Palm Beach resident Joan Eiley knows a little about drawing on a whim and a dream. Her first art exhibition just closed at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. If you had the chance to visit, you would be “drawn” into her art too. Her 14 x 17 brush pen and ink drawings make you linger so that you can absorb every detail. Obsessed with minutiae, one drawing may take up to two weeks to create.
We’re a few days late sharing this with you, but there’s still plenty of time to make art with MOSAIC. The month of May has been set aside to celebrate art and culture around Palm Beach County. Presented by Discover The Palm Beaches Florida in conjunction with the Palm Beach Cultural Council, there are still ample opportunities to take advantage of events and shows countywide.
Take one part antique stores, one part art galleries and design services, and one part street festival. Shake it all up and you have Evening on Antique Row. Benefiting the Historical Society of Palm Beach County and hosted by Young Friends of the organization, this hip fundraiser shuts down a section of Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach known as Antique Row.
What does a beloved prime minister and fighter of fascism do to alleviate stress, you might wonder? Well, if you are Winston Churchill, perhaps you take up painting. At the age of 40, Churchill took up the hobby, favoring landscapes and other outdoor scenes. He saw it as a way to bring color and hope to the depression from which he suffered and nicknamed his “black dog.”
Palm Beach real estate broker Lawrence Moens (see many of his listing on the Featured Properties section on our home page) knows art. He’s a noted collector, and so it was with a seasoned eye that he encouraged his 80-year-old father to pick up a brush and start painting.
It’s a balancing act, to be sure – marrying a stately Palm Beach mansion with edgy postwar art and sculpture. In his new book, The New Formal (The Monacelli Press, 240 pages, $60), interior designer James Aman shows us how it’s done.
Imagine: Dixie Highway is closed to vehicles, so you can freely wander the five venerable blocks of West Palm Beach’s antiques district.
Nice? Nice.
Put it on your weekend fun list. Saturday, March 4 from 6-9 p.m., it’s Evening on Antique Row, the signature fundraising event benefitting the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. Visitors can explore the area’s unique shops, which feature 17th– to 20th-century antiques, decorative arts, fine art, and design services.
Go, right now, to the Holden Luntz Gallery at the southwest end of Worth Avenue, just next to the Everglades Club.
What you’ll find surpasses art, surpasses photography, surpasses dance and transcends to the altitude of angels, still images that somehow capture sound, movement, costume and performance.
Palm Beach homes, Palm Beach gardens and Palm Beach life, written by a Palm Beach girl – someone with stories to share and the kind of access you only get when you’re a lifelong friend.
The book is Palm Beach Chic (The Vendome Press, 312 pages, $75), a gorgeous volume that’s witty, understated and urbane – much like Palm Beach itself.
Palm Beach has long been home to those who seek after beautiful things – to create them, to cherish them and to collect them.