Another lovely holiday celebration

We started this month with our wonderful annual pot luck holiday brunch. Everyone brought stuff to share and as usual we had a great variety of food.

We even had mimosas, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Very nice indeed to go along with the meal.

Everyone began to help themselves once the serving table was ready.

We had plenty of tables set up as well. We had about 27 attendees which was a pretty good turnout.

There was plenty of room at the tables, and hopefully people had plenty of room too as there was more than enough food for folks to have seconds, or even thirds!

And after the meal we had our small painting gift exchange. It was great to see so many of the gifts in colorful holiday wrapping. It looked so festive to see all the colorful wrappings, and as usual the small paintings were stunning little gems.

Looking forward to 2019 with everyone. Happy New Year.

It's Holiday Time!

What:   Annual FCPS Holiday Party
Where: Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach
When:  Saturday, December 1, 10 AM to noon

Yes, hard to believe but another year has rolled around and it's holiday season again. It's always great celebrating with fellow FCPS members.

Like past years, we'll have a picture gift exchange of a small framed piece (about 5" x 7" or so). But unlike in the past, we're allowing you to bring a piece in other mediums if you wish. Many of our members work in more than one medium so this is a chance to show it off. Remember, please try to limit size to close to 5x7 or so - with a small amount extra for a frame.

Bring it wrapped with no identifying marks on the outside. This doesn't mean it must be plain brown paper. Colorful holiday wraps are welcome as long as they don't have identifying marks on them.  Because of the numbering system we use there is no reason to disguise the works, so be as colorful as you like! It will look more festive.

Also it's a potluck so bring a dish to share.

A beautiful JCA show

It's hard to believe the month is almost over, but this month we had a wonderful show at the Jewish Community Alliance. They have a great gallery space, and do sell paintings from there, so it's a wonderful place to show. We had an excellent turn-out at our November 4 reception.

I've been to quite a few receptions at the JCA, and due to their strict kosher requirements most groups just contract with the JCA itself to provide the food, which is always fine but rather boring. However our amazing hospitality chair, Kathleen Trued, chose to cater it herself, and it was the best reception food I've ever had at the JCA! Kathleen really outdoes herself.

Thanks also to show chair Janelle Waggoner for all her hard work in getting the show received and hung.  It looks lovely.

As I say every single time, pastels under glass are notoriously hard to photograph. The JCA gallery faces a wall of windows, and it was a bright, sunny day. You can't just face a painting head-on and shoot as there is so often much glare. I had to twist and turn like a pretzel, from all different angles, to try to get even a hint of what many of these lovely pieces looked like, and even then I did justice to very few of them. However it's a wonderful show and here is a taste of what we all did. And you still have a couple more days to see the show in person if you haven't seen it yet.

(congratulations to Renee Fauré, our People's Choice Award winner)

Historic Coast

We had a beautiful fall meeting in November at our Ponte Vedra meeting location. 

We were glad to have our President, Carron Wedlund, with us, to  inform us of our upcoming events for the season, and to introduce our exciting guest speaker.

Hala Laguidara, Business Development Director for St. John's Cultural Council presented to us the many benefits available to local artists and art associations through their "ArtReaches" program. Some of these benefits include free professional development programs, marketing and promotional support, and advancement workshops. 

She had a good audience to hear her presentation, and had a lot of questions, and suggestions for future workshops. Some events and workshops are only available to St. Johns County residents, where we are based, and where many members reside. But there are also events for folks from all over that could benefit many from our far-flung membership.

For more information please refer to their website at:
https://www.historiccoastculture.com