By By SPIROS GALLOS / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Fran Rosetto loves to paint, she just hopes visitors to the Niles District Library like what they see when her paintings on on display.
Thirty-two of Rosetto's paintings will be on display in the Eleanor and Mowitt Drew Gallery located in the library's rotunda from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31.
Rosetto was born in 1929 in Scottville, Mich. near Ludington before moving to Niles in 1959 after marrying her husband, August.
Her love of art began early when she was staying home ill from school when she was young. She started drawing pencil pictures of the horses from Prince Valiant comics she was reading.
While art was not part of the high school curriculum in Scottville, Fran drew covers for the school newspaper.
Rosetto didn't begin painting until about 15 years ago at the age of 60 years-old, when she took some classes at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art.
Rosetto is mostly self-taught, but has studied with local artists Denise Russell, Arlene Van Belle, Helga Watson, Alice Schlisinger, Kim Hoftman, James Bodan, and David Allen.
Rosetto still attends class every week.
Every Tuesday, Rosetto gets together with friends at Saint Patrick's Park in South Bend, Ind. to talk, paint, and critique each others' work in a social art class.
Rosetto's favorite subjects to paint are cats and dogs, but she has also done portraits, landscapes, and houses, she said.
Rosetto's first portrait was of her daughter, Judy, and her husband, Dennis Lollobridgida. Since then she has done portraits of friends, and of some celebrities from photographs of them.
Her favorite celebrity portrait is one she did of John Wayne, because Schlisinger, who passed away recently, helped her complete it, Rosetto said.
Rosetto has sold some of her work to people who want portraits of their pets. She won't sell her portraits of celebrities because she thinks it would be wrong to profit from someone's likeness.
Many of the pieces on display will be for sale if visitors would like to purchase them. Rosetto is nervous about the exhibit though.
Her favorite painting on display, "Desert in Bloom," will not be for sale though. The painting is from a picture of a recent trip to Arizona, Rosetto said.
The gallery where the work will show for two months, was named for the late Eleanor Drew, who was a long-time member and officer on the Niles Community Library board of directors, and her husband, Mowitt, a Niles attorney.
The gallery was opened in December 2002 as a way for local artists to showcase their work, library worker Mickie Spencer said.
The gallery has hosted numerous local artists' work, including students from Niles and Brandywine High Schools, and invited groups like the Niles Piecemakers, who showcased quilts, and the Niles Art Association.
For more information, contact Mickie Spencer at the Niles District Library at 683-8545 extension 3314.