Now I'm on the way to Bealls to paint a Valentine's Day heart live

Now that my appearance on Fox4 Morning Blend is over, I’m headed for Bealls on Cleveland Ave (just north of Daniels). I will be painting another heart live beginning at 11:00.

I became associated with the Bradenton-based department store back in February of 2013. They saw some of my paintings and liked my bold, vibrant colors and the way my images capture Southwest Florida’s active, healthy, water-based lifestyle. But Bealls is a prudent, smartly-run company, and it wanted to test the water by first doing market analysis and focus group testing.

They started out slowly, introducing a limited line of casual wear bearing images they commissioned me to create. The designs caught on, and so the following year, Bealls expanded my product line, adding handbags, totes, luggage, beach towels, Tervis drinkware and more. The new products were rolled out at the same outlet in the Cypress Trace Shopping Center in Fort Myers where they’d first announced our affiliation. To mark the occasion, I painted a seahorse live for a crowd of nearly 200!

Today, I’m thrilled to report that Bealls’ expanded Leoma Lovegrove product line is available in each of the Department Store’s 74 brick-and-mortar department stores throughout the State of Florida as well as online. And I am proud to say that the promotion and sale of my product line has given Matlacha Island and Southwest Florida added name recognition and a welcome boost in tourism. That’s because each item identifies me as an impressionist/expressionist artist from Matlacha Island.

And today, Bealls is releasing a brand new “heart” T-Shirt for everyone to enjoy.

Beall’s Department Stores is a division of Bealls, Inc. Founded in 1915 as a dry goods store, the Bradenton-based company now operates more than 540 stores in 17 states under the names Beall’s, Beall’s Outlet and Burke’s Outlet. Besides Florida, the company operates stores in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Today, Beall’s is the destination of choice for casual lifestyle and priced right apparel and home merchandise. To learn more about Bealls, please visit BeallsFlorida.com.