FLORIBUNDA: Botanical Paintings by Mary Grieco + Richard Seidel
On view June 6 – 25
Reception/Meet the artists on June 13, 5pm to 8pm
Longtime artist members Mary Grieco and Richard Seidel met many years ago in Betsy Orbe Lester’s painting class at the Morean Arts Center. Although they have explored other subjects over time, they continue to return to the image of the flower as a regular motif. Richard continually observes and sketches his environment and uses those drawings as references for his delightfully whimsical paintings. Mary uses real and imaginary flowers to create compositions that explore gestural movement. Vivid colors have a strong impact in their visually engaging designs.Â
About the artists
Mary Grieco paints from life as well as her imagination, weaving between representational forms and gestural abstraction in a variety of vivid hues. She earned her MA from Wesleyan University and her BA from Mercyhurst University. For 35 years, she taught art in public schools in New Jersey and Connecticut. She now works daily in her home studio in a designated neighborhood Artist Enclave, painting and/or printmaking.
A long-time resident of Pinellas County, Richard Seidel enjoys sketching and painting his beloved adopted home. Seidel’s paintings have been exhibited extensively in St. Petersburg and Tampa, as well as Miami and Los Angeles, and the artist is represented by galleries in Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Columbus, Ohio.  He was honored with an Award of Distinction from the Morean Arts Center and participated in the prestigious Creative Capital Foundation Program in New York in 2013. He has completed artist residencies in Spain, Italy, Ireland, England and France, and his work hangs in the Florida Capitol building.
