VERO BEACH — The Center for Spiritual Care is proud to start the season with Artist Suzy Mellott. There will be a reception during First Friday, Nov. 2 Gallery Stroll from 5:30 until 7 p.m.

A tax Certified Public Accountant in a former life, Suzy Mellott has always been an artist at heart. She studied graphic design at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio for two years before switching her major to business and graduating with an accounting degree in 1980. She worked at what used to be called a “big 8” accounting firm for seven years, counting the hours each day until she could get home to her latest art project. After her second daughter was born in 1989, she retired from the accounting world and stayed home to raise her three daughters Sarah, Jenny and Betsy.

“I always have several creative endeavors going to feed my soul,” she says. “I love to draw, paint, sew, garden–almost anything where I can use my hands and create! Doing art gives me great joy and I am so honored and blessed to see the world through artist’s eyes.”

“I’ve taken many art classes and workshops since college,” she continues. “I have studied with Jenny London, Chery Baird, John De la Vega, Halima Washington, Kamal Sinclair, Barbara Tiffany, Stacy Barter, Laura Fernandez and others. I like pastel, watercolor and collage, but my biggest love right now is oil painting. My favorite subjects to paint are people and animals. I love to capture their personalities for others to enjoy. I strive to put a smile on the viewer’s face and in his heart, each time he looks at one of my paintings.”

Suzy also gives back through her art. In 2015, she started painting with a group of artists for a nonprofit organization called “Painting for Good Causes”. To date, Suzy has painted portraits of approximately 20 foster children or children with cancer. These portraits are donated to the families of the children with cancer or the foster children once they are adopted.

Suzy is represented by the Palm House Gallery and Studio on Ocean Drive in Vero Beach and by the Vanderbilt Gallery in Nantucket.

For more information on this and other events at the Center for Spiritual Care visit www.centerforspiritualcare.org, or call 772-567-1233. The Center is located at 1550 24th St. in the Arts District of Vero Beach.

This article was distributed through Treasure Coast Business, a news service for the readers and advertisers of Indian River Magazine.