PORT ARANSAS, Texas — If you're in Port Aransas this Labor Day weekend, you should check out "Portfolio.”
It’s a two-day exhibition -- Friday and Saturday--- at the Port Aransas Community Art Center.
And it's a chance to get your hands on artwork by some of the best-known artists in the Coastal Bend.
“Portfolio" is a joint fundraiser for the Port Aransas Museum and the Community Art Center. And they’re calling it collectors’ edition with an art show and sale.
“We have 10 artists featured, about half of them are local,” said Arlene Hughes, an art center board member. “Others are from different parts of Texas, but spend summers here and are members of the art center or the museum.”
Port Aransas Museum director Cliff Strain is excited about the quality of work available.
“Oh, they are some great artists,” Strain said. “We've got Dina Bowman, who's celebrating 50 years of fish printing and biological illustration and drawing. We've got some great watercolors like Lee Ricks.”
Nancy Buskey is also one of the featured artists.
She's a watercolor painter and her works focus on the Port Aransas landscape and the abundant wildlife in the area.
“It's a wonderful area,” she said. “The skies are so dynamic with the colors and the birds are all beautiful and they migrate through here, so there's an abundance of different ones all the time.”
There'll be a lot of variety. This will be an opportunity to buy some great local art without breaking the bank.
“We told the artist that we like anybody that would like to purchase art, leave with art so there'll be a wide range of affordability,” she said.
And it's also an opportunity to support these two non-profit organizations that serve the Port Aransas community.
The new art center was built the year before Hurricane Harvey and survived pretty much unscathed.
So the community was able to use it as a meeting place until municipal buildings like the Civic Center could be reopened.
“We had only a little water on the floor and we're very, very thankful,” Hughes said. “But we do have a rather large loan that we're trying to pay off.”
Funds raised will also help the Port A Museum expand.
“We'll use it for general purposes, but also we have a new building fixing to go up at the Farley Boatworks with a new maritime museum,” Strain said. “And we're about to change exhibits here to the tarpon era.”
The two-day show opens tomorrow evening with a wine and cheese reception with the artists from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
And it continues on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.
