Painting of Magnolia Tea II

So happy to get to my first painting of the white hummingbird I had so gleefully stalked with my telephoto at the Arboretum in Santa Cruz a few months back. I have lots of plans for all photos I took of him  but I wanted to start with something for my Birds & Teacups series.  I paired him with a white Limogues T&V demitasse, which is a delicate and glowing as the bird, and a magnolia grandiflora bloom.  If I’s wanted to be matchy-matchy I might have painted whit ivy, which seems to be depicts on the handle of the demitasse, but there’s enough magic and mystery going on in this image and I really loved the the scale of the flower compared to the bird and the cup.

Quick oil sketch in rose and vilolet tones.

Blocked in a whole lot of loose color, working largely dark to light.

Placing more halftones and highlights.

Blending.

Honing.

Refining.

Good day’s work but I ran out of daylight and objectivity. By Monday I should have more of both!

Anne & Mark’s Art Party Closing Bash

OK – it’s been over a week now and I really should have had this post up long ago but I’ve been suffering from an art hangover like you wouldn’t believe (unless of course, you were at the party)!

In fact, this is what the inside of my brain looks like now – a cacophony of pattern, lights and color like this giant kaleidoscope by Ned Greene!

Or this detail from Emanuela Harris-Sintamarian’s gouache Die Gesteze der Stukturen!

And here are the synapses of my grey matter firing in pops of dreamy florasl and dandelion puffs of exploding fractals seen here in Carrie Lederer’s Clear Night!

The computer of my mind is overloaded and is threatening to crash (detail from Karen Gutfruend’s CTRT ALT DEL)!

And my dreams are haunted by a blind white rabbit, thank you Tulio Flores and Asiel Design….so here we go – one more trip down the rabbit hole before I move on!

First of all I’d like to thank everyone who made it out to see my Florilegia and shared with me their response to the work – this input is simply invaluable to an artist  and means do much!  Thank you , thank you , thank you!

And then there were the visitors who seemed like they were exertions of my paintings!

So Fabulous!

And then there were my art crushes…..like this discarded cigarette packaging piece by Robert Larson.  He was able to take something dirty and disgusting and transform it into something sublime!  I smelled it too  – not a hint of nicotine or anything else. Pure alcmemy!

I also adored this woman’s torso fashioned from safety pins, Lacey by Bob Marzewski, like little stars or snowflakes tenuously welded together.

Lorraine Lawson’s missed media paintings,  Bob Marzeweski’s torsos and Tessie Barrera-Scharaga’s Matrix of Chaos, an installation piece of multiple images of the Virgin and kneeling benches.

So easy to get lost wandering through the maze of galleries – at least if you’re doing it right.

Kristin Lindseth’s prints.

Gianfranco Paolozzi’s Journal, enamel, robber paint, glue on recycled role of paper.

Will Marino’s Paradigm Shift , wound and folded paper

Patrick Hofmeister’s Aware.

Malia Landis’s IIiima in Kiawe.

Marianne Lettieri’s Memory Bank.

Lynn Dao’s Domestic Apocalypse

Love the simplicity of this delicate bowl  against a simple grey background in this oil painting by Deborah Trilling.

John Hylton’s Moon Watcher, canvas, paint wood.

Monica Van den Dool’s Behold in front of Emanuela Harris-Sintamarian’s gouache  Die Gesteze der Stukturen.

Wesley T. Wright – California Coyote – Stoneware, underglaze, glaze, concrete, steel in front of Nanette Wylde’s monoprints.

It was such a delight to meet Natalia Bertotti and Michael Garlington who collaborate on intensely dark, curious and magical images that somehow tap into some cultural core of ours – Grimm’s American fairytale crossed with something ripped out of the headlines of an old newspaper – or rather the stories that was never fit to print or maybe a precursor to a circus side show. They photographed Susan Sarandon in amazing paper dresses here’s a link to this process.

          

Love the flask action!

I’m not even sure what I’m looking at here, but it feels like a pierced and leaking Padora’s Box emptying out into a sea of melting glaciers – a big old barrel of global warming by Briget Henry with Ann Altstatt. Feel free to go with another interpretation!

