Participation Show at the Armory

WAS member Joanne Baker MacLeod has a painting on display now at the Armory Art Center. The Armory partnered with the Artists of Palm Beach County for this show they call "Participation." The opening reception was December 14. The show is up until January 12, 2013. Here is Joanne with her oil painting titled "Howard Park." Joanne is constantly inspired by the beautiful parks we have in Palm Beach County. Howard Park is just down the road from the Armory.

New Solo Show at Whole Foods Market

Congratulations to WAS member Maria Lentine who currently has a solo show of her artwork at Whole Foods Market. The Market on SR7 in Wellington has a large cafe, lined with windows that give nice natural lighting. It's a perfect setting to display art, and we're pleased to partner with Lauren Belinsky with Whole Foods to bring this show to the community. Here is Maria's acrylic painting she calls "A Little Bit of Heaven." It is 56" x 44" and is $3,600.

Celebrating Student Artists

The Wellington Art Society partners with the City of Wellington for a student art show in their Community Center. We rotate the art through the Elementary Schools, Middle Schools, and High Schools. This past week we celebrated the art that is currently on display from two High School Students. Congratulations to Talia Fradkin, who is in the 9th Grade and Palm Beach Virtual School, and Gianna Tamucci, who is in the 10th grade at Palm Beach Central High School. Here they are with WAS representative Suzanne Redmond.

Landscapes Show at the Lighthouse ArtCenter

Two of our members are displaying their artwork at the Landscapes show at the Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta. This show will be on display until January 5. Here is Ilene Adams with her photograph.

Another Great Show at City Hall

We're in the middle of the second show of artwork at Wellington's City Hall. Our members have outdone themselves, once again. Wellington has graciously offered their walls for the Wellington Art Society to display their artwork. Their City Hall is a beautiful, green-certified building. The walls are quite large, so large pieces do very well. We recently held a reception for the artists and their family and friends. This was a great opportunity to really spend some time walking around and enjoying the artwork.

We have 25 pieces from 11 artists on display. They include both 2D and 3D work. Here is Leslie Pfeiffer with her oil painting called "Peaceful Moment." It is 22" x 26", $550.

Anthony Burks Speaks to the WAS

We were fortunate enough to have Anthony Burks  speak at our recent meeting. Anthony is a local artist, and in fact is a Florida native. His favorite medium is colored pencils, but he also uses watercolor, pen and ink, and pastels.

Art in the Community Center

The Wellington Art Society provides many opportunities for its members to display their art. We recently started a new three-month show at the Wellington Community Center.

Fine Art at West Best

The WAS Members Exhibit at Fine Art at West Best was the "BEST". Thank you Ursula for opening your gallery to the members of the WAS. Everyone had a fantastic time.

The Wellington Art Society held a show of its members' artwork at Fine Art at West Best gallery in West Palm Beach. The opening reception was moved from Friday to Saturday due to Hurricane Sandy. Many people were able to juggle their schedules and we had a huge turnout.

Members received ribbons for their artwork in this juried show. Ribbons were awarded to:

Best in Show - Roehl Acosta

1st Place - Charles Smith

2nd Place - Corinne Ingerman

3rd Place - Adrianne Hetherington

Honorable Mentions: Gail Erickson, Joanne Knotgen, Alice Pearline, Phyllis Silk and Laura Willems.

 

Thank you to WAS member Ursula Fernandez who graciously opened up her studio for this show. Also, thank you to Adrianne Hetherington who worked so hard putting this show together.

 

A Successful Show for Bobbin Salisbury

We had a wonderful night at Bobbin Salisbury's art reception at Whole Foods Market cafe. Over 65 people attended, and we were entertained with music and great food. Bobbin's family came to cheer her on and admire her watercolor paintings.

One Week Left to See This Art

Two of our artists are in shows in the county that end this week. If you have a chance, you should stop by to see their art. The first artist is BettyJane Heiser Zedonek. BettyJane is a retired Palm Beach County school teacher and a member of the Palm Beach Count Art Teacher's Association. They are showing their work in an annual show at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach.

Here is BettyJane's acrylic and colored pencil piece called "The Cheshire Cat Had a Party." It is 20" x 15".

