PAINT

his “Gulf Stream Pandemic” homage, Sadler added a glimpse of the coronavirus in the water.

Despite the isolation and fear the man must feel, Sadler sees the work as inspirational.

“He’s not giving up,” the artist said of the painting’s central figure. “That’s my take on it: Not to give up hope.” The faint sight of a larger vessel on the horizon also offers a cause for optimism — the “rescue ship far in the distance represents a vaccine,” Sadler said.

Painting works such as this can take an emotional toll on the creator.

“It does make the reality hit home even more,” Sadler said. “You feel the angst of the person in the painting.”

For artist Mikel Wintermantel, the pandemic has struck particularly close to home: The Buffalo, N.Y., painter is married to a nurse. The couple spent weeks isolating from each other at home while she awaited results from a COVID-19 test.

“I had to deliver her meals outside the French doors” of their bedroom, he said. “Then she’d come out and get them. That was an ordeal.”

His wife did not contract the virus and has continued working. Their daughter, studying public health at the University at Buffalo, helps test people for coronavirus. The effects on his daughter and her generation inspired his work.

“My emotion is, here’s this sweet empathetic kid, and her life has been squelched,” Wintermantel said. “She should be out having fun. Instead, she’s like a caged bird.”

He painted his daughter, a music lover, playing her guitar inside a cozy room — while snow from a freak spring storm blanketed the trees outside.

“I like that metaphor,” he said. “It’s a cold world out there; stay inside where it’s safe.”

Wintermantel’s dog also got in on the act. In an early entry, Wintermantel painted his pet, who survived an unexpected attack from a larger animal — much like humanity has been struck by a scary force bigger than itself.

These are the kind of stories that Weinaug thinks should be preserved for posterity. His ultimate goal for The Great American Paint In is to assemble a coffee-table book of the images, with accompanying text.

“I can see this book in an art classroom 50 years from now,” Weinaug mused, “and the teacher says, ‘I want to talk to you about how to paint emotion.’ ”

More immediately, the work will be available online at thegreatpaint-in.com. Weinaug hopes to attract about 350 artists to the project, representing every U.S. state.

“I don’t want this just to be a Central Florida thing,” he said. “It should be an American thing.”

The exhibition is juried, meaning the artwork is reviewed for quality before it is accepted (artists may apply at the website). And beyond working in paint and providing a written statement, there aren’t many other requirements.

“I don’t want to have any rules,” Weinaug said. “I want them to paint whatever comes from their hearts, whatever they’re feeling.”