an ARTIST’s perception by Natalie Guess

Summertime tends to be a great time to travel, no matter where you live. Here in Naples this year, especially, there have been unusually high temperatures, so I went up to Northern Michigan, as Phil and I had for nearly 30 years.

Traverse City is a wonderful place to be, in July when the weather is usually quite nice! The temperature may be up in the 80’s, but it still cools down at night to a comfortable degree. That was the attraction to do the opposite of the “snow-bird” thing, to live in Naples all year and make a change for a month or so in the summer. We needed to keep working though, to pay the bills, so I researched galleries to carry our paintings from Leelanau County to Mackinac Island and painted scenes of those areas. Over the years, our works were in a number of galleries, and we participated in many plein air events.

Currently, our paintings are in the Arbor Gallery in Glen Arbor, Art on Union in Traverse City, Edgewater in Leland, Bier Gallery in Charlevoix and Little Gallery in Mackinac Island. It gave us a chance for fresh subject-matter to paint, which was a win-win, so when returning to Naples, we had had enough of a change that we had a renewed excitement about painting Naples! A good number of our paintings are paintings of the original Naples that many of us moved here for the charm of and the colors are what invigorate us! Stop by and see the charming paintings our gallery has to offer.

For more information on these events, please call 239-659-2787 or stop by Guess-Fisher Gallery, 985 Central Avenue in the heart of the Design District, downtown Naples.

Come in and find your new, inspiring painting to take home and excite your life!