Feeling the Love at Jerry's Artarama

Once again, the folks at Jerry's Artarama opened their doors to us for a fun Customer Appreciation night. You may recall that they invited us to their store last spring, not too long after they made their move to their new West Palm Beach location. There have been a few changes since then, most notably the hiring of their new manager after the retirement of the previous manager. We've been pleased to meet Margot Weissman, as well as Craig McInnis, their Outreach Manager. They've attended our events, as well as other art happenings across the county.

For our Customer Appreciation night, all Wellington Art Society members received a 20% discount on their purchases. We were filling shopping carts, and finding all kinds of things we didn't know we needed.

Here are Adrianne Hetherington, Jean Talbott, Craig, and Bobbin and Gary Salisbury.

 

 

Introducing: Watercolor Artist Bobbin Salisbury

Bobbin Salisbury has been painting in watercolors for quite some time. She has also been on the WAS Board of Directors for the past few years, and is greatly contributing to our organization. She currently has her first solo show of her artwork at Whole Foods Market in Wellington.

50 Artists/50 Bucks

The Armory Art Center recently held their event 50 Artists/50 Bucks. This has become an annual event, so be sure and look for it next year. The idea is that it is live art creation, followed by a live auction of the art created. For three hours, 50 artists set up their easels, used the wall, table, or floor to create a work of art. Acrylic paints were used so the canvases would dry and be ready for the lucky bidder to take home. One of our members, Laura Willems, participated.

Student Art at the Wellington Community Center

In my last post, I told you about the WAS members' art in the Wellington Community Center. The Center also has art on its ground floor that is done by students from Wellington. This program is managed by Michelle Garvey from the City of Wellington. She rotates art through elementary school students, then middle school, then high school. Our latest show was for elementary students. Here they are with their wonderful artwork.

Members' Art in the Wellington Community Center

We've started a new show of our members' art at the Wellington Community Center. We hang this art for a three-month rotation in their Card Room. All members are invited to apply for the next show. The Call to Artists will go out September 24, and the art will be hung November 5.

This first piece is "Mounts Botanical Gardens" by Joanne Baker MacLeod. It is done in oil and is 26" x 36".

Jean Talbott's Solo Show

We recently celebrated Jean Talbott's solo show at Whole Foods Market in Wellington. Jean filled their cafe with her oil paintings and watercolors. Jean doesn't just paint, she also creates beautiful fused glass pendants. She brought some of them with her to show at her reception.

Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery Show

A few of our members recently showed their artwork at Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery's show titled "The Naked Truth." CGMS is a cooperative gallery and has artists who regularly show their work there. They are now doing small 2-3 week shows that showcase other artists' work. You can see my previous post about their "Oddity of the Artist" show here. Here is the artwork by Wellington Art Society members at The Naked Truth show.

"Lay" by Flannery Winchester, $850.

Whole Foods Show for Jean Talbott

Jean Talbott has a solo show of her art at Whole Foods Market cafe in Wellington until the end of August. We will be hosting a reception in her honor on Friday, August 3 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. These receptions have been loads of fun, with up to 70 people attending. Whole Foods provides a full spread of hot and cold appetizers, and offers a few wines for you to taste.

Laura Willems is Getting Her Art Out There

WAS member Laura Willems has been entering shows, getting into shows, and really getting her art out there. I posted before about her show down at the ArtsGarage in Delray Beach. In July, she's had her art at two different shows. Most recently, she was at Free Expressions Art Night July 12. This event was held at SpringHill Suites in West Palm Beach, and the show benefitted the Boys & Girls Club in WPB. She also showed her work at Art on the Avenue, July 4 in Delray Beach.

Lighthouse ArtCenter Showcase of Artists

Our art is still hanging at the Lighthouse ArtCenter for another week. You can see my post about it here. For their July third Thursday event, they invited the winners of the show to speak about their art.

WAS Art at the Lighthouse ArtCenter

Wellington Art Society was invited to a joint show at the Lighthouse ArtCenter. This show features the artwork from five different local art associations, including: the Lighthouse ArtCenter Artists' Guild; North County Art Association; the Artists Association of Jupiter; and the Art Associates of Martin County. Ten of our members showed their work under the WAS name, and two others showed under another association. (Yes, sometimes artists join multiple associations. It's all about making more connections.) On Thursday, June 21, a reception was held to honor the artists and give out awards.

