SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (April 23, 2013) Sanibel Island’s Il Cielo restaurant will host a reception this Sunday, April 28 for east coast artists Carmen Lagos and Gustavo Castillo.

From 4:30 to 6 p.m., attendees will be able to converse with Lagos and Castillo about their vibrant and colorful paintings that are hung throughout the restaurant, all of which are also for sale.

The reception is free and open to the public.

Meaning “the sky” in Italian, Il Cielo is located at 1244 Periwinkle Way on Sanibel Island.

Suzanne Lurie, Sanibel resident and retired interior designer who curated the artwork for Il Cielo, owns a number of Lagos and Castillo’s prints in her Sanibel home and brought one of her own Giclees of a banana leaf by Lagos and hung it in the restaurant’s foyer. She helped select the additional 15 pieces from Lagos and Castillo’s catalogue. The limited edition prints, which were personally framed by the artists, range in size from 30 inches by 40 inches to 50 inches by 70 inches.

Castillo and Lagos have been painting full time for 24 years. The married couple turned to painting full time after successful careers as a commercial pilot and architect. Lagos’ work features an earthy palette and detailed forms of leaves and blossoms. Castillo’s work, by contrast, has an abstract foundation and playfully addresses images and colors.

Il Cielo recently added a daily happy-hour menu in its Cloud 9 Grille with specially priced appetizers and drink specials.

From 4:30 to 6 p.m. daily, patrons can enjoy eight appetizers priced at $6 and two-for-one drink specials on all domestic bottled beer, well drinks and house wine selections.

Happy-hour appetizers include meatballs with gravy, shrimp cocktail with golden tomato gazpacho, parmesan-white truffle French fries, angus beef sliders with house-made pickles, salmon rillettes with crostini, Caprese flatbread, free-range chicken wings with redhot, honey and sriracha, baked blue fin crab cake with lemon caper tartar sauce and seared

For more information, visit www.ilcielosanibel.com or call 239-472-5555.