BILL HODGES PHOTO
Dotti and Howard Volgeneau love their Simmons Lake lanai with its water/beach mural on one side and the lake on the other and reflecting in the windows.

Enjoying a Florida beach — staying safe at home

By PHYLLIS HODGES

Dotti Volgeneau has a passion for an open water view, nourished over several years living in Tampa and Apollo Beach and a visit to Hawaii. When she and Howard moved to Sun City Center in 1997, they missed seeing the water so had a water mural created inside their house on Del Webb Blvd. “It helped sell the house,” said Dotti. When they moved to Simmons Lake in 2017, she immediately envisioned a water-view mural on the lanai’s wall.

It took a couple of years to plan and find someone to paint it, but the Volgeneaus are delighted with the result. It was finished early in the pandemic and, during a year of scant social interactions, they have enjoyed their lanai with its Florida beach mural on one side and a lake view on the other. During a rare family visit this winter, they were able to offer a beach setting—without the beach. “The lanai was our ‘happy hour’ place,” said Volgeneau. “My puzzle table is there, too, and one daughter was converted into a puzzler while here.”

The two artists, Ann Walker and Barbara Onge, are both members of the Sun City Center Art Club. Walker, in fact, is an instructor there (now teaching Zoom classes). “The stucco was a challenge but the texture enhanced the mural,” said Walker. They spent nearly three weeks on painting it, alternating days to negate COVID exposure. Walker has painted murals before, but this is her largest.

“When I want to see a water sunset and boats on the water, I just go out and use my imagination,” said Dotti.