COCO Art Gallery located at 8074 Mediterranean Drive, Estero, in the Coconut Point Mall (next to Panera Bread) will showcase work by members of the Southwest Florida Watercolor Society March 3 – 17.
Barbara Weems will be the featured artist March 7 and 8. Barbara Weems took painting classes in school and college and one at the Art Institute in Chicago; always loved abstraction. She has sold some of her abstract pieces to Europeans, “so guess I am internationally collected,” she says. Weems has lived in Florida most of her life, and here in southwest Florida since 1992. As well as Florida, she also lived in Atlanta and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Currently she lives on a small horse farm and has many dogs and a hubby. A master gardener, she had a weekend radio show about gardening for three years on WINK talk radio.
Judy Ladd will be the featured artist March 14 and 15. Judy Ladd graduated from Western Michigan University with a BA degree in art, she received an MFA from Notre Dame. She worked at the South Bend Art Center teaching children and adult classes, as well as being the faculty representative to the board for years. Her first teaching assignment was at Darden school in first grade and later moved to LaSalle High School as an art instructor. At the high school level, she was art department chairman, worked on The Scholastic Art Awards and the Third Congressional Art Competition which her student won the district award which was presented in New York. During that time, she opened up a co-op gallery which housed 30 local artists.
Throughout the years, she served as president of the Northern Indiana Artists and also became involved in the St, Joseph Watercolor Society in which she ran their Leeper Park Art Fair for 24 years.
The gallery’s monthly reception is scheduled for Thursday, March 5 from 5 to 7 p.m. Complimentary wine, food, and entertainment will be provided.
Gallery artist participation requires membership in at least one of the 22 Art Council of SW Florida affiliations. For more gallery information, call 239-949-3073 or visit www.cocoartgallery.com.