Let's start out with some group shots of the art.

Hanging Art: Drudgery or Fun?

We're in the middle of a two-month show of our art at the Lighthouse ArtCenter. The Wellington Art Society is one of five artist groups that is displaying their art in the show called "Art of Association." Ten of our artists submitted art and were chosen for this show. When the day came to deliver our art, the Lighthouse asked us if we could stay and actually hang our art. Four of us carpooled up there, so after dropping off our art, we went out to lunch. By the time we got back to the Lighthouse, all the art had been propped against the walls where it should be hung. Well, that made it easy. So we got to work.

How Odd is Your Art?

There aren't that many co-op galleries in Palm Beach County -- why is that? One of the more well-known ones is Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery in Lake Worth. Located on Lake Avenue downtown, this gallery offers space for 21 artists. What's really exciting about this gallery, is they focus on 3D art. Often the 3D artists get neglected in public displays since they generally focus on wall-hung art. The gallery has become a magnet for artistic souls every first and third Friday evening, when they hold a reception that is open to the public.

In addition to the art on display by the co-op artists, they also occasionally hold shows and attract other artists to display their work. Right now, we're in the middle of a show called "The Oddity of the Artist." How odd is your art? Well, Adrianne Hetherington, one of our artists, shows you just how odd. This piece is called "Chair with Points and Balls," and is for sale at $6,000. The gallery actually had to add a sign to it stating "Please Do No Sit." Really? People try to sit on this? (If you can't see in this photo, let me just tell you that yes, those are nails on that seat.) Adrianne actually won an award for this piece.

Wellington Community Center Art

For years we have display our members' art at the Wellington Community Center. On the main floor, you can see art in their Card Room. This is also the building where we hold our monthly meetings. By the way, we don't hold meetings in June, July, and August, so our next meeting will be Wednesday, September 12.

Here is the art that is on display in the Card Room right now.

Graffiti Comes to Wellington

In my last post, I told you about our end of the year dinner we held at Graffito Restaurant in Wellington. The restaurant has quite a few examples of graffiti art throughout the room. We decided to do our own art to bring and show off for the night. This was a stretch for our group. I'd venture to say that none of us had tried our hand at graffiti before. Some even admitted that they had to Google the word to see a definition and some examples. While we may not be ready for a public wall near you, we did challenge ourselves to try something new.

Suzanne Redmond brought this piece to honor our group.

A Fun Night Out at our Annual Dinner

On May 31, we gathered at Graffito Restaurant in Wellington to celebrate the end of a busy, but fun year. Suzanne Redmond, as she reflected on her last year as President, gave out awards and gifts of appreciation to many of our members.

The first award of the night was given to the members who have held a solo artist show at Whole Foods Market in Wellington. This show began just this year, and we have had a new artist every three months. These artists must apply for this show. They must be Wellington Art Society members, and be able to submit at least 12 paintings for display. The minimum size is 16" x 20", and since some of the spaces are large, 2 - 3 paintings may fit together.

Suzanne gave framed photos as mementos to many of the members. Here she is on the right with Whole Foods artists Linda Rovolis, Kathy Morlock, and Joanne Baker MacLeod. (Nancy Tilles is not pictured.)

WAS Art at City Hall

We've had a long, great relationship with the City of Wellington. We were formed in Wellington over 30 years ago, and have had many art shows and public exhibits there. Our members have displayed their art in local buildings through their Art in Public Places program, and for the last few years, we've held an annual two-day art show at their outdoor Amphitheater. A year and a half ago, they opened up their new City Hall. We are pleased to announce that we now have an agreement with the City of Wellington to display our members' art in their new building. We hung the first show in April, and the art will remain for four months before we choose new art for a new rotation. On May 22, we had a small reception so the artists could see their work.

These first were done by Richard Halterman. They are digitally composed photographs that are printed on canvas. Each is 30" x 30". Left to right, they are: "On the Lam," "Slice of Life," and "Name that Tune."