Grant Wells’s  Ocean Structure 1, pigment transfer on canvas.

Tim Craighead’s oil and alkyd on linen, Without Constantini.

Adon Vaneziano’s sculptures.

Brian Taylor’s  Changing Nature, photography.

Dotti Cichon with her installation she collaborated on with Jamila Rufaro.

Pantea Karimi and her paper vovelles.

With Lorraine Lawson and her mixed media paintings.

Sara Cole’s Forgotten Women 2 , acrylic, graphite, gesso on paper.

Oleg Lobykin’s bronze Flex Cube.

Ann Sconberg’s  photography,Thirteen One and Two.

Quinn Peck’s archival ink jet print on fabric.

Betsy Braun-Kernaghan and her mixed media work.

Michelle Longosz photographs.

A detail from Jenifer Renzel’s The Contraption.

Vanessa Callanta’s self portrait.

Marc D’Estout’s A Briefcase of Puppetry  (detail)  found objects, fabricated steel, paint, patina.

Joe Uglyeye – Personal Demons – spray paint, screenpaint, acrylic on birch panel.

Denise Harris-Olenak’s Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, photographic plates on copper and wood.

Beyond the visual art, the big draw go the Closing Bash was the fabulous runway put on by Pivot:  The Art of Fashion!  The lights the crowds, the fantastic music and and even more fantastic fashion! Above are Charlotte Kruk’s  Bossa Nova Bombshells made from recycled Ferrara Pan Chewy Lemonhead & Friends, Lemonhead, CherryHead, Grapehead wrappers!

And her Godiva coat!

                         

Tullio Flores

Lace design work.

                          

Tulio Flores

                          

                         

IB Bayo

                          

Rose Sellery (left) Charlotte Kruk’s Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, recycled Tiffany bags and chandelier pieces (middle) Katraa (right)

Rose Sellery

MC Kim Luke thanking Pivot Oraganizers Tina Brown, Rose Sellery and designers, Charlotte Kruk, Tulio Flores, Katraa, Sudnya Shroff, Ruby Roxanne, Ricochet, IB Bayo and Many others…

Food truck fun.

Rose Sellery’s designs and sculpture

D’Arcy Couture models in front of Khaled Akil’s Requiem for Syria.

D’Arcy Couture.

Model Izzabelly Santos in IB Bayo.

Pivot MC, Kim Luke in front of

Sunya Shroff’s designs and painting and models in a moment of pre-composure

Pivot models in front of art.

Jessica Hilltout’s phtographs of handmade balls.

Pillar Aguero-Esparza’s multicultural Crayolas on paper.

Pivot model in front of Miguel Machuca’s Orchestrated Religion.

Butterfly model wafting by Teresa Cuniff’s There and Back

Glowing butterfly floating by Alan Silver’s oils on canvas.

Finally alighting on chair sculpture.

The morning after….picking up my work there are still a few remnants from the Art Party – Bill Gould’s sculpture tinkling overhead and the fabulous murals painted with Empire 7 glowing in the early morning sun. Farewell Wonderland, you will haunt my dreams until the next occasional and irrational art fest! Thanks to all involved with Anne and Mark’s Art Party – you’re the best!

Update – I’m delighted to hear that Anne Sconberg and Mark Henderson have just been presented with the Creative Impact Award for their extraordinary vision and hard work with Anne & Mark’s Art Party!  So well deserved!

In case you’re still game for more and missed previous Art Party posts, here are the links:

Tower of Bauble

Angels Among Us

Down the Rabbit Hole

Anne & Mark’s Art Party 2014

Connect & Collect – Going, Going, Gone!

The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Artis holding it’s 36th annual art exhibition and auction, Connect & Collect! Last weekend was the opening reception, silent bidding and buy it now options have begun and will build into a crescendo by October 22 . For more details and to get your bidding number visit: http://sjica.org

Jody Alexander’s linen wrapped and sewn book piece was already purchased!

