Open-Air Shopping at Robbie’s

Barbara Weingardt lets her art speak through acrylics. “I love painting animals. I identify with the animal kingdom much more than the human kingdom. I do a lot of commissions and dogs. Dogs are one of my favorite subjects.” She grew up in Brentwood, California, a Los Angeles suburb filled with Hollywood stars. Seeing Gregory Peck or Marilyn Monroe around the neighborhood was just another Tuesday. At church, Lawrence Welk passed around the collection plate. After leaving Southern California, she moved to Denver, Colorado, where she earned art degrees at the Colorado Women’s College and the University of Denver. Barbara had a jewelry design business there, too. Twenty-five years ago, she was lured to the Keys by the weather and fishing. In those first years, she “lived on her houseboat, like a gypsy. Best thing I ever did.” When she first visited Robbie’s, she painted the marina. She went on to paint the inside of the Hungry Tarpon, the outside of the restaurant, and then the bar. “Finally,” she said, “Michael asked if I wanted to come to the marina and sit and paint, and that’s what I’ve been doing for 25 years.” You can find Barbara at Robbie’s on weekdays and the occasional Saturday. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t painting. I know it is a cliché, but it is not what I do but who I am. I have to be doing this, and I love it. It is there. It’s a gift, and I am very grateful. I am exclusive to Robbie’s, which is why I go by Barbara at Robbie’s. This is like my home.”