Palms West Hospital Mural

To continue my update on our art that we've donated to Palms West Hospital in Loxahatchee, I'd like to show you photos of the mural that many of our members created in 2010. The mural still looks great, like it was just completed yesterday.

More Palms West Hospital Art

Recently, I wrote about the artwork that some of our members did for the Children's Cancer Infusion Room at Palms West Hospital. These donated works of art will remain in this room to cheer up the kids who receive chemotherapy for many hours at a time.

We've long had a great relationship with Palms West, and we've donated paintings in the past. While I was there to take photos of the art in the treatment room, I walked around and found a few more paintings in other areas. It seems we donated some other paintings before I even became a member of the Art Society. I think this was around 2008. The paintings still look great, and the hospital is taking good care of them. Here's a few of them:

This first one is by Arlene Brand.

Can You Step Out of Your Box?

Our May art challenge asked our members to "Step Out of the Box" and create a work of art interpreting that theme. As usual, a few of our members rose to the challenge and created some interesting art.

Jean Talbott worked with collage to make this piece.

Amazing Chalk Artist: Charlie Smith

For our final meeting before we break for the summer, we invited WAS member Charlie Smith to present us with his chalk artist demonstration that he puts to music.

Speaking of Scholarships

In my last post, I told you about the scholarships that we just awarded to four talented high school seniors. We've been awarding scholarships for a few years now, and every once in awhile, we hear about one of our past winners. Last year, we awarded a scholarship to Flannery Winchester, who was a student at Dreyfoos School of the Arts and is now attending Maryland Institute College of Art. Much to my surprise, while I was attending the Pace Art Show at the ArtsGarage in Delray Beach, I saw that Flannery's art was on display. Here are a few photos from the show.

Wellington Art Society Awards Scholarships

The Wellington Art Society recently awarded four scholarships to local high school seniors who wish to continue their art studies at college. The art society is in its 30^th year and we are thrilled to continue our mission of promoting art in Palm Beach County and supporting local students. We are an organization with over 80 members, both artists and art-lovers. Our talented members are painters, watercolorists, sculptors, photographers, jewelry designers, collage artists, wood turners, wood sculptors, chalk artists. We are constantly impressed by the talent displayed by high school students when they apply for our scholarships. We recently invited these students to our May membership meeting, and we met them and their parents. They each brought a few pieces of art to share.

Fun Night Out with Linda Rovolis

On May 11, 55 people came out to celebrate Linda Rovolis and her one-person show at the Whole Foods Market cafe in Wellington. 55 people! This is our fourth artist reception, and each one is just as good as the last.

More Tiger Shark Cove Photos

Wellington finally had the official grand opening for the park, and a few of us stopped by to check it out. You can see my earlier posts about the artwork that we painted for the park here and here.

Time to Visit the ArtsGarage

Have you heard of the ArtsGarage in Delray Beach? I had, and was quite curious about what it was. I heard they had concerts. I heard they had art shows. I heard it was a little funky. That made it right up my alley. I then heard that WAS member Laura Willems had a show there, so I knew I had to take the trip down to the Pineapple Grove District of Delray Beach. You can find the ArtsGarage on the first floor of the garage at 180 NE First Street, just north of Atlantic Avenue.

Laura was part of an art show that benefited the PACE Center for Girls. In fact, this was Laura's very first art show! Yay, Laura! It is a bit daunting to apply for a show, worry if you'll get in, then when you actually get in, worry that you'll make a good showing. Well, Laura did wonderfully with her first show. Her artwork was displayed nicely, she made postcards that she handed out, and she had a nice presence throughout the evening.

WAS Art Comes to West Palm Beach

About three years ago, the Wellington Art Society was invited to participate in an art project for the new West Palm Beach Public Library. You may recall that for decades, the library was located at the end of Clematis Street near the water. They've moved it up the street to 411 Clematis. As part of the re-opening, they asked members of the community to paint 4"x6" blocks that would later be mounted on the wall of the libray. We received dozens of these blank blocks and passed them around to our members. On the appointed date, we returned the painted blocks to the City, and . . . they didn't get installed. I heard they tried mounting a few and they kept falling off.

