The monthly >feast that is "First Friday at Artist Alley" will take place on the evening of March 5. Artist Alley will be welcoming visitors >with food, wine and warmth, from 5 to 9 p.m. >

On hand for the evening will be artists Diane Kraudelt and Frank Giordano, whose diverse works will be featured in the gallery throughout March.

In the world of sports, we often hear that "champions are born, not made." >The same might be said for the world of art, as the case of Diane Kraudelt suggests. >The youthful Diane just did what came naturally. >

"As a very young child I wanted to capture what was around me, so I drew our dog," she says. "Unfortunately, >I drew it on my bedroom wall." >

Not so unfortunately, after all, as Diane's mother recognized her child's native talent and >quickly invested in art supplies, and a lifelong passion was >launched.

Kraudelt's enthusiasm for art and her skills grew throughout her early years; after grade school she was selected to study commercial art at >Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Mich. After graduation, she continued her art studies with various >lessons.

Kraudelt has >worked to excel at various media, and each subject or theme she chooses to represent might require its own form of expression. >Her medium is often dependent upon what she >wishes to create. >For her, more important than the mode of expression >is the opportunity that each medium offers her to grow as an artist. >

Kraudelt regularly enters national, regional and local shows and has been juried into some well-known exhibits.

"My recent juried shows include the 2009 Randolph Arts Guild 27th Annual Juried Art Show, the 2008 Hilton Head National Juried Exhibition, the 18th Annual Mid-Atlantic Juried Art Exhibit, and the 2008 Long Island Smithtown Township Arts Council Exhibit," she says. "My recent awards include an honorable mention in oil from the 2009 Fine Arts Festival held by the Arts Council of Moore County and Best in Show at the 2006 Fine Arts League of Cary Annual Senior Show. I have received many other awards over the years."

Kraudelt accepts commissions to do custom work, and her paintings are >exhibited in galleries, businesses and private collections. > Giclee prints and note cards >featuring her fine art work are also available. >An experienced teacher of painting, Kraudelt offers private lessons in her home, at the student's home or at a gallery where she exhibits.

After a long career as a professor of English literature, freelance golf and wine writer, and business writing consultant, Frank R. Giordano Jr., Ph.D., retired from Houston to Aiken, S.C., and exhumed a desire to paint and draw that had been long buried during > years of building a marriage, a family and an academic career. >

Courses at the University of South Carolina under Professor Al Beyer provided both a basis in knowledge of technique and the encouragement to create paintings and submit them in local competitions and for sale. > Giordano's first entry in the Aiken Artist's Guild's exhibition in 2004, a large rendering of water lilies on the fringes of "Pop's Pond," won the Best-in-Show award for acrylic paintings. > Other awards have followed since then.

Working chiefly in acrylics and pastel Giordano produces large works of landscapes and, lately, golf scapes, in which the natural rhythms of the land and the brilliant reflections of light result in works of rich color and shape and movement. > Acrylics and pastels, Giordano claims, offer very "forgiving" media, which allow artists the painterly equivalent of golf's mulligan. >More easily than with oils, he believes, an errant stroke of the brush or crayon can be erased and a surer result produced. >

"Like the golfer, every painter has a B-player, a 'Bubba' in him or her, who usually drives it straight down the middle after an initial flubbed tee shot," he says. "Working and reworking, editing and revising, are as essential in painting as in any other significant creative activity."

Since moving to Pinehurst, Giordano has become a member and officer of the Artists League of the Sandhills, whose talented members encourage and educate each other to progress in their vision and skills. > >Giordano accepts commissions to paint clients' favorite golf holes and courses, usually special places where they traveled, >learned the game, celebrated important personal achievements or scored holes-in-one, for example. >In addition, his paintings appear on his series of Pop's Note Cards. The larger pieces are available in reproductions, as giclees and posters. >

For information about the work of Diane Kraudelt and Frank Giordano, or their First Friday opening, >contact >Jean Skipper of Artist Alley at jeanskipper@gmail.com or (910) 692-6077. >

Artist Alley is located in downtown Southern Pines, at 167 E. New Hampshire Ave.