
Renowned Guests that have Visited
Historic Shadow Point and Art Work that has been donated to us Over the Years
If These Walls Could Talk
Please click on the pictures to find out more information about each person or painting

Dr Robert McNaughton holding a jackfruit
Marvin Adams
Buckminster Fuller
Humphrey Bogart

Philip Ondaatje and his Wife Linda Spalding stayed for 10 days in 1979.
Dennis Aufiery did many studies of Historic Shadow Point and one is now hanging on our wall.
Original watercolor by
Robin Makowski

Mark Makowski
Dr. David Howell
Dr. John Kelsey
Karen Leffel-Massingill
Sheila Geoffrion
Patricia McNaughton

Maggie Hurchella
Cristina De La Vega
Marlee Matheson
Janeen Mason
Anne Bell
Tripp Harrison
Millard Wells
Dr. Robert McNaughton, A gastroenterologist, trained at Harvard and the Mayo Clinic, was also a steadfast supporter of Fairchild Tropical Gardens for more than 40 years. His support stretched across departmental boundaries and plant families alike. His true passion was tropical fruit. He fought for the creation of the Tropical Fruit Program at Fairchild. His support and encouragement were keys to the program’s growth. The building of the Whitman Endowment and Pavilion and the development of Fairchild’s world-class genetic collections. The McNaughton Arboretum was inaugurated at the Fairchild Farm in 2009, spreading the McNaughton family’s roots deep into the South Florida community. His words, intellect, passion, and grafting knife have all left an indelible mark. He brought many of his cronies interested in botany to stay and experience the incredible flora and fauna in the area. He married Marvin and Lelia Sweeting Adam's daughter Patricia and was always dedicated to keeping Historic Shadow Point unique.
Marvin D. Adams, who married Lelia Sweeting in 1892, built the cut from Key Largo's ocean side to the bayside. The Monroe County Commission renamed the "Cut" to the "Marvin D. Adams Waterway," serving the Upper Keys community. It could be the second most significant non-government private project, the railroad being the first in our Upper Keys history. Marvin was a poet and writer and enjoyed sitting out by the water to get inspired,
Humphrey Bogart, nicknamed Bogey, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as classic American cinema's most excellent male star. While he was filming the Movie Key Largo, it is told that he came over to gamble and drink with Mr. Sweeting.
Buckminster Fuller
was a 20th-century inventor and visionary who did not limit himself to one field but worked as a 'comprehensive anticipatory design scientist' to solve global problems. He stayed at Shadow Point in the '60s after a rally in CoconutGrove for Earth Day.
Philip Michael Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Booker Prize, and the Prix Médicis étranger.
Linda Spalding, author of The Purchase, a Governor General's Literary Award winner from 2012, and "A Reckoning," was married to Ondaatje and enjoyed writing while at Historic Shadow Point.
Dennis Aufiery, This renowned artist, received numerous awards for his paintings, including the Josef Albers Fellowship to the Skowhegan School and the Thomas Eakins prize from the Pennsylvania Academy. Dennis loved painting at Historic Shadow Point and loved how the light bounced off the Gumbo Limbo trees and water.
Robin Makowski, An artist who has illustrated more than thirty published children’s books, authored half of them. Her illustrations have appeared in National Geographic Magazine, The Cousteau Society’s Dolphin Log, Surfer, and New Yorker Magazines. Robin has received many honors for her artistic merit. Her work has been featured on the annual posters for several prominent art festivals, and she has received numerous awards in juried shows and art festivals. Many can see her work in Florida in juried and gallery exhibitions. She has stayed many times at Shadow Point with her husband Mark, and they both have several pieces of artwork created at and inspired by their surroundings.
Dr. David S. Howell Was a Professor of medicine at the Miller School of Medicine since 1967, a founder of its arthritis division, an international expert in the mineralization of cartilage, and author of hundreds of textbook chapters and journal articles. Dr. Howell was also an acclaimed painter of the majestic and passionate sea, from Gloucester to Key Largo, who generously agreed to support United Way with artist-approved, studio-quality prints of his work.
Dr. John Kelsey Kelsey, known as Dr. John to his thousands of patients over the past half-century, will be remembered for his deep commitment to personalized care. For the extraordinary vision of the practice of medicine, he shared with his brother, based on their training at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He enjoyed visiting Historic Shadow Point and left this beautiful painting for all to enjoy.
Karen Leffel-Massengill
Artist became a signature artist in the Florida Watercolor Society and the Society of Animal Artists. Birds in Art, an annual international competition, has accepted her entry four times, twice in watercolor and twice in oils. In addition, she has held several workshops at Historic Shadow Point.
Cristina De La Vega
Through her artwork, de la Vega seeks to articulate the beauty that exists randomly in nature, seemingly without reason? The way that layers of trees and brush and grass fall into and crowd out one another, how the light filters through, the way the clouds hang heavy and overwhelm the sky.
Cristina de la Vega paints landscapes that capture nature's stunning, stark beauty, whether it’s a picturesque scene of a high bluff overlooking the Indian River or a pasture dotted with scrub palmetto trees under an endless sky. She has done many paintings inspired by her visits to Shadow Point.
Sheila Geoffrion paints primarily in Maine but also keeps studios in Florida and Ireland. Her works are interpretations of plants in natural arrangements and seek to capture abstract elements rather than precise renderings. She is inspired by the contrasts between the fields and forests. She paints wet surfaces of savannas, marshes, and rivers' edges, where vegetation and reflections change and engage.
She is another artist that has been inspired by the flora and Fauna that exist at Shadow Point.