Flash forward three years: They've figured out the problem, and they are now mounted in the lobby of the library. It's nice to see our art out in public.

Members' Night Out

A few of us got together to have dinner and trade Artist Trading Cards. ATCs are small, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" original works of art. Every few months, we pick a theme, and create some ATCs to trade with one another. It's a nice excuse to get together socially away from our formal meetings. Our latest get together was April 18 at Dean Anthony's Restaurant in Wellington. After walking in and discovering that Wednesday is karaoke night, we moved to the outside tables, where we had a nice dinner in our beautiful, mild Spring weather.

WAS Art at Palms West Hospital

A couple months ago, a group of our artists painted canvases to hang on the walls of the children's cancer treatment room (also known as the infusion room) at Palms West Hospital. These children and their families spend many hours at a time in the room, as they are receiving their chemotherapy. We were given the opportunity to brighten up the room with cheerful, colorful art.

Marie Lentine created these two butterfly pieces.

See Linda Rovolis' Art at Whole Foods Market

The members of the Wellington Art Society have the unique privilege of holding a solo show of their art at our local Whole Foods Market cafe. Since July 2011, we have shown three-month rotations of art, and Linda Rovolis is the artist whose work is on display right now. Her show began March 1 and will run through the end of May.

A Royal View

Dare Yourself to Make Some Art

At each of our monthly meetings, we like to challenge our members to make some new art. April's theme was "April Showers." Here are some of the new artworks.

Bobbin Salisbury created some new watercolors. She posted them on her Facebook page, and immediately sold one. Way to go, Bobbin!

Tiger Shark Cove Grand Opening

The long awaited Grand Opening of the rebuilt Tiger Shark Cove Park in Wellington is this Saturday, May 5. Tiger Shark Cove is located at the corner of Greenbriar Blvd. and Greenview Shores. Members of the Wellington Art Society spent many hours designing the art pieces, and then painting them. Most of this was done during a 5-day park rebuild, with City of Wellington employees, the playground company Leathers & Associates, and many volunteers from the community.

Laura Willems in Art Show at Arts Garage

WAS member is showing her art in her first show this Thursday, April 26 at Arts Garage in Delray Beach. Laura is an emerging artist who paints in an abstract, freeform way. She is inspired by the earth and its elements.

Maria Ranieri, Custom Artist

Artist Maria Ranieri gave a lively talk at our April 11 members' meeting. Maria has over 30 years experience creating custom art for clients throughout the area. Her art graces many beautiful homes -- on their walls and most spectacularly, their ceilings. She started at age 17 learning the skills of faux finixhes, custom murals, and decorative finishes. She works with the client, designer, and contractors to translate their vision into beautiful home decor.

Her talk took us through the planning, design, and execution of her projects. She showed many of the samples that she paints for her clients, and explained how she comes up with some of the paint combinations. She kept us laughing as she shared stories of challenging projects and lessons learned from experience.

WAS Visits the Artists of Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County is large enough to support a few artist associations, the Wellington Art Society being just one of them. While we are open to anyone within the County, most of our members come from the Western Communities, like Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Lake Worth, and West Palm Beach. We've been around for 30 years now. We started as a small group of women who got together for lunch and to discuss art. We've expanded to over 80 members and include artists from all mediums, as well as art lovers who like to attend and volunteer at our shows.

A few years back, a new association formed, called the Artists of Palm Beach County. This group holds meetings all over the county. Some of our members have joined both groups. One of those is Gisela Pferdekamper, who hosted their recent meeting in her home studio on April 11. She and the APBC invited the WAS members to join them. Gisela's subject of choice is horses, since she spent years breeding them, and knows them quite well. She demonstrated how she uses oil paints to create her paintings.

Artists at the Whitney

On Wednesday, March 28, 2012, The Whitney Condominium Association in West Palm Beach held its first annual Whitney Art Walk. The event took place in the 400 block of Evernia Street between South Dixie Highway and Quadrille Avenue from 5:30pm to 8:00pm.

