Works of Pine Island Art Association members on display at Cape Coral Library
The walls of the expansive art gallery in the Cape Coral Library, located at 921 S.W. 39th Terrace, are featuring the artwork by seven artists who are all members of the Pine Island Art Association and have taken classes at PIAA over the years.
They also happen to be friends and have decided to team up for this exhibit that will run from July 3 through Aug. 24. The result is an exciting mix of painting media, subjects and different styles.
– Kay Atwood works in watercolor. Her favorite subjects are Italian villas and Florida scenes, especially sunsets on the beach. She enjoys employing vivid colors and doing abstract artwork.
– Lisa Burke came to Cape Coral almost 15 years ago and soon discovered “the wonderful world of watercolors.” Moving forward in time, she is now teaching classes in her favorite medium.
– Laura Kelly-Bestor loves the spontaneity of watercolor paint that allows her to work loosely – and often finds the results surprising. She and her husband have owned a house barge in France for two decades, and the scenery along the water has inspired much of her artwork.
– Karen Mesch works in watercolor and acrylic and says, “My pictures are all about Florida and the beautiful colors all around me.”
– Connie Saddler paints in watercolor and acrylics. Birds are her favorite artistic theme, but she is also captivated by old houses and buildings and employs those images for her paintings.
– Norma Jean Sass has explored different mediums, but is especially fond of working in watercolor and acrylic. While people are a favorite subject, she especially loves painting animals and has won awards for her watercolors of animals.
– Virginia “Ginny” Simms enjoys painting many subjects, but especially loves capturing images of flowers. She works in watercolor as well as acrylic.
The lighted display cases of the Cape Coral Library will hold carvings and pottery by two award-winning artists from July 3 through Aug. 24. As with most of the artwork that is exhibited in the library, these creations will be available for purchase by contacting each artist directly.
– Ken Yacavone’s carvings of birds will be on display in one of the lighted cases. He draws his own patterns and carves most of his creations by hand with little use of power tools. He generally works in white pine and paints in artist oils. After years of cleaning up beaches, he saw an opportunity to combine his artistic abilities with his concerns about the environment and began incorporating plastic pollution recovered from the ocean in his carvings. One of his duck beach pollution statement pieces is housed at “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge for use in educational programs about plastics in the environment. He’s also donated beach pollution carvings to refuges in Hawaii and Ohio.
– Suzanne Sherwin’s pottery will be on display in another case. After trying different media in the past, her love of clay began a decade ago. She slab builds and also throws on a potters wheel. She’s experimented with sculpting, raku, carving techniques such as sgraffito and Mishima, silkscreen, making tools, making underglaze transfers, making texture and many more techniques. “It gives me such joy to see a piece through from a lump of clay to bisque to finished, through a minimum of 3 kiln firings,” Sherwin said. “It is almost like Christmas morning to open that kiln after the final firing and see the result of all my creativity and effort.” She often incorporates nature and sea life into her art and enjoys making distinctive and unique mugs.
Changing exhibits in the library’s gallery are sponsored by the Friends of the Cape Coral Library and are designed to afford local artists and artisans the opportunity to share their work in this public forum. For information contact Monica Rahman, art gallery chairperson at gallery@capefriends.org or visit www.capefriends.org. Follow “Friends of the Cape Coral Library” on Facebook.