Walter Jones Historic Park

As long time members know, and new members should learn, we have monthly get-togethers from September to June, alternating between group meetings and plein air paint-outs.

But some members have felt it was a shame having to wait two months between paint-outs, so we decided to inaugurate a new policy of having a paint-out on the second Saturday on the months that we have our general meeting on the first Saturday.

This month was our first month to give it a try and we held our paint-out at the Walter Jones Historic Park in Mandarin.

The weather was lovely on Saturday, cool and crisp and sunny. About a half dozen of our members showed up to paint, or even just to visit, so I'd say it was a success.

March will be our "regular" plein air on the first Saturday, at lovely Washington Oaks State Park, so stay tuned for more details. And in April we'll have our second Saturday plein air as well.

Edmund Greacen Presentation

It was great to see all who attended our very exciting meeting this past Saturday. President Carron Wedlund welcomed us all and brought us up to date on upcoming news, like our annual member show, upcoming workshop, some fun new plein air opportunities. 

We had around 30 in attendance which was a really good number for us. They must have definitely wanted to hear our topic.

Our presenter was our own member Renee Faure. Renee gave a wonderful PowerPoint presentation on her grandfather, Edmund Greacen.  Graecen was an American Impressionist painter who worked in the early half of the 20th century, and also ran, for 20 years, the Grand Central School of Art in Manhattan.

He has had a special exhibit of his works up at our own Cummer Museum for the past year (which sadly, just came down yesterday) but for those of us who didn't make it to the Cummer Renee brought a couple of his works in. 

They were beautiful and it was amazing to think about this talent in the family. Early in his career he also lived in Giverny, in France, where many other noted painters lived. 

This beautiful map of Giverny is Renee's own creation and shows where many of the other artists lived in that era. The Greacen family lived at number 7 on the map.

Renee talked about her family history, and her own mother Nan Greacen, was a noted artist in her own right, and wrote a number of books for the  Walter T. Foster publishing firm, with many examples of her own talented works.

And of course Renee is a gifted artist herself, and she says her daughter is an artist as well, so that brings us to four generations of wonderful artistic gifts in this family.

Everyone there loved the presentation and we thank Renee for putting together all this information for us to enjoy.