconnecting with itself.
“It looks like a group of trees standing with their arms around each other’s shoulders — it’s so beautiful,” Lombardo said.
When it came to inspiration on her journey with this work, she confesses having had two muses simultaneously. Both these symbols came to her in a dream she had when she was 40 years old. In her dream, Lombardo said, in addition to meeting characters she named Lemon-Head and Blue-Door, she saw intrinsically deep-rooted universally fundamental symbols representative of every culture of the world.
“Everything we use are made from these things,” Lombardo said.
The names she used for her muses were chosen for parts they have played both in her very prolific dream and perhaps her life, as well.
“I made sketches of them and I made sculptures of them. They’re in the show. I have books of conversations I’ve had with them and further dreams,” Lombardo said of both muses.
She further admits inspiration for her artwork can often be found in nature or in spiritual questions brought forth from her life. Lombardo shared that very complicated and complex thoughts for her are often followed by particularly meaningful displays of artwork.
The Cape Coral Art Center is located at 4533 Coronado Parkway, Cape Coral. The Zan Lombardo Retrospective: Larger Than Life Watercolors is open now through Sept. 24, 2026. If you would like her to meet you in the gallery for a private tour, contact her through her website at www.ZanLombardo.com.
If you would like a hands-on experience with Lombardo and her giant scrolls, you are invited to a free FLASH MOB ART event at the Pine Island Art Association in Matlacha Park on Saturday, Aug. 22, from 1-3 p.m. No art experience or talent is necessary. This event is free and open to the public. Everyone is invited; all ages can participate. Please dress for mess and wear no rings.
For additional information about the Cape Coral Art Center, please call (239) 574-0802 or visit https://www.capecoral.gov/departments/parks_recreation/recreation_facilities/cape_coral_art_center/index.php.