Janeen Mason is a noted artist, curator, author, illustrator, speaker, and arts advocate based on Florida’s Treasure Coast. She has curated 35 exhibits since joining The Lighthouse Art Center in 2016, ten for the State of Florida’s official galleries in Tallahassee. As an avid champion for the arts, Janeen has served in appointed positions under three governors, advising on matters regarding arts and culture as a board member for Florida Council on Arts and Culture, Citizens for Florida Arts, and as a member of the Florida Department of State’s Strategic Planning Task Force under the Division of Cultural Affairs.Janeen’s fine art has been featured in solo exhibits at galleries and museums throughout Florida. It is part of the permanent collections at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Central Florida. Private collectors include S. Kent Rockwell, the late Burt Reynolds, and Reba McIntire. Janeen has published sixteen children’s books that have garnered ten industry awards and won the affection and favor of booksellers, libraries, schools, and families nationwide. Her latest book, Counting the Days, was published in June 2019. Shadow Point commissioned her magnificent screen of mangroves' new life.
Annie Potts is a dedicated author and lighthouse rescuer of Hope Town lighthouse.
Hope Town features one of the last operational kerosene-fueled lighthouses in the world. This lighthouse was built in 1862 and became operational two years later; it is striped horizontally red and white. All can see its light from 23 mi (43 km) away.
The Elbow Reef Lighthouse is one of only three manual lighthouses left in the world. Hope Town's most notable hurricane is Hurricane Dorian, which hit on September 1, 2019, as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. She was also one of the artists that painted a plate for our wall at the house.
Dan Mackin world-renowned artist famed for painting scenes from his exotic trips in the Caribbean, South Pacific, Asia, and the Amazon River rainforest.
William(Bill) Whitman famed horticulturist and member of a pioneering Miami Beach family.
Kay Sweeney, Botanist, and Owner of the Kampong was a dedicated caretaker of this beautiful property which was Dr. David Fairchild’s private home.
Andrea Collesano
He loves drawing in ink on paper that he himself prepares, giving the material a flavor of ancient times and a feeling of melancholy serenity. The oneiric present in his works mixes with the almost scientific, obsessive precision of detail.
Maggie Hurchella was the County Commissioner of Martin County, Fl, for over 20 years and a famed environmentalist. In 2002, she was named the Everglades Coalition's Conservationist of the Year. In 2003 she won a National Wetlands Award from the Environmental Law Institute for volunteer leadership. In 2019 she gave the keynote address at the 50th-anniversary meeting of the Friends of the Everglades.
Roger Murray Artist and cartoonist. An American tourist saw his paintings and offered a fair sum of money for it, changing the course of Roger's French painting career. Now living on Zaca, he switched to more marine severe paintings. With the help of a local French artist, it was not long the gallery in Nice, Cannes, and London started to sell his marine paintings. Exhibitions followed in Nice, Paris, The Royal Society of Marine Artists in London, The Royal Academy, Coasts of Britain Exhibition, the Manchester Academy, and various major marine art exhibitions.
Roger's paintings began to be owned by many notable people, including The Duke of Edinburgh. But as he always maintained, he was never a proper artist in the fine art sense, always a bum quayside artist with a taste for painting boats and the sea. Never caring much for the arts community. Nevertheless, Roger's marine paintings today are commanding high prices.
Bill Baggs was a journalist and writer for the Miami News. He supported early pioneering conservation efforts to rescue the southeast section of Key Biscayne from developers' overdevelopment. The Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park was named in his honor on land protected from development.
Todd Daniel Snider is an American singer-songwriter with a musical style that combines Americana, alt-country, and folk. Snider has said, "I was trying to come up with the best ... most open-hearted ... well-thought-out lyrics I could come up with. I wanted every song to be sad and funny simultaneously, vulnerable and entertaining, personal and universal. I wanted every song to be as uniquely written as possible, and then I wanted to perform them in a studio loose and rugged and hopefully as uniquely as possible. I hope to be hard to describe and/or new ... I'm not saying I am. I'm just saying that's the hope."
Aida Fry Aida Gonzalez Fry was born in Miami and maintained a studio in Stuart, Florida, where she works in oil, watercolor, and fresco. Her work expresses the joy of spontaneous discovery while still conveying her deep respect for figure painting's great traditions. Known as a master of color, Aida has taken her skills and branched out into architecture with her company AidaColor. As a colorist, Aida has been instrumental in choosing the palette for many of the large condo, office, and shopping projects we see built over the last twenty years across Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties.
Lundin Kudo Artist and ceramist who studied art in Miguel Ballesta in Seville, Spain, from 1959-60, and received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1969. Her work has been featured in numerous galleries in Florida and throughout the United States. It can be found in private collections across North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Japan.'
Clyde Butcher
Todd Snider
OUR PLATE MAKERS
center then left to right
Lindy McLister, Annie Potts, Heidi Rich, Lish Butler, Terry Grazi , Barbara McDaniels, Caroline Smith, Cristina de La Vega ,
Marlee Matheson, Alda Fry, Pam Patterson, Barbara Icida ,
Cheryl Cooke, Patty Childs, Jenny Fry


Andrea Collesano
"Tawanda our Sea Nymph Bedazzled." Created over the years by numerous artists, many of them also helped paint the plates.

Annie Potts

Aida Fry
Roger Murray

Alan Kunance
Dan Makin
Paul Yorke
Mangos by Lundin Kudo
A. McKenzie
Dylan Matheson-he photographed all the framed birds in the house.
Betsy Wheaton