Painting is an outlet that allows some Islanders to forget their problems.

Jan DeRiseis has a watercolor painting called Everglade Reflection on exhibit at the Art League of Marco Island. On Wednesday, the artists were recognized at a reception for their work judged by William North of Fort Myers.

“I find that when you’re painting, you forget all your troubles. You’re so engrossed in the work that time just flies and it’s very relaxing,” DeRiseis said.

DeRiseis has been painting with watercolors for six years and said this painting was a challenge. She wanted the water to reflect the palm tress and she said it’s sometimes difficult to get water to look like water.

One Islander, Lynn Nebel, admired the Of the Everglades, a fine-art exhibit, and said she thinks the displays are always excellent.

“I like to see the local artists’ works in a museum setting. It’s so well lit,” Nebel said.

There are 26 artists exhibiting their work until Sept. 29. The awards were:

-- First place: Enchantment, by Jack Megala;

-- Second place: Morning Magic, by Linda Chambers;

-- Third place: Inside Nine Mile Pond, by Diane Reed Eiler.

Photo by QUENTIN ROUX

Eagle staff

Photographer Jack Megala stands with his prize-winning landscape at the Everglades Fine Art Exhibit reception held Wednesday at the Art League of Marco Island.

Honorable mentions were: Hammock, by Phyllis Pransky, Everglades Vista, by Rena Tippett and Itch, by Robert Kowalski.

Megala’s medium is photography and he does a lot of work in the Everglades.

“I look for formations in water and trees and anything depicting real Florida, and I go back many times for perfect light conditions,” Megala said.

For his Enchantment photograph, he went to the same location about 15 times over a period of two years to catch the optimum light.

Megala, of Naples, started taking photographs when he was a homicide detective. He learned composition and telling a story with bullet holes, broken glass, etc. But, now he takes photographs of the Everglades and said it’s a shame that people don’t see it.

“I’ve gone from a world of violence and human tragedy to one with piece and tranquillity,” he said.

Photo by QUENTIN ROUX

Eagle staff

Herb Savage and Lana Withers enjoy something amusing at the Everglades Fine Art Exhibit held last night at the Art League of Marco Island.

DeRiseis said, “I think the first prize photography of the Everglades is so beautiful in color and so unreal. It deserves first place, a blue ribbon, definitely.”

Betty Newman of Marco said things just happen when she paints and sometimes it takes a long time for a canvas to develop. She painted Everglade for the exhibit.

“My love has been taking paints and movement and seeing what I can create from that,” she said. “No matter what I’m painting, to bring enjoyment to the person who is viewing it.”

One painter’s work, Dance of the Cypress, was inspired by the dancing broomsticks in Fantasia. Inez Hudson painted what she saw as she was walking along a boardwalk. There was an opening with cypress trees and there wasn’t any water because it was the beginning of the drought. The image reminded her of Fantasia.

Hudson likes taking a blank piece of canvas and turning it into something beautiful.

“Seeing something come to life from your own vision, your own hand,” she said.

Eiler, of Isles of Capri, has been painting for 30 years. Her painting was inspired by a kayaking trip in the Everglades. She enjoys expressing herself in her artwork.

Charlotte Finnegan of Marco saw a photograph of a Flamingo and thought it would be neat to paint the neck and make it look graceful. Her painting, Flamingo Feeding Time, is a watercolor on exhibit.

“It’s fun to watch what the water and paint do. I didn’t know I could paint,” Finnegan said.

Christine Neal, executive director of the Art League, said all of the artwork is for sale to promote local artists and the Art League.

Marco’s Marie Senechal started painting when she moved here in 1987. She takes a lot of photographs, combines the images and paints them. She loves to the local scenes and colors.

Dog Days was inspired because it’s the height of August, when the heat is tremendous, said Jo-Ann Sanborn, of Marco.

“I’ve been painting seriously since I came to Marco in ¤’93 when I fell in love with the subject of the Everglades,” Sanborn said.

She starts out at a location and then brings the painting back to the studio, where she can interpret more freely. She said the Everglades is her inspiration.

“I know for some people this was a new subject,” Sanborn said. “But for me, this is what I do.”

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