FelfoldyArt Events

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A prized Felfoldy posession is a comissioned ink drawing of their first home, commissioned by the realtor when the house was sold nearly 40 years ago. It has now hung in four subsequent homes as a fond reminder of their earliest experiences. Gary offered to produce a similar memento for new Habitat families. He photographed each of three North Port homes to be dedicated in June, and then transformed them into framed, artistic expressions that he presented as keepsakes to the new homeowners at their dedication ceremonies.

Shown below are the original photo of one of these homes, followed by the "Photos Into Art" gift version for the ceremony.

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Ten VGCC members exhibited their work. Gary's exhibition included original acrylic paintings that celebrate the Royal Poinciana in classic Florida Highwayen scenes, as well as digitally-enhamced canvas prints from his "Photos Into Art: Local Landmarks and Landscapes" series. 

Click a photo below to view a full-size slideshow.

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This event supported Habitat for Humanity and the Venice Art Center.

Artist #1:

Gary began to teach himself to paint in 2016, after discovering the Florida Highwaymen and collecting a large number of paintings by Highwaymen-inspired artists. This 2021 exhibit included works from his collection by three of those artists, in addition to his own acrylic interpretations of "Classic Highwaymen Scenes" and a selection of digitally-enhanced canvas prints from his "Photos Into Art: Local Landmarks and Landscapes" series. Typical of all of Gary's exhibits, proceeds from this show went to local charitable causes, in this case Habitat for Humanity and the Venice Art Center's youth scholarship fund.

Click a painting below to view a full-size slideshow.

Artist #2:

Bobby can usually be found at his easel just south of the main entrance to Daytona Beach, painting the local scene in oils on Masonite. He also travels down the coast to paint Indian River Road scenes, ala the original Highwaymen. His very heavy impasto Royal Poinciana, Jacaranda and palm trees, his orange and pink fire skies, and his misty blue inlet scenes bring to mind the Highwaymen, without projecting a clear stylistic influence of any one artist.

Click a painting below to view a full-size slideshow.

Artist #3:

A native of Sturgis, MI, Stan is a Florida Landscape painter Inspired by the work of A.E. Backus, the Highwaymen (particularly Harold and Sam Newton), Bob Ross, Stefan Baumann, and Anton Gutknecht. Stan paints "alla prima" (wet-on-wet) in oils and tries to capture the vibrant colors found in sunsets and nature. 

Click a painting below to view a full-size slideshow.

Artist #4:

Mark grew up on Florida's east coast in the 1960's. He became a goldsmith in 1981, graduated from Georgia's Tacoma Falls College in his late 30's, and then returned to Florida as a case manager to help children and families in crisis. He also began to paint, using a palette knife in oils and becoming an admirer of A.E. Backus. He began taking lessons from Ahmed Eltemtamy in 2011, and began winning awards at juried art shows throughout Florida the Southeast. Mark takes his time and paints in detail, with contrasts of color and light for dramatic effect. He prefers the palette knife, but will paint with a brush when clients request it.

Click a painting below to view a full-size slideshow.

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Gary offered for sale acrylic paintings from his "Classic Highwaymen Scenes" series and digitally-enhamced canvas prints from his "Photos Into Art: Local Landmarks and Landscapes" series. 

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As one of the VGCC members participating in this event, Gary offered high-quality, framed, archival canvas prints of his digitally-enhanced original photographs of Venice and VGCC scenes.

Sample Prints of

Local Landmarks:

Sample Original Acrylic Paintings of

Local Landmarks:

Event Poster:

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Exhibition & Sale

In this solo show filling the main gallery, Gary presented an educational display of several original Highwaymen paintings, and offers for sale more than 120 paintings from his extensive collection of Florida landscape artists.

20% of all sales went toward scholarships for young VAC artists who cannot afford art classes.

(Take home a painting and help develop the next young Highwayman.)

Lectures

Every Tuesday at 2:00 PM beginning on June 23, Gary presented a one-hour slide show and lecture telling the story of his own journey with the Florida Highwaymen. Topics included:

• Key elements of the Florida Highwaymen story.
• Where to go if you are a serious Highwaymen fan.
• How a 2011 visit to VAC Inspired a Highwaymen obsession.
• How to collect more than 400 paintings in five years.
• Stories behind the artists and paintings selected for this show.

Highwaymen Paintings

(Not for Sale)

Hover to see artist's name.

Click on a photo to see a full-size slide show.

Florida Landscape Paintings

(All for Sale)

(Hover to see artist's name)

Artists Included:

Tracy Newton

(son of Highwayman Sam Newton)

Michael Sears

(student of Highwayman George Buckner)

Stan Prather

Mark Stanford

R.A. Beaudoin

Oscar Whirls

Pat Rollins

Rochelle McBride

Doug Moore

Phillip Wilchynski

Glenn Smith

Jonas Clark

Karim Gebahi

Kenneth John

Bea Elliott

Gino Russell

Pappy B

R.M. Mortensen

Shirley Campbell

W.J. Schmitz

Susan Houghton

Gary Felfoldy

Hover to see artist's name.

Click on a photo to see a full-size slide show.

EVENT:

Gary presented a selection of canvas prints of "Local Landmarks and Landscape". Starting will his original photographs, he used several software programs to edit and enhance the photos, making them "freer" and more "artistic. He used a high-resolution printer to print them on acid-free, archival canvas, mounted them on chipboard, applied six coats of varnish, and framed them for both hanging and standing display.

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Event Poster:

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Event Poster:

Click a painting below to view a full-size slideshow.

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Gary served as "Artist-in-Residence" at Loveland Center in Venice, an organization that provides life skills development programs to help individuals with intellectual and developmental difficulties to live their lives to the fullest. He worked with faculty and students in the visual arts program, helping students to appreciate the paintings of the Florida Highwaymen and to create their own impressions of Florida landscape scenes.

Gary's Loveland experience culminated in an exhibition and sale of his own paintings, paintings from his collection of other Florida landscape artists, and paintings by forty of Loveland's own students. Gary donated all profits from his sales to Loveland's visual arts program.

Click a painting below to view a full-size slideshow.