ROBERTS’ PAINTING
RETURNS HOME…
TO CEDAR KEY
January 27, 2018
Cedar Key Library was presented with “one of the best” Bill Roberts’ paintings yesterday, January 26, 11:30 am, in the first-floor reading room, among a small group of friends and appreciators of old Cedar Key and art.
The painting has a full life of its own, said Jean Skaife-Brock, a part-time resident of Cedar Key since 1976. The painting has always been a “deliberate gift’ to friends with the understanding that when “re-gifted,” the paining must return to Cedar Key. And so, it did today.
Jean first saw the picture hanging in the Island Hotel. Husband Jim Brock, “fell in love with the picture,” said Skaife-Brock. The painting stayed with Brock in Wisconsin and eventually was hanged over his bed in Hospice.
The painting then traveled to North Carolina, “where it didn’t belong,” remarked Jean. Knowing the Adams family was close to Roberts, Jean mailed the painting to them in Ocala where it found home for years.
Ted and Yvonne Adams, of Ocala, are close to Bill Roberts who resides now there in close proximity to his daughter Donna. In addition to being good friends, Ted and Yvonne assist Roberts with reproducing and framing his work. The picture came to the them in the mail from Skaife-Brock with the understanding that at some point, it would need to be returned to Cedar Key. The Adamses enjoyed the painting for years and placed it prominently in their home. Now downsizing and beginning to travel more, they found this to the time to return it to Cedar Key, especially since Jean Skaife-Brock would be here as well.
The only missing person was Roberts, approximately 85 years-old now, who was not feeling quite well enough to travel to Cedar Key yesterday for this presentation. He is still painting energetically, and plans are in place to bring Roberts to Cedar Key while Skaife-Brock is here, sometime in February.
More of Roberts’ work focusing on Cedar Key may be seen on his website: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-bill-roberts.html
Library Manager Molly Jubitz expressed delight to be the next friend to care for the painting and to welcome it home. Unclear as to precisely where the painting will hang, she assured all that it would be an appropriate place.
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