Explore Priscilla Coote’s ‘Escape to Cuba’ at Gallery on Greene, opening Saturday, Feb. 6.
Cuba couldn’t wait. And Priscilla Coote couldn’t look away.
The Key West artist recently spent two weeks in the close-but-closed Caribbean country and she’s been painting the entire experience since her return.
Gallery on Greene will showcase Coote’s resulting body of work in a two-week show entitled “Escape to Cuba,” which opens with an artist’s reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6.
“I’ve seen most of the Caribbean, but Cuba was something entirely different and exciting,” said Coote, who has lived and painted in the Florida Keys for more than 20 years.
Her nearly 20 new paintings are as diverse as the island that inspired them.
Long known for her achingly blue waters and smudged, yet shimmering shorelines, Coote’s latest collection frequently faces inland, to the Cuban countryside, its timeless tobacco fields, aging architecture and careworn cars.
In “Escape to Cuba,” Coote celebrates the ever-patient, always-playful Cuban people, and of course, immerses us occasionally in the waters that keep Cuba surrounded, separate – and sheltered from what’s to come.
At least for now.
“I had to get there before Starbucks,” Coote said of the foreign, yet familiar, new frontier.
Priscilla Coote’s “Escape to Cuba” showcase opens with an artist’s reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 at Gallery on Greene, 606 Greene St.
For more information, visit galleryongreene.com or call 305-294-1669.