Tom Dowling
(863) 297-1051

Four Exhibit Their Work At PCC Gallery

09/07/2006: The artwork of  four Florida artists, Barbara Alderman of Mulberry, Mary Crow Dorst and Claire Dorst of Boca Raton and Odile Donis of Maitland, is on display until Sept. 22 at Polk Community College’s Fine Arts Gallery, Winter Haven campus.

            Barbara Alderman  is a fifth generation native Floridian with deep roots in the Central Florida area. She took up painting as a hobby and became more serious about it after retiring. “I love to paint from memory and pictures that I remember as a small child riding through the woods and creeks on horseback or horse and wagon."  Her  grandfather showed her the backwoods of Florida, which she captures in her paintings. "I want to paint a simpler time without so much asphalt and concrete and telephones. My greatest desire is to bring a sense of peace and rest to a stressed out world through the depiction of 'The Real Florida' in my paintings.” She has participated in several Polk County art shows, including Bartow’s Bloomin’ Arts and Winter Haven’s Central Park shows and won several awards.

            Mary Crow Dorst creates in colored pencil, graphite and watercolor. She received her B.A. in art from Beloit College in Wisconsin and M.A. in Fine Arts from Northern Illinois University.  She has been an adjunct instructor at Broward Community College, Palm beach Community College and Florida Atlantic University. She has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Craftsmen, a statewide association for Fine Arts. She is past president of the of the Palm Beach Watercolor Society and coordinated their art fair.

            Claire Dorst works in watercolor, oil, acrylic, etchings, collagraph and serigraph. He is Professor Emeritus at Florida Atlantic University. He has a M.A. degree from University of Iowa and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Wisconsin. Following his retirement from FAU’s Art Department he continued to teach watercolor for 20 years at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. He has exhibited his work for three decades throughout the state and won numerous awards. He is been a member of several art organizations. 

Odile Donis is a photographer, who creates realistic abstract still-lives. “The apparent contradiction,” she says “is easily explained. At first glance the images seem to be completely abstract, but upon closer attention, hidden objects emerge.”  She earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and has participated in various shows and won numerous awards for her work. “My objective is to make an abstract still life where space and perspective, patterns, colors and caching of light, will attract the intelligence and bewilder the viewer.” 

The Fine Arts Gallery is open weekdays from 10 am to noon. Admission is free.