SEBASTIAN — As a sudden shower pounded at the roof of what was once a forgotten storage space on Sebastian’s Main Street, 50 people gathered last week to watch artist Judy Burgarella draw a portrait of a fellow artist.
Chattering happily as she worked, she adjusted the shape of his wirerimmed glasses, she sketched in the frame of a black beret, she smudged a white chalk into a goatee. Guests looked on, or followed along on paper of their own.
Burgarella’s demonstrations continue every Tuesday from 3 to 4 p.m. through Oct. 2.
“This will come to life very quickly with a little coaxing,” says Burgarella, a natural teacher who has been offering a series of demonstrations in portraiture at the center for the past few Tuesdays afternoons.
Like her canvas, Burgarella has also coaxed life into the Sebastian River Art Club’s Art Center. Settling into a building that was all but abandoned after the 2004 hurricanes, she and her fellow club members have enthusiastically embraced the modest space as the start of something big.
“Vero’s art club has that beautiful museum,” says Richard Gillmor, the club’s president. “Everybody’s got to start somewhere.”
In ways, the 120 members of the Sebastian group are ahead of their much larger Vero counterpart: They get their lecture space essentially for free, thanks to the Sebastian City Council, as well as a cozy suite of galleries where members can display their work. Burgarella posts a separate piece of paper on her easel. She has drawn the outline of an eye and now is breaking down the elements as she adds them in – lid, iris, lashes, light.
“The light from above illuminates pretty pictures, it’s about enjoying life. “We’re not a professional art gallery; there are different levels of expertise. Many of us have been self-taught and we’ve learned from others in the club. Which is part of the reason we’re part of a club.”
Rimming the room, artists of different levels of skill drew along with Burgarella. Others took notes for later; still others just observed as she offered tips that demystified the end result.
At one point, Burgarella urged her audience to take a short cut to get the fun part faster. “Just go to Staples,” she said. “You can take a photo and get some graphite paper and transfer the image on your paper. Once you a stack of framing materials to the art club.
Burgarella bought the shop’s hanging system and installed it in the Art Club’s galleries, where members hang their works for $5 a month.
“We don’t have the deep pockets of the Vero club,” she says. “They’re a lot more corporate. We have no money. We charge $25 for year’s membership and we put a jar out for donations to our scholarship fund. But we do have fun.”
As the demonstration wound down, Burgarella packed up her supplies as people approached to thank her.
“You’re one of the best teachers I’ve ever seen,” raved Henry Pitt, 95, a favorite of the club and still a very active painter. “You not only draw, you talk. That’s what most teachers don’t do.”
“Growing arts in a small town like this is so good for the town,” Burgarella says. “People want to move to a town that has art in it. It means it’s not just another hick town. It’s got culture!” she adds with a laugh.
The space where Burgarella gave her demonstration used to serve as chambers for the Sebastian City Council. The adjacent galleries once housed the Public Works department. After the 2004 hurricanes damaged the building, a mold problem developed.
“The city was considering demolishing it and turning it into a parking lot,” said Richard Gillmor, art club president, former mayor and current City Council member.
Around three years ago, Gillmor recalls, the quilting club was the only group using the space when Gillmor, a lifelong landscape painter who majored in fine art in college, proposed to the City Council that the Art Club be allowed to use the space. “We thought, boy, it would be nice to have a space of our own.” The measure passed, and club members went to work scrubbing away and repainting.
The city continues to pay the building’s utility bills.
The Art Center now has a neighbor: the newly opened Senior Center which rose up seemingly overnight. Art Club members pitched in on cleaning and painting that space as well.
“It’s not good for a building to sit empty,” says Burgarella. “Now we take care of it, we keep it clean, we make sure it’s locked up.”
“There are probably a lot of towns with buildings that aren’t being used,” muses Burgarella. “Give them to the artists. They’ll make a place where people enjoy themselves.”
