Submitted photo
A new art display of painted birds is currently on display at the Mendon Public Library. Barbara Fragale, a resident of Rush, created these paintings. Fragale (pictured in the photo above with the paintings) explains that she draws inspiration from her and her husband’s 12 acre “farmette” as well as the gardens and wildlife they see in Rush. The paintings Fragale chose for the Mendon Library display are all birds that were designed by her favorite teacher, Sherry C. Nelson.
A retiree of Kodak and Johnson & Johnson, Fragale’s work life was spent in the life sciences departments. She explains that she always enjoyed art and spent lots of free time in high school in the art room. Her one college art class helped her figure out that she hated drawing homework with a deadline. Over the years, she puttered with ceramics, crewel, stained glass and painting on rocks. In 2003, she joined an art “club” that would get her painting more serious.
The “club” that she joined is the Society of Decorative Painters (SDP). It has its headquarters in Wichita, Kansas and Fragale is a member of two of its local chapters, the Flower City Decorative Artists of NY (FCDA) and Lake Country Decorative Painters (LCDP). An individual membership in the Society costs $60 per year.
She encourages those that have fallen in love with the adult coloring book craze or “painting with a twist” to join SDP and take it to a new level. Barbara insists that accomplished painters to interested newbies may all find something rewarding by joining this group. For information, please visit www.decorativepainters.org or www.flowercitydecorativeartists.com or www.lakecountrydecorativepainters.com.
