Art Association of Palm-Aire members visit studios of Clyde Butcher and Bill Farnsworth

Big Cypress National Preserve by Clyde Butcher.
USED BY PERMISSION

Members  of the Art Association of Palm-Aire annually plan and take  a bus trip as a fundraiser for a scholarship awarded to a local student of the Ringling College of Art and Design.

This year, 72 members  visited the studios of famed Florida photographer Clyde Butcher and painter Bill Farnsworth in Venice, reports Charleen Gorbet.

Butcher is known for his large-scale black-and-white images of natural Florida and is particularly passionate about saving the Everglades.

A collection of Butcher's photos were shown at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton in 2012.

 "We had a wonderful time seeing the artist in his Venice studio," Palm-Aire's Barb Gold said.  "He showed us his amazing cameras, and gave an explanation of the manual film processing techniques used to produce the immense black-and-white pictures seen throughout his studio. They show incredible highlights, subtle background and design in each hand-made print.”

Sharpness is the key to Butcher's nature portraits.

"That makes the viewer relate to my images in a way that is similar to the peace felt when being out in nature. I want my images to create a positive emotion in people, with the hope that they carry that emotion out into their lives to make the world a better place in which to live," Butcher said.

The Palm-Aire artists also got to  meet painter Bill Farnsworth, and one of the artists, Barb Saabye, won a drawing for one of his prints.

Farnsworth is a nationally known illustrator, portraitist and landscape painter,

"My goal with my work is to paint what I love and convey that honestly so the viewer can feel that as well," he said.

Barb Saabye and Bill Farnsworth.
PROVIDED PHOTO