Jean Blackburn drew a crowd of hundreds for her recent opening featuring paintings and photographs of the Myakka River at Rhea Chiles’ studio at Gulf and Pine on Anna Maria Island. Guests enjoyed Jean’s grandmother’s fish chowder recipe along with the art. Chiles shared fond remembrances of her life with the late Gov. Chiles and spoke of her commitment to the visual arts in Manatee and Sarasota. Blackburn donated a portion of the proceeds of her sales to the Myakka Conservancy and the Friends of Myakka, who brought pine trees and native plants in pots to the gallery.

Photographer-designer Alyssia Lazin and her husband, Pavel Kapic, a painter born in Prague, divide their time between Sarasota and Lucca, Italy. (They showed their work with great success in Tuscany this summer.) Alyssia received her master’s degree in graphic design from Yale University and had a studio in New York working with American Express, IBM, Tiffany & Co., the Museum of Modern Art and other clients. She was also a model for the Ford Agency, and recently discovered that she and Sarasota photographer Giovanni Lunardi were working in Milan at the same time years ago.

Sculptor Todd Lantz, who has shown his work at the Ringling Museum and was a pioneer in having a studio on Central Avenue here, has now settled in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., with his wife, Joanna, who danced with the Sarasota Ballet in the ‘90s. He’s busy preparing new work for an exhibition, and Joanna is doing postdoctoral work in behavioral therapy at Columbia University Presbyterian Hospital. Lantz continues to work with found objects in the large studio he’s established in Westchester County.

Patrick Lindhardt, printmaker and professor of fine art at Ringling College, has received an award from the college for his outstanding contributions to the school. While grateful for the recognition, he says the most important recent event for him personally was his December two-person show with his son, Matthew, at C. Emerson Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.