ANDREA GALABINSKI Nationally acclaimed and now North Fort Myers-based artist Greg Biolchini is opening his studio for the Artist Studio Tour.

On Saturday, Jan. 24, art enthusiasts are welcome to a rare treat – a chance to visit several area artists’ studios as part of a special tour. The tour will include seven artists’ studios from the new teaching studio of Greg Biolchini in North Fort Myers to the small intimate studio of Joan Sonnenberg in Naples. There will also be stops in Fort Myers and Bonita Springs on this self-directed tour.

Besides Biolchini and Sonnenberg, other artists opening their studios include Ginger Craven, Cheri Dunnigan, Jackie Moore, William Ward Moseley and Joan and Karen Stone. The tour is sponsored by the Southwest Florida Pastel Society, a non-profit organization which supports a number of educational opportunities for adults and youth in the Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties. Proceeds from the Artist Studio Tour will help fund local education efforts.

“Our membership includes those in Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties,” said the organization’s Mary Lou Hicks.

A stop at local artist Biolchini’s studio will be worth the stop, said Hicks. “Greg is an accomplished, nationally-known artist residing in our midst, and deserves much local recognition,” Hicks said.

He’s won many honors and distinctions.

“One of the honors I’m most proud of is a local award. I was named Visual Artist of the Year in 2006 by Angels for the Arts of the Alliance of the Arts,” he said.

He’s also had exhibitions at the von Liebeg Art Center in Naples, painted a portrait of the founding dean of Florida Gulf State University and even painted in the Everglades with artist Frank Corso after a casual meeting there.

He said he looks forward to visitors to his new studio, which has a spectacular view of the Caloosatchee River. He teaches there, and hopes to see some new students interested in his workshops.

He’s fond of pastels, acrylics and oils, he continued, and teaching. Besides giving workshops around the country, he looks forward to doing more teaching in North Fort Myers, his home-base for the last 30 years.

Of teaching, he said, “It’s just something I fell into little by little. When I teach I feel like I’m working with fellow artists.”

He also does 12 national workshops a year, and just returned from one in Hawaii. For locals it’s been word-of-mouth, small groups, and he encourages those interested to view his Web site at www.biolchini.com to contact him. He said he works on his own work at the studio daily.

“I don’t feel my studio looks like a studio without a piece up I’m working on,” he said. “My studio is on the Caloosahatchee River, but I’m inspired with or without a river. My challenge is inspiration, and to always paint a little better.”

He said he loves to “paint outdoors and from life.”

Biolchini became involved in the society in its early days.

“That was when Sandy Jackoboice came down from Michigan and immediately recognized the need for a Southwest Florida society and contacted me, and I gave her a list of my contacts here,” he said.

He said the tour will be enjoyed by those who participate.

“To me, I love opening my space for a tour,” he said. “I’ll have refreshments and look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new people.”

Tickets are $5 each and may be purchased by calling 454-6595.