Pat Ricci Featured Artist - January 2020

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 Graduated from Mt. Mary University, Milwaukee with a degree in Art and Elementary Education. After 28 years of teaching she retired and began taking workshops in watercolor painting from Karlyn Holman and others.  While living in the woods of Northwest Wisconsin, she painted a series of the historic buildings on Red Cedar Lake built by Frank Stout (Lumber Barron). The originals and reproductions appeal to vacationers and locals to the area. Her donated prints have helped raise funds for the local food pantry, the school district, the Pink Ribbon of Barron County and other organizations over the years. Prints with her artwork can be ordered from her Fine Art America site https://patricia-ricci.pixels.com/

Pat moved to Cape Coral get away from the cold winters up north.  At the Cape Coral Art League, she took classes and workshops to “brush up” on skills to use back in Birchwood teaching senior citizens in the summer. She now teaches Watercolor for Beginners Plus here at the Art league during the winter.  

Seeing colors change as paints are mingle or layered; watching a sprinkle of salt create a sparkle; and realizing there are ways to fix mistakes for the better are some of the mysteries found in painting with watercolor. She has seen firsthand how engaging in this new activity has helped in other areas of life for students: renewing a sense of wonder, building confidence through the challenges of new learning, meeting new friends, and just having fun.  

My Art world opened up when I was about 5 years old.  They taught me how to put a little perspective in my First-Grade painting – a house with windows, chimney and flowers but with a ¾ angle.  I made posters in grade school for the bulletin boards – great fun!

Finally, I went to night school for several years and started with oils.  Then I tried acrylics, watercolors, pastels and even spray paints.  I went back to oils and here I am.

Painting for 45 years, I wanted to try teaching and share my experiences.  This turned out to be great fun.

I’ve sent most of my paintings out to Oregon and California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, one to Kentucky and New York state and wherever. 

Here at CCAL I have had my most success.  Painting with others is where you learn the most.  Who but your teacher and friends will tell you the best and worst of your paintings?

We learn something every time we pick up the brush.

“Keep at it.” – Terry Halek

An Indiana native, Richard attended Purdue University (Lafayette, Indiana) and earned a degree in Visual Communications Design. His professional career started in Indianapolis and then migrated to Northwest Indiana in 1990. In 1994, he opened his graphic design firm, Goodnight and Associates, and spent a few years teaching digital design at Valparaiso University. Moving to Florida in 2016, he gave up shoveling snow, but maintains his design business and is putting more focus on his fine art. He creates his artwork in graphite, charcoal, watercolor, oil and pastel.

Art is meditation.  You get lost in it and still your mind.  I think I enjoy the process more than the art itself.  In teaching art, I get to share my love for it with others.

I studied art at the University of Hawaii, but to learn art is a life-long endeavor.  I always have been involved in making some kind of art, but I began to paint at age 36.  My work has been exhibited in various Art galleries on the Big Island as well as the East Hawaii Cultural Center, the Volcano Art Center and the Wailoa Art and Cultural Center in Hilo, Hawaii and now at the Cape Coral Art League.  My work was sold at Omri Saint Gilles Fine Art Gallery at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in Kona and at the Toulouse Lautrec gallery on the scenic drive road just outside of Hilo.   I taught art for 2 years to a group of Girl Scouts in Hawaii and now offer classes at the Cape Coral Art League.  I work in Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor and Pastel mediums.  It’s hard to decide on the vibrancy of pigment available in pastels, the looseness and sparkle of watercolor or the juiciness of oils.  I love them all for different reasons.  

No matter what medium I’m working in, I begin my process by finding a strong composition of lights and darks.  By staying true to the value changes and the light the painting seems to paint itself. For classes or to commission a painting contact Kathy Gibbs at 808-987-0735.

Isn't CCAL the best!  I mean really.  My life has been turned around by this wonderful organization and its members; I am happy and proud to be a member.

Hailing originally from NY and NJ, I settled in FL about 40 years ago married with twin girls. To relieve the pressures of my career as a mental health therapist, I often turned to art.

With no formal training in art, I started with stained glass, then sumi-e and eventually watercolors. It seemed I was always trying to 'get the paint to do this or that' which is often 'hit or miss'. I took classes at CCAL and learned to be open to the process and try not to get in my own way.  

The overwhelming yearning for the unfolding and emergence of that which is veiled spurs me onward, which is what eventually led me to encaustics – the veiling and unveiling.  I learned art is not a product.  Art is rather an expression, a voice, a conduit, an existence.  If it grabs hold of you, watch out - your life will never be your own again.

Art, for me, is a way of beholding beauty, harmony, and fulfillment.