Cynthia Ona Innis’s Tioga

Kirk Maxson’s Hummingbird Wings

Katja Leibnath and Katy Kindig‘s paintings had already sold!

Two pieces I adored by Pantea Karimi and Kim Froshin.

Dotti Cichon and Katy Kindig

Charlotte Kruk’s  Bomb Shell!

Detail from Michael Koehle’s Young Hillary

Monica Van den Dool’s– ceramic bird

Hung Liu and Eric Fischl!

Lorrie Fredette’s Distant Measures

Mary Souza with her Tuming 1



Carolynn Haydu’s
Sand

Jenifer Kent’s  Tum

So great that all these artists have donated work to help the ICA keep giving back to the arts community!

Tower of Bauble at the Art Party!

I so loved Marianne Lettieri’s Tower of Bauble that was on exhibit at Anne & Mark’s Art Party that I thought I should group all the details in a single post. As a collector of antique and vintage bits and bobs, this six foot Victorian column of ceramic chachkis really connected with me! The mania of collecting, the pile of stuff that looses it’s meaning in its mass, or perhaps presents a new meaning, one that points out the derangement of our obsessions and unending desire for more…and still the lesson doesn’t sink in and I am drawn like a moth to flame by mounds of decorative color and pattern!  I’d love to hear Marianne Letteri’s thoughts behind her work!

 

 

 

 

Angels Among Us Pivot at the Art Party!

One on the very special moments from the Closing Bash of Anne & Mark’s Art Party last Saturday, was the Pivot: The Art of Fashion’s Runway show! A wildly creative and exuberantly exciting evening full of exciting local designers! I adored Angels Among Us – a collaboration between designers Ruby Roxanne and Sudnya Shrof who produced an ethereal collection employing flowers, feathers, butterflies and branches, splatters of paint, a little sparkle, a little leather an what appears to be organza and silk. The effect was so divine and just the right amount of sinister!

      

My runway shots were far away and off to the side but I came across the models in the Main Gallery afterwards for some close-ups! In this first bunch, I love how the photographer’s clothes co-ordinate with the painting  (which I believe is also by Sudnya Shrof (and eventually subsume the model).

I LOVE how the branches and arms form a perfect heart!

These images are so gorgeous! I wonder if the designers would let me paint them one day… if I really, really begged?

I just heard from Ruby Roxanne, and she let me know the following….

“I designed the wearable art and Sudnya painted the entire collection. We collaborated on our designs and their meaning. Our Angels are standing in front of one of her paintings. “Among Us” was about Angels who surround us everyday. Little Angels, Twin Angels, Gorgeous Angels and Warrior Angels.”

Sigh…how beautiful is THAT?

 

Down the Rabbit Hole – Anne & Mark’s Art Party 2016

What a party! The food, the fun, the friends the fashion the frolicking the theme (falling down the rabbit hole into a world of wonder) and yes, booze, but at its core, Anne and Mark’s Art Party is all about the art – visual, musical, spoken and dance, SO many artist and SUCH great work! Artists emerging and established, local and international, street meets museum! As an exhibiting artist this year I am so grateful to Anne Sconberg and Mark Henderson and Georgie Huff and to the vast army of volunteers and contributors who made this all possible…and it’s not over yet!

The gallery is open this week, Friday and Saturday from 11am-5pm ($10 admission) and a Closing Bash ($29 admission) Saturday night, October I, complete with a Pivot to Fashion Show that is not to be missed!  It’s a good thing because you can’t see everything in one visit! Check out  https://artpartysj.com/ for more information! FYI This post is link rich – click on the artist’s names for websites where available!

Bill Gould‘s installation over the gateway to Anne & Mark’s Art Party clattering in the breeze  like a river rucking over stones.

Exhibiting artist Holly Van Hart and company in front of a sculpture installation by Tulio Flores and Linnae Asiel of Asiel Design.

Live painting!

So delighted to have six of my Florilegia – illuminated mixed media assemblage paintings on exhibit in my own little “gallery” in the south-west corner of the Main Gallery. Here I am with Purity and Oblivion.

