Refresher course: quiet galleries offer Florida inspiration this month

We've listened to the wind howl, been caught up in the ebullient chatter of seasonal get-togethers, heard and seen music or drama from around the corner and around the world. At some point we crave the restorative power of silence.

There are few more rewarding ways to find those quiet moments than in an art gallery. (There's a reason they don't pipe music into them.) This month, curators from around Collier County seem to have targeted that need for peaceful rejuvenation with Florida-centric and Florida-created art. 

The Naples Art Association has two of the more contemporary exhibitions with those earmarks. Even two of the jurors for its 52nd Founders Juried Awards Exhibition, here through March 25, were Florida-based: Frank Verpoorten, director and chief curator; The Baker Museum, Naples; and Joan Kropf, deputy director and curator of collections at The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg.

"We had a high number of Florida artists in it too," observed Jack O'Brien, curator for the art association. "It's open to the entire country — we have artists from New York and California here. But for some reason the number of Florida artists was higher this year." 

It's an exciting show, he added. Nature figures and photography figure heavily into this show, with dramatically lighted outdoor landscapes such as "Morning Touch," by Palm Beach Gardens photographer Richard Smukler. Not all is on photo paper, however. There's an arresting subtly impressionist oil painting of the Naples Pier and beach by Tony Rosa of Sebring that reflects 19th-century even with its figures in modern dress. 

To add to that, there is a first at the center, a show of art  by armed services veterans. The 15 works submitted are on the second floor walls and cover everything from iconic pier scenes to sculpture. (Note:There is an elevator as well as a stairs to that gallery.)

"The artists are representing all branches of military," O'Brien said. "One of our directors reached out to local veterans and the show just came together very quickly."

At the other end of the county — after a drive that promises a little more of that coveted quiet time — Ave Maria has taken on a special exhibition of historical paintings from Paul Arsenault. While Arsenault has said he's not necessarily a historical painter, he finds a good deal of artistic inspiration in the rural metamorphosis of Southwest Florida.

This exhibition at the Canizaro Exhibit Gallery in the town's library has acrylics that have not had a public showing before. The work are wide ranging, from the Native American settlements to the white settlers' frame houses and tilled land. The packet boat Navette sits on the Caloosahatchee in one painting and a bright yellow sky frames workers in the harvest fields.

The exhibit  spans several centuries and reaches from the Everglades to the Gulf of Mexico to Boca Grande and Pine Island Sound. It time-travels into Immokalee, LaBelle and the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation as well.

The title is "Harvest and Heritage." The gallery's program describes it: "The painted stories in this exhibition include the thousand-year-old era of the Calusa Indians, but concentrate on southwest Florida’s evolution over the last 150 years from a raw wilderness inhabited by Seminole Indians and extremely hardy pioneers into a manicured metropolis of international renown."

Here there is less international renown and more local heritage in these works. Still, the exhibition is all the more enticing because of that.

It reminds us that, where concrete and hurricane-resistant glass now rise, wooden home platforms sat beside dirt paths, and fresh vegetables grew within view of them. 

If you go

What: 52nd Annual Founders Juried Exhibition and Artwork by Local Veterans shows

Where: Naples Art Association, 585 Park St., Naples

When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays through March 25 

Information: naplesart.org or 239-262-6517

Something else: The association's gift shop specializes in items from the region and Florida, something visitors may want to note for lasting souvenirs or gifts

What: "Harvest and Heritage" exhibition of works by Naples artist Paul Arsenault

When: Now to June 24; hours vary; see the website for specifcs the day of your choice

Where: Canizaro Exhibit Gallery in the Canizaro Library at Ave Maria University, 5251 Donahue St., Ave Maria

Information: 239-280-2557 or www.avemaria.edu/library

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