The Wellington Art Society will present Ralph Papa as its guest speaker at the Wednesday, Dec. 14 meeting.
The meeting and presentation will take place at the Wellington Community Center (12150 W. Forest Hill Blvd.). The meeting will open with a meet and greet at 5:30 p.m., followed by the member spotlight and a brief meeting. The event will conclude with a presentation by plein air painter and gallery owner Ralph Papa. He will discuss his personal journey in life and art, and the importance of art in Palm Beach County and beyond.
For more information, contact Laura Jaffe at presidentofwas@gmail.com.
Born and raised in New York City’s East Harlem, Papa has had a lifelong fascination with drawing and painting. His natural talent led him to study art and architecture at Queens College and City College of New York. He also spent his evenings painting with the Art Students League. By the early 1980s, Papa was regularly painting en plein air in the Hudson Valley and Long Island, the Hamptons and later in southeast Florida. In 2003, he discovered a passion for teaching and began offering drawing, painting and plein air workshops throughout Palm Beach County.
In addition to being a visual artist, Papa is also an art activist through his work with local art organizations. He is co-founder of Plein Air Palm Beach and a signature member and past president of the Artists Guild of the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Papa also has painted in France and Italy and has been instrumental in Boynton Beach becoming a “sister city” with Farindola in the Abruzzo Region of Italy.
A prolific painter, Papaa’s subjects range from real and imagined themes, figurative, portraits and plein air painting.
“I’m more fascinated with the actual process of creating an artwork, finding it energizing and even more fulfilling than arriving at the end product of the finished work,” he said.
Papa’s artworks are in public and private collections across the United States, Canada and Europe and can be viewed at the Papagallery Artists Association in Boca Raton, the Neighborhood Gallery in Boynton Beach and on his web site at www.ralphpapa.com.
The Wellington Art Society is a nonprofit charitable organization in its 41st year. It is open to artists of all mediums and patrons of the arts, allowing both local and regional artists to display their artwork in local galleries, interact with other artists and serve the community through their art.
For more information, www.wellingtonartsociety.org.
