My 25 years in Charlotte County have been some of the best years of my life. In 1973, when I moved here with my husband, Chet, it was a small growing community full of talented people and a lively group of artists.

Dorothy Marshall taught an oil painting course. I accepted the challenge to teach a course in art appreciation that I titled, "Museum Without Walls." I taught it for five years. Luigi and Mary Borelli kept the title and have given their course for more than 20 years. It thrives today in the PCU auditorium.

In 1976, I returned to my study of watercolor painting by taking workshops with exceptional instructions who conducted them all over the country. Among them, Millard Wells, Vale Thelin, Tony van Hasselt, Dong Kingman and Morris Shubin. One of them suggested that I should sponsor painting workshops, bringing the artists to locales wherever I wanted to paint.

Chet agreed, so beginning in 1983, we held several workshops with Ton van Hasselt in North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia and Florida. Morris Shubin held several in Venice, Florida. Ten years and 100 workshops later, I've had the good fortune to have studied with more than 35 famous artists. Chet's failing health forced us to retire in 1991. He died in 1995.

Our experiences included: painting in the Bahamas, Hawaii and North Carolina with Dong Kingman; both Morris Shubin and Barbara Nechis in Mexico, Spain and France; Frank Webb, Skip Lawrence and Tony van Hasselt in Homassas and Cedar Key. The instructors' names range from A-Z: From Al Brouilette and Ev Draper to Robert E. Wood and Milford Zomes in as many states. Superb subjects, artist friends around the world and my paintings and photos are reminders of 10 wonderful years.

My early years contributed to my art training, as did an artist uncle and art studied at the Minneapolis Academy of Art and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I sold my first painting while still in high school. Much later, from 1946-1972, hundreds of my paintings were sold at the Helen Zolin Studio, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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