From golf clubs to paint brushes, North Naples resident Norman Swiderek is happy to be back in the swing of things. At 78, the seasonal Illinois resident has been chipping away at mastering the art of watercolor, with more than 110 paintings to his credit.

The avid golfer was forced to put down his clubs following two operations due to a severe case of pneumonia.

“For two-and-a-half years, I wasn’t able to play. I would look out from my lanai and see my friends playing,” he recalls. It was not long before depression set in.

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With some coaxing from his wife, Alice, Swiderek enrolled in a watercolor course through Continuing Education at Barron Collier High School.

He took basic watercolor painting from instructor Betty Wilson and moved on to intermediate and advanced watercolors with Anika Tigchelaar.

Art is not a completely new subject for Swiderek. He owned three jewelry stores in Illinois, where he enjoyed designing unique pieces of jewelry.

“I always made the design based on the person who was going to wear it,” he says.

He uses the same approach to painting, creating works specific to the style and interests of friends and family members. Some of his paintings line the walls of a make-shift art studio in his garage.

Norman Swiderek in his makeshift studio.

The paintings are magnificent in detail, from a colorful bloom for the red walls of his granddaughter’s home, to a painting of ducks in flight, originally painted for a hunter and recreated for himself.

Swiderek specializes in stilllife painting, but also dabbles in landscapes and not surprisingly, his preferred subject matter is the golf course.

Favorite pieces portray his grandson enjoying the warmth of a fire during a tailgating party in front of Soldier Field, two five-foot paintings of white roses for his granddaughter and a work featuring Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, created for his younger grandchildren.

“Every morning, I could hardly wait to put my pants on, because I love to paint,” Swiderek says of his new- found passion. “I jumped in head first.”

He held his first show for the Rotary Club in Orland Park, Ill. That show featured 63 paintings, four of which he sold.

Last month, he held a show in the Grande Reserve Clubhouse in The Strand. The event was a big hit, thanks to the help of his neighbor, Jeanine Healy.

Thanks to improved health and his newfound skills, Swiderek hopes to get out of the garage and into the field, perhaps painting scenes from the boardwalk of Big Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. But he’s in no hurry.

“I just paint, and I’m having a good time at it,” he says, smiling at his work.

For more information or to view Swiderek’s work, call 592-0104