Longboat Key artist wins Art Center Sarasota show

The theme was anything goes, so Jeanne Guertin-Potoff went with everything she had — and it paid off. The Longboat Key artist recently won first prize at a juried art show at Art Center Sarasota for her mixed media piece “Milford,” named for her New Hampshire hometown. 

Out of three pieces she submitted to the show, titled simply “Anything Goes,” “Milford” was the only one accepted. It’s a collage marked by a large swath of dark blue in a white field. 

“I started working on the piece, and it became about the stories we tell ourselves and the mindsets we get into, and how overwhelming that can be, and then how you pierce that story and begin taking it apart piece by piece,” Guertin-Potoff said. “And then you start examining it and changing it, seeing it for what it is and hanging on to the truth of it, and letting go of the pieces that you've added to it that don't make sense anymore. It was insightful and led me to a place that I wasn't expecting, I didn't set out to do that, so it's an example of how you start playing with something and it becomes an inspiration.”

Guertin-Potoff has lived on the Key since 2013 and like many other creative minds who finally started to take a break when they started their Longboat lives, has taken endless inspiration from the gulf and natural beauty of her surroundings. Milford and her chilly roots are a part of her, but the sands and sounds of Longboat Key and Sarasota have become home. 

“To be in this amazing atmosphere, with the sound of the ocean, and the sunrise, sunset, being able to walk in the sand, being able to be in the water, it’s such a complete sensory experience,” Guertin-Potoff said. “And then to have the city of Sarasota a few minutes away with all that this city has to offer culturally, it’s so stimulating. I have all the excitement of the city and the stimulation here, so it's kind of like being a city dweller with a country house.”

So while her home is an inspiration, she often finds the beginnings of her paintings in Sarasota. Collaboration is a huge part of Guertin-Potoff’s process. She shares a studio on Longboat Key with another artist and takes as many classes as she can at Art Center Sarasota. Working with other artists makes it easier to be brave in her own work, which has given her confidence to enter more juried shows like the one that accepted “Milford.” The buzz around Art Center Sarasota, where Guertin-Potoff has met many other artistic women, keeps her own work fresh. When artists are working there at the same time, they’ll call out for quick critiques or brainstorm sessions. 

“I like education, I like knowing new stuff,” Guertin-Potoff said. “Being in a group, where we're all working independently helps you focus on what's truly yours.”

The award-winning “Milford” is a collage, something Guertin-Potoff has turned to more recently. She’s been painting off and on for about 15 years, she said, and turned to it more once her children were raised and her business career was winding down. She worked in massage before retiring, which she said allowed her creative side to roam as she tuned into the energy of the person whose muscles she was working on. As an artist, she’s also worked in ceramics, printmaking and photography, but a canvas is where her inspiration takes flight. 

“I love the feel of the paint going onto the canvas and I love the sense of creativity and creating something from nothing,” Guertin-Potoff said. “I always lived creatively in terms of the things I did culturally and the things that I was attracted to, but actually creating in two dimensional or three dimensional form was not something that I did all along.”

Between her tranquil seaside life and her gateway into a vibrant, collaborative community of artists, Guertin-Potoff has no shortage of inspiration for her next piece, and the one after that. It might not always come from the same place, but it almost always leads to a satisfying result.

“It feels like my life has a balance, and a lot of my work is about balance,” Guertin-Potoff said. “A lot of my work is about taking a lot of energy and the chaos of a lot of things going on and condensing it down to a very calm, laser-focused place.”