Pano of my “gallery” Secret Lover, Mature Elegance, Happy Marriage, Purity and Oblivion.

With Bryan Callanta – the man who knows galleries and shirts and also the man I have to thank for my great little gallery!

With artist W.M. Vinci – the Mad Hatter with the sublime taste and the fab footwear!

Goldfish heels! Swoon!

Fabulous Steam Punk art lovers.

Susan Kraft and her encaustic paintings.

NUMU curator, Marianne McGrath. 

Sieglinde Van Damme and her digital prints from scanned Chemograms with gallerist Jack Fisher.

Jay Ruland‘s  gorgeous dying rose scanned prints.

Lovely White Rabbit & Mad Hatter!

Christopher Elliman‘s mixed media Systematic Deconstruction.

Tessie Barerra-Sharaga‘s mixed media installation.

Exhibiting artist Holly Van Hart with her abstract landscape oil paintings on canvas.

Samuel Price‘s mixed media collage.

Will Marino‘s wound and folded paper, Shadow (Fig Tree)

Jody Alexander and her Keep installation of discarded library books, and vintage linen  and book skins, boro technique worked textiles.

Lisa Wangness‘s mixed media collage Sin / Without.

Dotti Cichon‘s digital photography printed on silk.

Exhibting artist Sara Friedlander and her American Women: Birds of Im/Migration
Mixed media digital collage and paint on wooden panel

Sara Friedlander‘s  American Women: Birds of Im/Migration: Ethel on Her Way Home From School – Mixed media digital collage and paint on wooden panel.

George Rivera‘s dramatic oil on canvas figurative work.

Karen Gutfreund‘s bold text pieces.

Exhibiting artist Laura Jacobson with her prints and ceramics.

Rose Sellery – Baby Shoes!

Rose Selery‘s Pins and Needles dress (detail).

Exhibting artist Rose Sellery and her Rags to Riches sculpture with JR

Rose Sellery‘s Rags to Riches

Laura Scandrett‘s Untitled – Photochemicals on Photo Paper.

Cristina Velázquez‘s installation.

Exhibiting artists Kent Manske and Cristina Velázquez.

Marc D’Estout – Pinhead

Tim Craighead – Without Constantini and D. Brent Stephens – El Triunfo

Khaled Akil‘s Requiem for Syria 1- Digital print from painting and photography — with Anne Schonenberg and exhibiting artist Mary Wold Souza.

        

Exhibiitng artist – Guru and Angel – Mark Henderson.

Robert Larson‘s mixed media paintings – I love the one with the cigarette packaging!

Lorraine Lawson – mixed media on canvas (left)
Mary Wold Souza – oil on canvas (far wall)
Kim Pourciau – wedding china sculpture (center)
Patrick Wädl Hofmeister – mixed media on canvas (right)

Margaret Niven‘s mixed media trees flanking Stan Welsh and Margitta Dietrick Welsh’s mixed media, sculpture, photograph with drawing on far wall

Della Calfee‘s photograph On the Inside.

Robert Ortbal‘s A to Z sculpture.

Robin Lasser‘s photograph & fabulous party goers

Awesome aqua!

Brian Coleman‘s Neon lovliness!

Emanuela Harris-Sintamarian‘s gouache on paper.

         

Green fairy lights – Joe Miller – mixed media install, Exhibiting Artist Jane Peterman Trace and her acrylic Trace Memory

Wild orange!

Exhibiting artist Mandy Spritzer and her metal pieces

Exhibiting artist Danielle Dufayet and daughter.

Danielle Dufayet‘s acrylic paintings.

    

David Middlebrook with his missed media sculpture and the lovely April Gee.

David Middlebrook‘s sculpture and Gail Ragains abstact figurative paintings in oil.

Cool vibe – bass and piano.

Indian classical dance with Abhinaya Dance Co.

 

Best of friends!

Great sax with a jazz-funk-rap group.

Shovelman! I bought his Dirty West CD SOOOO good!

Late night in the VIP lounge.

One final blast of fire before I called it a night.

