HOLMES BEACH – The final Holmes Beach Art Walk of the winter/spring season on April 14 offered a chance for the public to meet many of the talented local artists who are members of the Artists’ Guild of Anna Maria Island (AGAMI), including April’s Featured Artist, Janet Razze.
Unlike many artists who tend to specialize or prefer working in a single media, Razze uses watercolor, oil, acrylic, and in the case of her feature display, stained glass. She is a second-generation stained glass artist, learning the art form from her father beginning at a young age.
“I’m really inspired by nature, in fact, I started out as a biology teacher,” said Razze, whose display will be in the front window of AGAMI through the end of April. “I really enjoy doing stained glass, and as you can see by this display, I incorporated different shells from around the world in these stained glass pieces, and the name of the shell is in the title of each, so the observer knows what they are looking at.”
Razze offers unique stained glass works, and recently created a series of fish that glow in the dark after a labor-intensive process of applying a special acrylic paint that charges in the sunlight and glows in the darkness.
The art walk, which included many businesses in the Holmes Beach Shopping Plaza, will be the last of the season. Razze, who is also the AGAMI president, says they may restructure the event before its return in the fall of 2023.
“Since Island Gallery West moved off the Island, we are the only gallery left, so we may change the name to something else and do some restructuring,” Razze said.
The Artists’ Guild, an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was formed in 1989 to promote and support creative processes by bringing together all artists to share experiences and expertise and work together to develop and promote the artistic community. The AGAMI Gallery is located at 5414 Marina Drive in Holmes Beach and displays member artwork.
