BY BARBARA GIZZI
SPECIAL TO THE BEACON
Deltona Art Club’s Featured Artist for the month of June is Angelina Henry. Her acrylic painting Miami Beach, Barbados is hanging inside the door of Deltona City Hall and will be on display for the entire month.
Henry’s painting represents a visit she made to her mother’s family home in Barbados and a trip to “Miami Beach” in Christ Church Parish on the south coast of the island.
Angelina wanted to paint a picture in acrylics of a hotel there with a pool facing the beach. Painting beach scenes on Barbados is something she has often enjoyed, because she feels that the water on the Caribbean side is more beautiful and colorful than on the Atlantic side, and that it just calls out to be painted.
Art has been a part of Henry’s life since she was a child when she was learning to paint in watercolors.
The daughter of a Native American Cherokee father from North Carolina and a Barbadian mother, Henry attended American University in Washington, D.C. She studied theater design using watercolors, and later discovered other mediums when she took classes at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.
While working part time as a librarian, she eventually got a degree in library science from The Catholic University of America.
When Henry and her family moved from Maryland to Florida in 1986, Henry became the librarian at Deltona Middle School, and she taught English as a second language at Daytona State College in Deltona. She then worked for more than nine years as a librarian for Volusia County libraries, before retiring in 2017.
Henry has been a member of the Deltona Art Club since her retirement. She enjoys coming to the monthly meetings and sharing her paintings, crocheting and sewing projects.
COVID stopped the monthly meetings at the Deltona Regional Library in 2020 until last fall, when some of the members of the club felt safe enough to meet outdoors at Gemini Springs. Henry attended some of those meetings, and was there when the library was once again reopened for morning meetings.
The Deltona Art Club takes a summer break from May until September, when the club will once again meet at 9:45 a.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at the Deltona library.
The Deltona Art Club welcomes all area artists interested in sharing their art and becoming a new member. The club also is restarting its weekly Thursday workshop 12:30 p.m.-3 p.m. at the end of June at The Center at Deltona. Everyone is welcome to join in and bring what they’re working on. Learn more at www.deltonaartclub.com.