In Conversation – La Niña and Social Justice

In conjunction with the opening of Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All on at Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art (September 18 – December 1, 2016), Gutfreund Cornett Art arranged for the exhibiting artists to come and speak, In Conversation! 19 of the 46 artists were able to come, some traveling as far away as San Diego, LA. Utah, Mexico and New Zealand! We were all share it there was a single event that had tipped the scale for us, why were were creating the socially engaged work we exhibiting. In this photo above, taken by Sherri Cornett, we are all nervously waiting to begin, the quiet before the sharing. I was struck by how heart-felt and deeply human and absolutely inspiring all the artist’s stories were! I thought I would share with you here what I shared with the crowd last Sunday about my piece.

The image for my painting, La Niña, came to me in a flash and it haunted me, calling me to paint it. I had been following the coverage of the tide of unaccompanied minors from Central America flooding across the border between the United States and Mexico and I was driven to try and understand the circumstances in their homelands that must be so horrible as to drive them to make this dangerous journey alone. What I found was an environment of rampant gang violence, gangs like Mara 13 and 18 that began in LA and were deported to El Salvador where they had flourished, fueled by poverty and civil unrest. So pervasive and endemic was this culture of the Maras, many minors felt they had no choice but to flee from forced recruitment and rape. There was this one photograph I came across that made such an impression on me, it was of a young woman with a giant 18 tattooed across her face which she had received in punishment for refusing to execute a gang murder, it was a family portrait with her baby and her husband, who was the gang’s tattoo artist . She seemed so sad and worried – branded in this very obvious way, an admonishment, a possession, a target. The photo was taken by Christian Poveda, a Hispanic-French photo-journalist and filmmaker of La Vida Loca who was later killed by the gang for his work. In this photograph, I saw the impossibility of the situation where your very skin is indelibly marked with violence. I imagined  the image of an innocent baby floating buddha-like in a sea of tattoos, those of one gang etched on to her body, and those of the rival gang floating around her. In searching for a more universal statement, these very specific gang symbols later morphed into more generalized symbols for danger and entrenchment that are marking the lives of our children.

La Niña – Oil on canvas

Here I am interpreting symbols I had morphed in this photograph by Ann Dubois at the reception.

Social Justice Reception

The powerfully engaging internationally juried exhibition, Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All, organized by Gutfreund Cornett Art opened Sunday at Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art with an inspiring Artist Talk in which 19 of the 46 exhibiting artists participated, some who traveled from as far away as San Diego and Los Angeles, Utah, Mexico and New Zealand!  It was very moving to learn what had compelled each artist to create their work and to listen to the types of reactions their work has received. Typically working with controversial, challenging and even disturbing subject matter, I found all these artists to be particularly brave, passionate, thoughtful, smart and deeply human. I can’t tell you how honored I am to have my work included with this company. This exhibition runs until December 11, 2016 in Moraga, California. Print and online catalogues are available at Gutfreund Cornet Art.

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Dream team curators, Sherri Cornett and Karen Gutfreund in front of Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art.

Detail from Joseph Tipay‘s – Prison Letters – Woodcut and Monotype handprinted on kozo paper.

Me, with my oil painting, La Niña.

Miholyn Soon and Ellie Jones – The Sculpted – Video.

Sara Friedlander – Stonewalled in Jerusalem – MDF panels, digital collages, original and archival photos, paint.

Beth Krensky – The Bridge III  – Bronze

Veronica Cordoso – The Girl Who Fell From The Sky – Digitally modified digital photo on aluminum

Gerardo Castro – Haiti and Dominican Republic: One Island – Two Worlds – Fire-burning on Arches oil paper

Sibylle Peretti – Making Birds – Carved, engraved, silvered and painted plexiglass, feathers, paper

Rhonda Brown  – JustUs is not 4all –  Lenticular print, mixed media

Dan Tague – Justice Will Prevail – Ultrachrome print on photo luster paper

Jane Venis – Shiner – Vblack wet-look vinyl, 400 spikes, chrome chain

Jaime Shafer – 1 in 3 – Stonehenge paper, Epson paper, ink, photographs

Vicki Gunter – It’s Not One Thing…It’s Everything – Clay photographs, slips, stains, lusters, wood mount decoupaged with altered copies of $1 bills

