On the beach behind Turtles

Fishermen, boats, egrets, cats, plant life, architecture, peaceful bliss: in additon to the friendly, welcoming staff of the deli/restaurant itself, the beach area that runs behind Turtles had it all! We definitely enjoyed our little sojourn there, to the max!

Gallows Bay Waterfront

I should know better than to go to a painting site with a pre-conceived idea of what I want to paint. However, on Friday morning I did just that: I went to the Gallows Bay waterfront park intending to paint some of the pelicans that I ALWAYS see on the dinghies moored in the water there. Ha! Guess what? There were roosters and a friendly grey egret and lots of boats.. but absolutely NO pelicans! Serves me right! So, instead I painted one of the wooden dinghies moored off shore.

As did everyone else! That's probably a first for the Palletteers: all of us creating pretty much the same scene in our plein air paintings! Good thing our styles differ so much, eh? Can you tell who painted which painting? Quick: scroll up and make your guesses and then return down here again for the answers. The artists are, top to bottom, Emy in oils, Elwin in watercolors, Ginger in oils, Leslie in watercolors, and Mary in colored pencils.

CMCArts at Mango Melee

As artists on St. Croix, we do what we can to support art in our islands. The Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts (CMCArts)is the only art museum in the USVI and we are so fortunate that it is located right here on the island of St. Croix, in the town of Frederiksted. In April, 4 of us Palletteers took on the challenge of producing the 2013 Island Art & Soul calendar, an annual publication that helps fund the museum's activities. We also decided to put together an Island Art & Soul book, both the calendar and book featuring only USVI artists! In an attempt to reach other artists and generate interest in the museum and its activities, 3 of us planned to have a booth for the museum at the St. George Village Botanical Garden's popular summer event Mango Melee, held on July 1. Laura, Elizabeth, and I found a cache of small, unpainted, ceramics gathering dust in one of the museum's cubbies so we packed them up and planned to sell them. Elizabeth ran off copies of the inof on the Summer Clay classes being offered at the museum and we thought we'd also drum up some participatns for that fun activity. We also thought the venue would be a great way to sell a few of our 2012 calendars at a discount and generate interest in next year's projects. Our booth was extremely successful!

A painting I'd submitted was selected to be printed on the t-shirts! It was also donated to the Botanical Garden as part of the first prize for the Mango Melee raffle.

CMCArts' booth featured small unpainted ceramic pieces at ridiculously low prices, perfect for a summer kids' painting project! The sign urges people to "Find your inner artist!"

We also had our 2012 Island Art & Soul Calendars for sale. Our booth attracted a LOT of visitors! Surprisingly, seeing the little ceramic pieces brought back memories of childhood to a lot of our visitors and many were delighted to hear that they'd have the opportunity to take clay classes at the museum.

This little charmer obviously found HIS inner artist and SO enjoyed doing it that he proudly brought his artwork back to show us. The children behind him were so impressed that they bought some ceramic pieces to take home with them too!

Tropical fruits, dem!

Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts

Since Friday was the original deadline for submission of entries for the Island Art & Soul Calendar, a few of us worked on finishing paintings for that project. We were interrupted by artists bringing in their paintings to be photographed, too. I know, the deadline has been extended to July 13, but we wanted to have our entries "in and done!" Elizabeth, Emy and I went to lunch at Blue Moon afterwards. Ginger

by Emy

by Leslie