arts & entertainment

New paintings by Leslie Stokes will be featured at the Center for Spiritual Care during February.  The show opens with a reception Friday, Feb. 6 from 5-7 p.m. and will run through Feb. 27. The Center is located at 1550 24^th St. in Vero Beach. 

The exhibition’s paintings illustrate nature’s resilience in the face of environmental challenges. Her work, layers of oil, charcoal, acrylic and sometimes cold wax, creates a deeply emotional and subtle sense of place.

Vero Beach artist Joshua McMiller says of Stokes, “She does not paint Florida literally.  She paints the sensation of it. Her work does not lecture or protest.  It grieves and honors.  It remembers… She paints not to speak but to listen.  She creates not to control but to surrender.  And in that surrender, something true emerges.”

Stokes was trained at the University of Kentucky and in France along the Normandy coast and in the gardens at Giverny, where Impressionist Claude Monet created some of his greatest masterpieces.  Her paintings are represented in major corporate and private collections across the country.

         The exhibition will be open for viewing in February Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 3 p.m.  Private viewings may be arranged by calling the Center for Spiritual Care at 772-252-0109.