Maru Hoeber – Flight – Porcelain and wood veneer

Priscilla Otani – Pleasure Quarter – Wax paper, photo, paper covered cages, ink drawings

Andrew Seaton – The Wall series (Reagan)  – Digital art

Justyne Fischer – The Sunshine State – Ink, voile, stretcher bars,  floater frame

Remedios Rapoport  – Power to the People II – Oil alkyd painted sculpture in wood with gilding, mirror and collage behind antique slumped glass

Xian Mei Qiu – The Birdcage – Photograph on plexiglass

Finally, I’m always grateful for my supportive friends – you’re just the best!

For more information on the exhibit, please click on this link to Gutfreund Cornett Art: http://www.gutfreundcornettart.com/info-social-justice.html

 

Whitney Modern is Open!

Welcome Whitney Modern, the newest contemporary fine art gallery in the Silicon Valley!  Situated on the second floor of the historic Tempelman Building  24 N. Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos California. In it’s beautifully renovated, light filled space, Whitney Modern is hosting the work of artists such as Gordon Smedt, Gustavo Ramos Rivera, Davis Burnett, Douglas Andelin, Brigitte McReynolds and Tim Cisneros. Here are a few pictures from their fabulous opening reception Thursday night.

 

Artist Gordon Smedt.

Vignette did the gorgeous floral arrangements for the reception.

Broad Shoulders,Gordon Smedt,  Oil on Canvas

Brigitte Reynolds

Doulas Andelin

Back Lit, Douglas Andelin, Oil on Paper.

Red Scarf, Douglas Andelin, Oil on Paper.

Artist Brigitte Reynolds and Gallerist Suzanne Whitney-Smedt.

Gustavo Ramos Rivera

Artist Gustavo Ramos Rivera.

 

HuffLove for Social Justice

Hey, a blog post about a blog post!

I wanted to share this wonderful article Amy Pleasant wrote for the Huffington Post on the exhibit, Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All called Artists as Activists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-pleasant/artists-as-activists-purs_b_11783614.html

This is the show that my painting La Niña is in, and I must say she’s hanging in some awfully fine company!

Social Justice in Moraga

Long time no see – but just because it was summer vacation and I was far to busy for blogging, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot happening behind the scenes that I’d love to share and I’m going to see if I can catch up! As usual, the post is loaded with easy links to click on where text is bold.

Yesterday, for instance, I took in my painting, La Niña to Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art in Moraga, California for Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All, an exhibition curated by Gutfreund Cornett Art.  I’m standing in front of the exhibition banner featuring one of my favorite pieces from the show, Xian Mei Qiu’s  The Bird Cage (I can’t wait to see the original photograph on plexiglass in person!) The show opens Sunday, September 18 with a 1:15 pm  Artist Talk at the Soda Activity Center and runs through to December 18.

The art in the exhibition is extremely moving and powerful (as can be seen in their online catalogue), juried from artists across the country and beyond!

The exhibition catalogue can also be ordered through Amazon (I’m on pages 34 & 35).

Saint Mary’s College mission styled campus is stunningly beautiful, its white stuccoed architecture gleaming through its green and flowering landscape, nestled into the golden hillside east of Oakland – a gorgeous setting to look at some of the darker themes we need to pay attention to in our world.

This the the Soda Activity Center (up behind the church) where I’m told the Artist Talk will be held. There is free public parking directly in front of this entrance and the Museum is just across the way where a reception will be held in the pretty courtyard. I hope you’ll consider making the trip to experience the work first hand and to hear the artists tell their sure to be fascinating stories!

 

Beyond the White Hummingbird

The Australian Garden at the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum has so much to offer, and while I was understandably blown away by the spectacular white hummingbird sighting, I thought I might share some of it’s other treasures…

Rare Leucistic Anna’s Hummingbird in the Grevillea.

