Sun Wind and Rain Blog

Sun, Wind & Rain would like you to join us in celebrating another successful year downtown!  We’re proud to announce our 3rd year anniversary!!!  Summer is in the air…so come help us kick start another prosperous season going into our 4th year of business!

~A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.  ~James Dent

If by any chance you didn’t receive our invitation…please join us for a wonderful evening with Scott Speck, the conductor of the West Shore Symphony . He will delight you with the line-up for the Symphony’s 08/09 season. If you haven’t met him this will be a great opportunity to do so. It’s so motivating to meet professionals who love what they’re doing. Don’t miss him! Plus we have great new items for fall! We are also featuring a signature dish from Mia & Grace … and why miss that? Check out their new Web site on our friends page. Also Sarah Rinsema-Sybenga will be live here on location with her beautiful string trio Romanza. Plus….we will be featuring a new line of gourmet delights from Earth & Vine a product fresh from San Francisco!

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves…!
- Humbert Wolfe

It’s Delicious Autumn , join us to celebrate!

September 19^th 2008

5:30pm – 7:30pm

Conductor Scott Speck returns to

Sun Wind & Rain to inspire us with a

08/09 season preview of the

West Shore Symphony Orchestra

You will also be treated to:

String trio ‘ Romanza’

‘Shrimp Martini’ a specialty of Mia & Grace

And other edible delights

Plus….!

Fresh Fall Items to energize your

Heart & hearth for Autumn!

United Way of the Lakeshore is inaugurating their first Rubber Ducky Derby to raise funds to benefit Lights On After School, an out of school time initiative which provides high-quality, fun, safe havens, where youth are supported in reaching their fullest potential. Current Lights On sites include the following elementary schools:

Oakview, Grace Loftis, Orchard View, Ealy and Oehrle

On Labor Day at 11:30 am Monday September 1st, the Ducks will be released at Michigan Adventure’s Water Park and the first Duck across the finish line wins $1,000! Other prizes will be available as well. You do not have to be present to win.

Synergy, a local Muskegon retailing group, has ‘adopted the ducks’ for a joint summer fund raiser in support of United Way of the Lakeshore and Lights on After School. Synergy will receive a dollar for every duck they sell and these collective proceeds will also go toward to a non profit of their choice. Just another way local retailers are working together to help build Muskegon and give back to the community that support their local retailers.

To help support this good cause buy a commemorative rubber duck at the following retailers:

Sun Wind & Rain, Jilly’s Gallery, Clay Avenue Cellars & The Station Gallery, Art Cats Gallery, McDonald’s Homemade Candy, Mia & Greace Bakery-Bistro, the Cheese Lady, Hegg’s Gallery of Fine Furniture, Glamazon Salon Muskegon Mercantile Museum Gift Ship LST Gift Shoppe, Wassermans’ Floral & Gifts, & Muskegon Museum of Art.

Ducks are also available at local Huntington Bank locations.

For more information or to volunteer for the event contact De’Ondra Pentecost at the United Way office – 231-722-3134 ext 229.

This is Penney’s bio. She will be one of the featured artists at our Sun Wind and Rain event on July 25th.

“My husband Jim and I with our two Golden Retrievers moved to Muskegon in December of 2006. We chose Muskegon as our place to retire, with the lakes, beaches and our 11 acres to roam. The area has so many things to offer, tremendous fishing for Jim and great subject matter for me to paint.

I have always done Art in some form or another from Drawing to Oil Painting. Five years ago while living at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. I began to take on Watercolor. In 2005 we moved to Des Moines, Iowa where I was able to take many Watercolor Classes. Last November I traveled to Charleston, South Carolina to take a Workshop with Nationally Renowned Artist Mary Whyte. I have admired Mary for several years and to take her workshop was a great privilege for me as well as encouraging.

I had the pleasure May thru June to display some of my work at the Betty Clark Gannon Gallery.Watercolor has been one of the most challenging mediums I have worked with but also the most fun. Every painting has been a new experience leading me to the next. It has become my true passion.”

This is our first invitation to be put online! We are very excited about having this new avenue to make you aware of our events. We will be featuring 3 very different artists at our July 25th event. Check out David Warmenhoven’s photos and information that will give you a great idea of what he does. Hear more about Penney Smaardyki in my blog post. I don’t have information to post on Gretchen Cline so you will just have to come to the event to see her work which is uniquely strong and insightful. I met Warmenhoven when I was working on the art project for the Arts & Humanities Festival in 2002. His work is contemporary big and bold and I love it! Its playful, thoughtful and puts fire to your inner child!

Art’s in the Air!

Come celebrate summer with Sun Wind & Rain as we feature the art of three distinctively different artists:

David Warmenhoven
Penny Smaardyk
Gretchen Cline

Come enjoy light hors d’oeuvre and summer cocktails.
Friday, July 25th from 5:00pm-8:00pm