A group of Pinellas County artists took up residence on the sidewalk behind the Gulfport Casino and painted scenic Boca Ciega Bay, and the distant St. Pete Beach skyline, en plain air.
That’s a French expression for, roughly, “outdoors.” For painters, this means starting – and completing – a piece right there, in the plain air. As opposed to a shut-in studio.
Wednesday’s event was part of a painting class conducted at the instigation of the Gulfport Merchants Chamber, the group that puts on, among other things, the month First Friday Art Walk along Beach Boulevard and vicinity. Gulfport artist Jack Providenti taught the class.
With a particular focus on Gulfport’s many artists (like Providenti) who paint in the open air, the (always well-attended) Art Walk takes place Friday (April 1) from 5 to 9 p.m. More than 50 artists participated at the inaugural “In Plein Sight” art walk in 2021, and the chamber expects even more this time around.
Music
Singer/songwriter Janis Ian returns to Clearwater’s Capitol Theater tonight. The “Society’s Child” and “At Seventeen” scribe recently issued The Light at the End of the Line, her first album of new material in 15 years. Ian, who moved to the Manatee-Sarasota area four years ago, has said this will be her final recording (as a solo artist). Moreover, this gifted storyteller is saying she’s on her last-ever tour (it started in February and will run through November).
The pandemic, Ian told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, was a big factor in her decision to slow things down. “There’s been something about being home that’s been great, and at the same time, I was going to hit 70, and that affected it too,” she said. “So it was a combination of circumstances.”
Brotherly love: Acoustic troubadours Livingston Taylor and Tom Chapin, who share a bill Sunday at the…