Sarasota artist Enid Romanek paints a portrait of her new community

When Enid Romanek moved to Sarasota in 2014, she promised herself she wouldn’t draw or paint local buildings. She felt that, after spending decades creating pen-and-ink and watercolors of highly recognizable locales in the Washington DC region, she needed a break.

“Getting involved in drawing a city is so consuming for me,” said Romanek. “It overwhelms me visually and mentally.”

She tried to kick the depicting places habit by doing pet portraits. But, like anyone with a long-held preference, Romanek couldn’t stick to dogs and cats: she’s just too fascinated by buildings and locations.

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“That’s how I’ve seen the world from as early as I can remember,” she said. “When I was little, I always wanted to run away from home. I was very unhappy. Taking care of myself through my work was, in part, inspired from that,” she explained.

Later, as an illustration major (with a creative writing minor) at Syracuse University, her penchant for places was further influenced by an illustration professor who instructed the class to carry a sketchbook everywhere they went. Then he took them plein air drawing. “That’s when I realized: what I wanted to do in my life was to just paint what was around me.”

When Romanek moved to Chicago with her college sweetheart-turned husband, she began writing poetry and writing and illustrating children’s books, but she never stopped considering the world around her. “In Chicago, I was impressed with how many different little areas reflected so many (diverse) people’s backgrounds. That’s what got me back to drawing local scenes,” she said.

If truth be told Romanek’s resolve about not depicting Sarasota locales was over before it ever started. “I drew a picture (of the statue “Unconditional Surrender”) when I was just visiting,” Romanek admitted. She promptly arranged to sell prints of the piece at Garden Argosy on St. Armands Circle, which still carries her work, along with Morton’s Gourmet Market in Sarasota, Local Bean Coffee Shop on Siesta Key, and others.

Then, upon moving here, Romanek created a coloring book that doubles as a guidebook for visitors with kids. She’s currently working on a second edition to include the new Bayfront Children’s Playground.

“What’s most appealing about Florida is the lighting, and what’s best about Sarasota is the culture,” Romanek remarked. Those elements solidified her return to being an artist whose subject matter revolves around local buildings and scenes.

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She began painting sights on Siesta Key, like boats on the Gulf, lifeguard stands (at night and in the day), and the drum circle, which she sold as a vendor at the Siesta Key Farmers Market.

Then she executed a series of eight cultural Sarasota locales, including the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, the Sarasota Opera House, Florida Studio Theatre, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe and more. She promptly packaged them for sale as a set of notecards, now available at shops and venues around town.

Romanek is no stranger to both street vending and retail wherewithal. She first rose to prominence in the early 1980s as one of the few women or white street vendors in the DC area among primarily black, Asian, and Afghanistan sellers.

“It was one of the most fascinating times. I was part of the scene I was drawing and meeting all kinds of people. Especially significant was that we were able to unionize despite having no boss,” she noted. “That was a big part of my life for a long time. I got to work for US News and World Report and CNN through people that I met on the street.”

Eventually, she realized that street vending at Dupont Circle wasn’t going to fully cut it. “I wanted my work to be available to more people. I started running two galleries of just my own artwork, and an outdoor kiosk, and holiday space,” said Romanek.

Her biggest creation in those days was a calendar that gained a cult following and is still sold today. “It had many of my drawings of places, eight pages of things to do in the DC area, and the back cover had snip and send postcards,” she said. “I did all the research, writing, marketing, and delivery myself.”

But Romanek is not nostalgic for her former career. “I am very well known in DC; my work is in lots of places and still in stores. But some of it is not relevant anymore,” she said. Now, with a Sarasota-based body of work, Romanek feels it’s time to ‘come out’ locally. To declare, “I live here now. This is what I see and love, and this is how I see it: this is who I am.”

At age 85, Romanek credits her interminable energy for making location-specific art to the pleasure she gets “when I see people that have a personal connection to the work,” and to 40+ years of yoga practice.

Now that she is fully engaged with Sarasota, Romanek is conjuring up ideas for future work. During a recent visit she was working on a drawing of the iconic Hob Nob on US 301. She’s also wondering how to best capture Sarasota’s homeless population.

“I thought I might start a sketchbook of people on the streets, combined with their stories of how they got there. Because they could be any one of us,” she explained.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Artist creates a portrait of Sarasota with drawings of local landmarks