The Palletteers of St. Croix, located on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, welcomes a continuously changing membership to their group. The group paints at a different site on island, every Friday morning, rain or shine. Their only criteria is that there be a restroom and some shade available.
When they get together, the Palletteers paint for two to three hours, gather to show and tell (not required) and often go to a nearby restaurant to have lunch together. The group varies in size from one or two on a rainy summer day to twenty or more when the snowbirds flock to St. Croix in winter. Some of the members are beginners, some are professionals, and the rest of them are somewhere in between.
There are no dues, rules, regulations, commitments or obligations. The group is run democratically, with all members contributing suggestions of interesting sites or activities. Their painting locations are all over the island, at private homes and public places: the Palletteers paint St. Croix. They communicate mostly by email, with one member (currently Ginger Anderson) notifying others of the location for that week’s gathering. Those who don’t have email hook up with someone who does to keep informed of messages.
The group began in the early 1990s when Sondra Catts and Emy Thomas met in an art class and started painting together between classes. Other painters gradually joined them and finally they established a regular date—every Friday morning from nine to noon.
In the mid 90s Shirley and Marvin Porter got the group organized by scheduling locations in advance and printing out monthly calendars. They thought up the group's name (and distinctive spelling) and created their logo. The Porters moved back to Pennsylvania several years ago and started a “branch” of the Palletteers there.
About 2 years ago, a blog site was developed for the Palletteers http://palletteersofstcroix.blogspot.com It is maintained by Ginger Anderson.
Although they had a small showing a few years ago at Undercover Books, the group's first art exhibit, Art in the Garden, took place in March 2009 at the St. George Village Botanical Garden, and has become an annual event. Ginger Anderson was the curator for the show which featured the artwork of 25 of the Palletteers.
Recently the group began a lending library of art books owned by it's members.
If you are, or plan to be, on St. Croix, and would like to paint with them, they can be contacted through their email palletteers@gmail.com .