Me in my official like birding outfit – meant to blend into the garden and attract hummers…worked!

Showy Banksia

Flight fight!

Showy Honey Myrtle

The Rufous and Allen’s Hummingbirds look a lot alike, the Allen’s is supposed to have two white spots on its tail tips instead of three like the Rufous, but even knowing this it’s still hard to tell as the Allen’s does have a sliver of white on that third feather and both can have a substantial amount of green on their backs – especially the juveniles and the females.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrub Jay

Cooper’s Hawk fledglings

Desert Cottontail

Bottle Brush

Lipstick Plant

Common Buckeye

Actual buckeyes – (on a Black Tailed Deer)

The White Hummingbird

I spent a perfect day with a white hummingbird – my new muse!

This Leucistic Hummingbird, visiting the Australian Gardens at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, may be the first sighting of its kind in Santa Cruz County! I’ve been scouring the web for more info and it seems there have been sightings in Santa Barbara as well.  The Leucistic Humming bird (in this case most likely an Anna’s Hummingbird) retains some pigmentation (dark eyes, beak and legs and often there are traces of color in it’s plumage) where as a pure albino hummingbird would have a complete lack of pigmentation, it’s eyes, beak and legs appearing pink.

Seeing this hummingbird in the wild was pure magic and that’s saying something considering how impossibly beautiful a typically iridescent hummingbird is! This was like a little glowing fairy flitting in and out of the sunlight, but a fierce one who was robustly defending his territory from interlopers. I watched him ascend high in the sky to hover then dive balm the smaller Rufous and Allen’s hummers. I first spotted him in his his special perch in a spindly tree where he was perfectly camouflaged, looking like a leaf in the dappled sunlight  (I could hear him singing before I saw him – which apparently is a one way of identifying an Anna’s). From here he could clearly survey his territory and would make his rounds visiting the various proteas in the garden favoring the Grevillea “Robyn Gordon” and the Hairpin and Showy Banksia but he also patrolled the conifers edging the arboretum – maybe looking for bugs and worms? Funny how this bird from the Americas is favoring the flowers from Down Under!

Out of the blue…

A spark in the dark…

Glowing in the garden…

Exhibiting near the Louvre

My first public exhibit near the Louvre!

 

Do it …near the Louvre!

 

Kapow!…near the Louvre!

 

Tickle…near the Louvre!

 

Onlyness…near the Louvre!

Thanks to my dear friend, collector and curator, Nilofer Merchant, for arranging this impromptu pop-up exhibit of my mixed media paintings in Paris!  Love it!

 

Kristin Lindseth – Metaphysical / Metaphorical

There is a moving exhibition of Kristen Lindseth’s masterful bronzes on currently at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame. More than portraits, these sensitively rendered busts and masks explore states of mind, histories that make us who we are, and the personal process of transformation. Make some time to spend in the quietly revealing company of these sculptures!

Metaphysical / Metamorical

Labyrinth of Time

Labyrinth of Time (rear view)

Civilization

Spirit Mountain

Union of Opposites

              Time (side views)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soar

 

Soar (side view)

                          

Transformation                                               Inner Alchemy                                               Transformed

Embarkation

The exhibition, Metaphysical / Metaphorical, continues on through to August 7, 2016, with an Artist Talk, Sunday, July 10 at  2:pm .

Los Gatos Plein Air Art Show and Sale

The Los Gatos Morning Rotary Club hosts the the annual Los Gatos Plein Air Art Show and Sale. Artists from all over the US are juried into this week long event where artists paint throughout the area, producing an amazing oeuvre of fresh work to be auctioned and sold at the end – the results are always impressive!Here a few shots I manage to capture from today’s sale at the Town Plaza (artists websites are linked to their names).

