Don Reynolds

Don Reynolds relocated to the Orlando area from Jacksonville, Arkansas in 1978 and he has literally been leaving his mark on buildings, university campuses, tourist areas and the hearts of the people of Central Florida ever since! Reynolds has created watercolor paintings, memorials, statues, sculptures, wood carvings and larger-than-life murals in and around Orange County for almost 50 years. He even built his own 39 foot sailboat, a 2-story tree home and art studio-workshop in the piney woods of Florida. He considers himself a sculptor first, but enjoys all of his artistic endeavors.

Reynolds majored in art at the University of Central Arkansas and learned drafting at a trade school but is largely self-taught in all areas of artistic expression.

Magnolia Mall Mural

One of Reynold’s first “megamurals” was the 1890s Magnolia Mall mural on the side of Milady’s Fabrics at the corner of Magnolia and 1st Street in downtown Sanford. Reynolds created the mural in 1980, a year after he was appointed Cultural Coordinator for Seminole County by the Council of Arts and Sciences. Taking a month from start to finish, Reynolds painted the mural gratis with paint provided by Florida National Bank, the owners of the building at the time. It captures his innate ability to bring the past to the present as passersby seem to become part of the painting.

Library Parking Garage Mural

Reynolds’ fantastical creation above, was commissioned by the Orlando Downtown Development Board. Completed in 1991, it featured gargantuan garden creatures, and flowers, plants and vines sprouting from the east facing wall of the parking garage across from the Orlando Public Library. The mural, unfortunately, is now blocked by the 22-story Modera Central building at 150 E. Central Boulevard but you can see a portion of the top of the mural from the top floor of the parking garage in the Modera building.

Pine Street Mural

In another larger-than-life megamural, Reynolds retold the history of Orlando businesses from 1880 to 1920 in the Pine Street Mural. Painted on the 3-story O’Connell building at 30 West Pine just west of Orange Avenue in 1985, the historic 103-year-old building and the mural were destroyed by fire on February 19, 2005.

Waves of Communication

The mural on the AT&T building at 45 North Magnolia Street in Orlando is Reynolds only remaining visible mural in downtown Orlando. For months he researched the history of communication and even toured the old AT&T building before creating the “Waves of Communication” six-panel mural on the AT&T building.

The main panel of the “megamural,” measuring 40 by 90 feet, is on the west facing side of the building at the corner of Magnolia and Washington. In an article published in the Orlando Sentinel, Downtown Orlando Monthly, October 1997, p. 5, Reynolds said he got “flashes of inspiration for this or that,” and then sketched rough ideas on paper. Over time the finished product took shape, and the final step was to translate the small-scale model of the work into the real thing – dividing the smaller work onto a grid and breaking it down into more easily transferable pieces.

Gertrude’s Walk Mural

The Gertrude’s Walk mural, completed in 1980, was the first mural Reynolds created in Orlando. It featured reminders of the old Orlando Fire Department, the South Florida Foundry and Machine Works founded in 1889, and other businesses around when Gertrude Avenue, named for Gertrude Sweet, was a major thoroughfare in Orlando. Reynolds received a Craftsmanship Award presented by the Central Florida Builders Exchange in 1981 for his work on this project.

In addition to the mural, Reynolds, created the bronze signs marking the length of Gertrude’s Walk that ran along the train tracks between the entertainment destination called Church Street Station and the restaurants and entertainment on the other side of the tracks on Church Street in downtown Orlando. 

Winter Garden Heritage Museum

Paying homage to citrus’ heyday in Central Florida, Reynolds created a citrus packing house mural on the Winter Garden Heritage Museum in 1998. A postcard depicting the mural was distributed to visitors to the museum when it opened in 1998. Unfortunately, this mural has faded into history, like so many of Don Reynold’s other vivid murals that brought the past to the present around Central Florida.

Sculptures and Statues

Reynolds also worked in cast aluminum when Orlando had an aluminum foundry. The two photos below show the placing of the fountain feature in the Barnett Bank building at Barnett Plaza in Downtown Orlando in 1982.

For more images and information on Reynolds’ metal and stone sculptures peruse his Metal and Stone and Wood portfolios under Documents.

UCF Charging Knight

In 2007, Reynolds created the iconic cast bronze knight with lance on horseback statue located outside the main entrance to the UCF Bright House stadium. He spoke at the dedication ceremony on November 3, 2007.

UCF Veterans Commemorative Site

The UCF Veterans Memorial was dedicated on October 29, 2010. The monument, composed of five horizontal canon-like structures with the emblems of one of the five branches of service – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard – is centered in front of the large flagpole, appearing as sentinels guarding the American flag.

