Art Thursday Honoring Founders

Our Art Thursday exhibit honoring our four founders, Emy Thomas, Sondra Catts, Kirsten Olsen, and Mary Bodio, was a resounding success! We had a great crowd of visitors to our exhibit: old friend and newcomers alike admired and praised the artwork presented! It was a wonderful evening!








Debi's cookies were so popular that I asked her for her recipe. Here it is folks: ROSEMARY KEY LIME BUTTER COOKIES

2 sticks of butter-Softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. real vanilla
zest of the limes . . . before you juice them
1 TBL of the lime juice
1 TBL finely chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 c extra fine sugar (for dusting before baking)

Beat butter & sugar until pale & fluffy-about 2 minutes. Mix in egg,
vanilla, lime zest & juice. With a rubber spatula add Rosemary flour &
salt.

Divide dough in half-roll into logs about 1-1 1/2 inches in diameter.
Wrap in parchment paper & freeze until firm about 1 hour. Preheat oven
to 375 degrees

Slice 1/4 inch thick rounds dip in the extra fine sugar, place on a
parchment lined cookie sheet & bake until edges just begin to get
golden, about 18-20 minutes. Store in a ziplock bag or another sealed
container so they will stay crispy.

This dough freezes well when stored in a ziplock bag. It is nice to
keep on hand. I usually double this batch, so I always have some to
bake off if I need a quick treat at short notice. Besides being
delicious these make your kitchen smell so nice when you bake them :>)

Sandcastle Beach Hotel

We had a perfect morning to paint at Sandcastle's! The breeze was just enough to keep us cool but not too much to cause havoc to our painting stuff. The water was clear, the sun shined brightly, the shadows were good, and there were an assortment of things to paint. Our groups was a bit larger as some of our snowbirds have begun to join us. Lunch was delicious and our waiter gave us great service! What more could we ask for, painting plein air?
Ginger

Divi Carina Beach Hotel

Divi Carina Beach Hotel,the island's easternmost hotel and the only one on the south shore, exceeded our expectations.


Although the beach doesn't have much morning shade, the rest of the site offered many places to set up and paint. Some of our group grabbed some chairs and laid out their paints on one of the tables on the covered patio while a large group of us gathered on the bottom level of the double-decker pier where we could capture the beach and sea views east and west of us.

It soon became obvious to us that the pier's upper level was the pelicans' favorite platform for spotting and diving for lunch! This little guy is resting after his dive for a treat!
Posing for the camera...
We were periodically treated to close-up views of their fish catching prowess! If it hadn't been for an unexpected downpour around 11:15 that managed to drench us, we all would have had great paintings to show for our morning's efforts. Unfortunately, a few of the very promising-looking watercolor paintings got messed up by the rain. As usual, after we'd packed up and run for cover, the rain stopped and the sun returned in all it's glory!






Barb showed us a large watercolor floral painting she'd just completed in studio..After our short show and tell, lunch on the patio by the pool was the perfect finale to a great morning!

Ginger

Cruise Ship Day

A cruise ship was in Frederiksted Friday morning, and so were we! The people who'd stopped to talk brought out our "inner tour guide" and not only did we make some new friends, but I'm sure we also enhanced their positive feelings about St. Croix! The pier area and waterfront looked pristine and lovely, our Christmas winds had died down to gentle, welcome breezes, Crucian music serenaded us from the fort area, and there were smiling faces everywhere! We were definitely immersed in a unique and interesting plein air experience! It was such fun that we talked about repeating it soon!



Sondra
Elwin
Melinda
Ginger
Emy