Five Painters and a Potter

It started out as a rebellion and has become something of a local institution. “Five Painters and a Potter,” a group showing by a collection of longtime Collier County artists, returned for its 21st annual outing on Sunday at The Clay Place, Jim Rice’s studio in East Naples.

“We were rebelling against the Fifth Avenue galleries and the giant shows downtown,” said Rice, the potter of the event’s title. “But this thing has really grown.” With a continuous lineup of live music, complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres – always a great draw for art lovers and basically everyone else – and a shaded, open courtyard that looks just how an artist’s compound in the tropics would appear if imagined by Hollywood, all the elements have fallen into place for the show to become a date circled in red by the local arts cognoscenti.

Jim Rice’s fish platters have become synonymous with Naples for many and a reminder of their southern home for many snowbirds. After 45 years at his location, Rice has turned out thousands of pieces, and the plantings have had time to grow to an impressive size. Mature bamboo, cabbage palms surrounded by massive strangler figs, podocarpus, gumbo limbos, hanging orchids and bromeliads create shade, along with a thatched chickee hut with benches covered in ceramic fish. Chinese foo dogs, ceramic pieces not created by Rice, lend an Eastern air, along with the bamboo. 

The Clay Place is Jim Rice’s home base year-round, but on Sunday, he was joined by five longtime artists, each showing their own distinctive pieces. While Rice’s ceramics are housed in the small building given over to a showroom, the visiting painters took up residence at locations all around the grounds. Phil Fisher and Natalie Guess, a husband and wife who are both members of the group, had distinct but adjoining displays. Both paint many local scenes, but Guess works in batik, while Fisher paints in, well, paint, often watercolors in bright tropical colors. 

With their vibrant pastel hues and tropical themes, these artists represent the heart of what could be called the “Naples School” of art. Paul Arsenault, the dean of local painters, was set up next to the bandstand with his own oils in a riot of colors, depicting many Naples locations as well as the results of painting trips throughout the world. 

Marco Island artist Tara O’Neill’s impressionistic oils and acrylics have focused on scenes near her home and the beach and seen her, ala Pablo Picasso, go through distinctive “periods” of painting style. She came aboard as one of the five in 2013 after original member Jerry Vallez died.

The “new kid,” stained glass artist Rick Wobbe, joined the artists in 2016. Wobbe’s work features natural themes, including butterflies and dragonflies, and panels showing aquatic scenes. 

“We decided he paints with glass – we didn’t want to change the name” of the event, said O’Neill. 

Throughout the afternoon, guests mingled and chatted with the artists and reconnected with old friends at this gathering of the Old Naples art lovers clan. They purchased paintings, prints, pottery and postcards, sipped on the wine poured out under the building that houses Rice’s kiln, and listened to a succession of pickers offer live music. 

Capt. Joe McNichols ran the music and played two sets with his five-piece bluegrass band, the as-yet-unnamed successor to the Bottom Feeders, his former ensemble. Players included Bill Watson on mandolin, Angela Girdley on fiddle, Roberta Wooster on standup bass, and John Bamberger on the banjo. Journalist and guitarist Eric Strachan was another who took his turn at the mic, along with an impromptu performance from Marie Nofsinger, who sang a song called “Phil Fisher’s Skies,” inspired by the work of the artist, who stood nearby. 

The artists are staying busy after Sunday’s show. Tara O’Neill will be the featured artist at “Art in the Park” on March 23 and 24 at Veterans’ Community Park on Marco Island. Paul Arsenault will have a one-man show in October at the Marco Island Center for the Arts. Phil Fisher and Natalie Guess recently moved their gallery from its longtime location at Crayton Cove to a new setting on Central Avenue in Naples. Rick Wobbe works from his Naples home, and his pieces are available to view by appointment. And Jim Rice and his work can always be found at the Clay Place on Shadowlawn Drive.