On one wall a Venice street scene: bright and busy storefronts peopled with bright and busy figures eating, walking, talking—living the Florida life in great gobs of textured oil paint. Another wall, another scene: an explosive Siesta Key sunrise captured in streaks of salmon, yellow and fiery orange playing across a deep blue ocean behind a foreground of delicate reeds. To the right, dark earthen tones lay out an impressionistic landscape like a distressed photograph or patched memory of a land already lost. Nine more pieces populate the ground floor of the Center for Arts and Humanity with a handful more on the third floor, where the Arts and Cultural Alliance makes its home. The life’s work of painter and Sarasota staple Gary Ritzenhein, the late artist is commemorated this summer with a special exhibit entitled The Guy Who Paints On The Beach and an opening reception tonight at 5pm.

“Through his interpretation of these scenes, he shows you Siesta Beach, he shows you what this community looks like and what we’ve become known for,” says Jim Shirley, executive director for the Arts and Cultural Alliance. Known for posting up by the lifeguard tower at Siesta Key Beach with his easel, his paints and his palette knife (often used in place of a brush), Ritzenhein made a name for himself not only through his constant presence, but an uncanny ability to capture, if not the strict reality of the scene, the beach feel in all its seemingly paradoxical brightness and heat haze. “That was a real talent of his,” says Shirley.

Following Ritzenhein’s passing last September, the family continued to receive requests to view his work. Holding a sizable collection, they reached out to the Arts and Cultural Alliance as to the possibility of exhibition and Shirley was quick to act. The Alliance tries to host local work in the building at least once a month, he says, and Ritzenhein’s Sarasota renown and subject matter made him the perfect candidate.

“We’re a community that’s centered around beautiful beaches and we’re blessed to have a great artistic community,” says Shirley, “and when you combine the beauty and simplicity of the beaches and the artists who are able to capture them, it’s a good combination.”

The opening reception for The Guy Who Paints On The Beach begins tonight at 5pm at the Center for Arts and Humanity. Beach refreshments will be served and dress is casual summer beach attire. The exhibit hangs through Sep. 15.