Blue Jacket Recruit

Reynolds’ Blue Jacket Recruit honors the 188,000 Orlando women recruits who graduated from boot camp at the Navy’s Recruit Training Center here in Orlando – the first co-ed boot camp in the Navy. It stands in Blue Jacket Park on the site of the former Recruit Training Center parade grounds. “She stands on graduation day at boot camp in Service Dress Blue and carries the Navy Cutlass sword….”

Carla Hoskins, Navy League member, and former RTC Orlando recruit, posed for artist Don Reynolds so her likeness could be cast for the female recruit statue. Hoskins graduated from boot camp in 1986 and is one of the Navy League members who raised the $100,000 needed for the statue.

“The statue was cast from a unique formulation of bronze at American Bronze Foundry in Sanford, Florida, with casting that includes brass relics of seven retired U.S. Navy warships welded within, and a small portion of this brass melted into the bronze alloy. Those ships, which are familiar to all Sailors, are USS Lexington, Yorktown, Ranger, Independence, Oriskany, Constellation and Saratoga.” From CFNL.org.

The Monarch Project

The Monarch Project of the Bloom and Grow Garden Society of Winter Garden took four years from conception to celebration! Don Reynolds created “Flora” the larger-than-life copper butterfly for the Society and installed it in the Butterfly Park in downtown Winter Garden in September 2021. The video of the event with its musical accompaniment is magical!

The Mercado

Reynolds has also worked on many other projects for the Orlando International Airport, Lake Buena Vista Palace, and more including creating murals, mosaics, and watercolors at Mercado on International Drive in 1985.

The Guide Map To Mercado Mediterranean Village “For Art Lovers” section states:

“As you tour Mercado, you can’t help but notice the many murals, watercolors and sculpture handcrafted and designed by artist Don Reynolds, a native of Great Britain who now resides in Central Florida. Don’s work can be found throughout Orlando and is featured at Mercado.”

Religious Art

In 1989, Reynolds created a 460-pound bas-relief sculpture that now stands in front of the Ark at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Orlando. In an interview with Edith Schulman for the Sanford Herald on December 31, 1989, Reynolds said that creating the design for the large two-dimensional piece took about two weeks in June 1989: “I worked non-stop day and night and into the morning, until I had created an appropriate piece.”

Art Everywhere

Almost every expression of Don Reynolds art can be found on display in or on institutions, businesses and homes in towns all around Central Florida. From elegantly carved doors, walls, furnishings, and fixtures, to columns, stonework, statues, and sculptures, from paintings of every size and shape and theme and even a sailboat crafted by his own hands.

A special exhibition of his art entitled “Natural Progression: Assorted Works by Don Reynolds,” was even featured in the Orange County Government Administration Building from January through May 2015.

Ppalu and Italy

Ppalu (Polynesian for Navigator), above, is Reynolds “backyard home-built, from scratch, Roberts 36′ cutter-rigged sailboat,” begun in 1978 in the pine woods of Central Florida and launched 17 years later in 1995 from Daytona Beach, Florida, sailing the East Coast of America from Florida to Maine.

In 1999, Don Reynolds and his wife Lynn set sail from the Seven Seas Marina in Port Orange, Florida, and crossed the Atlantic to Marina di Pietrasanta in Italy on his sailboat Ppalu. The 36-day journey across the Atlantic took them from Florida to Bermuda to the Azores, then into Portugal.

In Pietrasanta Reynolds visited the Carrera marble quarry where Michaelangelo selected the marble for his creations and worked with Italian Maestro sculptor Nicola Stagetti, whom Reynolds said one of the finest artisans in the world. While working in Nicola’s studio, he created a statue of a sailor which was purchased by the Mayor of Pietrasanta and is now prominently displayed in the harbor.

Reynolds sketched images of all the ports of call on cruises with his wife up the East coast of the United States and across the Atlantic Ocean. You can explore the images from the Reynolds’ cruises in Cruise Sketches Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 and many other items under Documents, below.

Closing Thoughts

Interviewed by Susan Loden of the Sanford Evening Herald in June 1985, Reynolds said, “Life is so short. I try to squeeze every ounce out of every day.” Loden wrote, “To him the world is a canvas and both yesterday and today can be drawn on for ideas to be etched on city walls and exposed not only to the elements, but to the stares of passersby who through Reynolds’ work, see art as part of their everyday lives.”

Forty years later, in 2025, Reynolds is still squeezing every ounce out of every day and continues to share his works of art with all who encounter them.

View the items under Documents, below. The attached images and documents are the property of the artist and are used here with his permission.