Elena Madden Studio Gallery

Elena Madden's studio gallery is on Old Highway in Islamorada, inside the Morada Way Arts & Cultural District, and what she makes is paintings of water. Not pictures of specific places, though. She works from memory rather than from references or photographs, starting with small thumbnail sketches of what she remembers, and the results come out fluid instead of literal, which is the entire point. Her own summary of the subject is meditative explorations of water, light and ever-changing fluid surfaces.

The method is worth knowing because it explains why the paintings look the way they do. She lays down a red base, maps the composition in Conté crayon, then layers acrylics from light into dark on cradled wood panels, working iridescence into the surface so the piece shifts and shimmers as you move past it. Pieces run large, up to five feet across, with titles like Sea Smoke and Electric Feel. Music drives the compositions as much as the water does, which she is happy to talk about if you ask.

Madden grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and trained at the Savannah College of Art and Design before the Keys pulled her in, specifically the light here and the periwinkle skies ahead of a sunset. Her largest local work is hard to miss if you have been to Cheeca Lodge: a 9 by 22 foot tarpon painting in the resort's main lobby. She has also shown at Chef Michael's, and her studio was profiled in a segment of the PBS series Art Loft.

She puts the philosophy better than a listing can: "creating intuitively is liberating, in turn the viewers are free to have their own vision, interpretation." The gallery holds a Tripadvisor Travelers' Choice award. Because this is a working artist's studio rather than a staffed retail gallery, check hours or call ahead before you drive out.