FIVE ELVES OF INTEREST
The HOLIDAY ARTIST
BY JANIE GOULD
When Teri Barrett was
58
growing up in Vero
Beach, she was mesmerized
by a painting
in her grandparents’ popular
restaurant, Barrett’s Steak House.
“I used to sit in this one little
cubby and there was this beautiful
poinciana tree painting above
the table and I used to just sit
there and stare at it,” she said.
“I didn’t realize it, but I was
probably studying it, and I later
found out it was one of Beanie
Backus’ paintings.”
Like the famed landscape
painter from Fort Pierce, Barrett,
53, started painting as soon
as she could hold a brush. She
painted on pebbles from the
beach, on pieces of wood from
her parents’ yard, “anything I
could find.” She took art lessons
one summer from the late Dorothy
Curzon and also later took
some art classes in high school,
but mostly she learned by doing.
Barrett graduated from St.
Helen School and Vero Beach
High School. She worked as a
medical receptionist after high
school and raised her daughter,
Candace, now 33 and living in
California, as a single mom. During
those hectic years, she had
little time to paint.
“Fortunately, we were able
to live with my mother, who
helped raise my daughter,” Teri
said. “Back then it was just week
to week, making a paycheck to
survive.”
Barrett’s mother, Alma Barrett,
worked as an office manager at
the Indian River Citrus League
for an amazing 54 years. When
her four children were growing
up, she sometimes took on a second
job as a telemarketer to help
pay the bills. She was nearly 80
when she retired from the Citrus
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A SEASON OF CELEBRATION
ED DRONDOSKI
Vero Beach painter Teri Barrett often donates some of her unique creations for fund-raising auctions.