March 19, 2023, Vero Beach – The Galleries at First Pres will offer an opening reception of the Spring Art Installment on Sunday, April 23, 2023, from 1:00 to 3:00pm. The show will feature the works of local artists Rebecca Anders, Margaret Hobbs, Tana Brasie Nalley, and Iris Peters. The galleries are located throughout the campus of First Presbyterian Church at 520 Royal Palm Boulevard in Vero Beach. Admission is free, light refreshments will be provided.
Rebecca Anders and Tana Brasie Nalley are sisters who both live in Sebastian. Having no formal art training, they decided together to explore their talents in art by taking classes at the Sebastian River Art Club. Through dedicated practice and the guidance of other artists including The Galleries at First Pres curator, Suze Lavender, and artist in residence Sheila Lougheed, these two wonderful ladies have created beautiful works that tell their stories of spiritual healing through creativity, abstract expressionism, color brilliance, and texture. Their work can be viewed together in one of the galleries.
Margaret “Mags” Hobbs has her early roots in textile design, which taught her to look at all kinds of patterns, line, and texture, positive, negative, erasures, collage, construct, destruct, even graffiti. She uses all of her artistic license and all the tools in the artistic box. With every mark she makes, she looks for those interactions, that spark, that color combination that moves her on to the next piece of the puzzle. She finds inspiration in the creative energy of graffiti, soft clouds, sharp lines of buildings or even a postage stamp. Almost anything that attracts her attention can lead to a new painting. Her inspiration is in anything and is everywhere. Mags begins every painting with a $2 house painters bush, working loosely and straight out of her head. Mags lets the brush and paint do the work. The painting literally grows organically on the canvas. She does not seek realism; she seeks her own personal creativity.
Iris Peters loves living in Vero Beach, transitioning from Baltimore about six years ago. She had slowly grown to dislike the winters in Baltimore as everything seem to turn to grey, though nature in the spring brought life back around the Chesapeake Bay where she lived. Though Iris began acrylic painting in Baltimore, it wasn’t until she moved to Florida that a world of color, that she describes, as “an eternal abundance of bright and subtle shades in all kinds of sea creatures, Florida birdlife, and the ocean really piqued my expressions in my paintings”. Though realistically impossible, Iris’ art has exaggerated colors. Color means happy, calm, joyful, and she strives to convey that feeling. She likes to add dimension by using shells, sand, and sea glass in her artwork. Recently, she is exploring acrylic fluid art. Iris has taken part in many of events in and around Central and South Florida, including Art in the Park, Space Coast and Melbourne Fine Art Festivals, and Under the Oaks. Visit iris on her Face Book age under Iris Sea Art or her website under that name.
The Galleries at First Pres feature a wide variety of works by local artists, on rotation throughout the year. The Galleries are located throughout the campus of First Presbyterian Church, 520 Royal Palm Boulevard, Vero Beach; they are open for viewing from 12pm to 3pm Monday through Thursday, and on Sunday mornings between church services. Admission is free and open to the community.
For more information, please contact Ginger Lagemann, Music and Arts Administrator, at (772) 562-9088 or [email protected].