Greg LaRock (Newport Beach, CA) – Best of Show

Suzy Long – ( Mendocino, CA) The Copper Bucket – People’s Choice Award

Susan Elwart Hall  (Atherton, CA) – Artist’s Choice Award

Susan Elwart Hall – Pink Buzz – Oil – Honorable Mention

John Guernsey (Marietta, GA) – Courtyard at the winery -Oil -Second Place

Waye McKenzie (Truckee, CA)

Wayne McKenzie – Mountain View – Oil – Third Place

Wayne McKenzie – Friendly Rivalry – Oil

Wayne McKenzie – Santa Cruz Surfers – Oil

Anton Pavlevnko (Mollala, OR)

Anton Pavlevnko – Trickling Creek – Oil – Honorable Mention

Terri Ford (San Jose, CA)

Terri Ford – Valley Vista – Pastel – Honorable Mention (with a bit of reflection)

Kevin Kasik (San Jose, CA)

Kevin Kasik – Shannon Road (detail) – Oil

Me and Kevin hanging…

David Stonesifer (Los Gatos, CA)

David Stonesifer – Foot of Shannon Road – Oil

Ed Lucey (Los Gatos, CA)

Will Maller ( Los Altos, CA)

Sergio Lopez (Santa Rosa, CA)

Sergio Lopez – Capitola Rooftops-  Gouache

Barbara Clark (Corrales, NM)

Barbara Clark – painting detail – oil

Sterling Hoffmann (Sebastopol, CA)

Abby Zhang (Los Gatos, CA)

Laura Wambgans (Santa Clarita, CA)

Art Docent Volunteers, Julia and Judith

Art lovers

Artist Lorraine Lawson volunteering with the Morning Rotary.

Lorraine Lawson – A Sense of Place

A Sense of Place is a beautiful exhibition of Lorraine Lawson’s mixed media paintings showing at the Triton Museum of Art until August 21. I was delighted to attend the opening reception last Friday and take in these sophisticated, zen-like pieces that are so richly layered and textured. Gorgeous work!

Lorraine Lawson with Gallerist Kumiko Iwasawa Vadas, of Iwasawa Oriental Art.

 

Silver Lining – Mixed Media

 

David Ligare at the Triton

There is an absolutely stunning retrospective of David Ligare‘s paintings currently on at the Triton Museum of Art.  I could try to stumble around a description of his work, the impeccable technique, the fine draftsmanship, the exquisite sense of light and place, the billowing drapery caught on a sea breeze, the classically themed allegories with their sensitively rendered figures and buildings but all of this seems to exist on a higher plain that needs to be seen and experienced rather than clumsily communicated by me. David Ligare – California Classicist runs until August 14 and must be seen to be appreciated!  Here are a few pictures from last Friday’s Opening Reception:

Me standing in front of Arete – simply a stunning masterpiece!

And better still standing in front of Arete with the artist David Ligare himself!

                       

Coung Nguyen, getting his book signed by the artist,  Docta Pietas – Oil on Canvas – Collection of Barbara N. Hyland and William G. Hyland,   Preston Metcalf Executive Director of the Triton and Marianne McGrath, Curator NUMU in conversation.

David Molesky and David Ligare in front of Landscape with an Archer – Oil on canvas –  collection of the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

Artists David Molesky and Holly Lane viewing the exhibition.

The model for Penelope was present at the reception and inspired a photography frenzy!

                          

Rock – Oil on canvas – Collection of Lorna Meyer Calas and Dennis Calas

The Memento, an Autographed Copy

What a thrilling moment to finally get my hands on my own autographed copy of The Memento by acclaimed author Christy Ann Conlin!

The reproduction of my painting, End of Spring, inspired by the author’s own photo and licensed by Doubleday, came out beautifully and I’m adoring all the details of the jacket designed by Five Seventeen. The feel of rag edges fill me with delight and the inscription and acknowledgement made my heart sing and my eyes tear up!

And then there’s the story itself  – an exquisite, genre bending tale of waves and islands, of teacups and tragedies of secrets and whirs and whispers, of needle sharp jabs and sensual tinglings, of promises and betrayals, of heavy scented languid days and mysterious spine chilling nights, all set in that place I have called home in a tongue I am not unfamiliar with. A place called Petal’s End – how dreamy is that?!  Enjoying this gift from my dear friend the master storyteller!