WAS Creates Art for the Park

The City of Wellington is rebuilding their children's park, Tiger Shark Cove, and asked the Wellington Art Society to create the art pieces. They're keeping the Tiger Shark/Undersea Castle theme, and rebuilding much of the wooden pieces. The decorative parts were designed by our Wellington Art Society members, and painted by them and other community volunteers. The park designers and construction team are Leathers Associates, from Ithaca, New York. We had a great experience working with them, and are excited to learn that they'll soon be opening an office up the road in Jupiter, Florida.

Our involvement started with the creation of templates for the colored cutouts. Six of us met on a Saturday morning and, drawing free-hand, created about 20 sea life characters, including a whale, fish, manatee, seahorse, and starfish. I taped them to the wall so I could take a good photo and send it up to New York.

Amazing what you can do with dollar store posterboard! As usual, our projects provide opportunities for all skill levels; some of us designed the figures, others cut them out. Our next step was to hit the local Home Depot and choose paint colors. We went with about a dozen tropical colors. The City of Wellington was pleased to discover that Home Depot donated all the paint, brushes, and other art supplies.

The demolition of Tiger Shark Cove occurred about a month before the rebuild. We rebuilt the park over a busy five-day period, using City of Wellington employees, Leathers & Associates staff, community volunteers, and Wellington Art Society members. We split the days into 3-4 hour shifts, and most art volunteers signed up for 1 or 2 shifts. Well, once they got out there and started painting the cutouts, they had so much fun, they came back many times! Most of our volunteers were there multiple days, and some were there every day. I think working on the art pieces, you became an "owner" of the park. You wanted to see it through fruition. After the pieces were painted, we also helped attach them to the sides of the park pieces. It will be fun to stop by the park later and show your family the fish, seahorse, or octopus that you personally painted.

Here's Suzanne Redmond tracing the cutouts on the board with a community volunteer. The Wellington employees then used a jigsaw to cut out the pieces, and a router to smooth the edges.

Here's what a lot of the cutouts look like once they're painted. You can see other pieces on the back table that we stained. They would cut the recycled lumber pieces to shapes and we'd apply stain to them.

Here's Jean Talbott with a couple pieces she created. Jean was there every day. She specialized in lettering the sign for the Conch Train and then later created the letters for the opening sign to Tiger Shark Cove. I'll post photos for those on another date, because they weren't installed by the time the artists left.

Jean also painted the bone fish, which decorated the "bait shack." 

Some of the lumber pieces we primed and then painted. The construction crew then cut out the shape that we drew for them. Here's the shark that is an opening to a cave where the kids can play. Eventually the whole park will have a soft plastic textured ground, instead of sand or mulch.

Kathy Morlock painted some really cute dolphins, and they eventually surrounded one of the slides.

They've created a new rope area, kind of like spiderwebs, where the kids can climb. The octopus cutouts are near that area.

Arlene Brand painted the creepy skull and crossbones on the ship. When you stand on the ship, it actually moves.

Here's Marie Lentine with one of her creations. She actually painted many -- just put one in front of her, and she'd paint it.

Linda Rovolis painted quite a few pieces and helped Ilene Adams with the character wall.

Suzanne and Kyle Cundy from Leathers & Associates, goofed off a bit before the characters were installed.

Ilene also designed and painted the mural which will become a rock climbing wall. She even enlisted the help of her husband, Norm.

It was also a family affair, and Suzanne's son Michael helped install the pieces.

Tony and Deborah Baker created the way cool surfboard. When this is installed it will hang and rock with your movement. They worked well into the night to get this just right.

Leslie Pfeiffer was a jack of all trades, and worked on many projects. Here's a great shot of a few of the team working in the art area.

Here are a few more pieces, after they were attached to the playground.

The cones were first assembled, then stained while they were on the ground. A huge crane came in and dropped them onto the tops of the structures.

We'll let you know when they hold the grand opening event. This was a fun, rewarding experience. It was great working with Leathers & Associates and the City of Wellington employees. Thank you to all the Wellington Art Society members who volunteered. In addition to the members pictured above, these members also helped: Bobbin Salisbury, who created a lot of the paper cutouts; and Jo-Ann Wolfe, Corinne Ingerman, Sue Hampton, and Adrianne Hetherington who were out there painting during the re-build (I just missed snapping their pictures).