Lunch with Theodore Wores

What a pleasure to learn more about Theodore Wores, California Impressionist painter (1859-1939) over my bag of almonds at the Triton Museum of Art’s Brown Bag Lunch series conducted by Deputy Director, Preston Metcalf today! The Triton has 47 of his paintings in their permanent collection, a generous gift from his wife, Caroline Bauer. A good number of these pieces were recently cleaned and restored and are included in this exhibit, Under the California Sun, which consists of landscapes painted in the San Francisco Bay Area and Yosemite. Many of his orchards were painted right here in Los Gatos and Saratoga and are so special to me as I grew up in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, surrounded by orchards. In fact, they are actually kicking off their annual Apple Blossom Festival today! Under the California Sun will continue at the Triton until July 29 when it will go on tour!

Theodore Wores – Spring Blossoms of California – Los Gatos – 1919 – oil on canvas.

Theodore Wores – Blossomtime, Saratoga, California – 1919 – oil on canvas.

Theodore Wores -Tree Blossoms – 1920 – oil on canvas

Theodore Wores – Road with Blossoming Trees – 1922 – oil on canvas.

Theodore Wores – Road by Blossoming Orchard – 1925 – oil on canvas

Theodore Wores – Spring Blosoms of Los Gatos – 1925- oil on canvas.

Theodore Wores – My Studio Garden in Saratoga, Ca. – 1926 – oil on canvas.

Theodore Wores – A Garden in Saratoga, California – 1927 – oil on canvas.

Want to see more Wores? The Triton has a batch of paintings he did in Spain that need the same loving (read professional and expensive) cleaning and restoration that these pieces had. They are gratefully seeking financial donations (to bridge the gap in grants)…just saying!

¡Red Wheelbarrow Book Launch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How exciting…. the book launch for the national edition of the Red Wheelbarrow is this Tuesday, December 12 from 7-9 pm at Works/San José, 365 Market Street, San Jose, California!  Doors open at 6:30pm and performance begins at 7:00pm.
Free appetizers and affordable wine, beer and soda. Suggested admission $2 – but no one will be turned away.

Books will be available for purchase with my painting Magnolia Tea II smack-dab on the cover!  This volume of art, poetry and prose was compiled by Ken Weisner who invited Sara Cole to curate the art which includes work by:

Pilar Agüero-Esperanza
Jhina Alvarado-Morse
Natalya Burd
Marie Cameron
Sara Cole
Kim Frohsin
Kristin Lindseth-Rivera
Mila Libman Starbird
Margaret Wherry

Featured readers from the new issue of Red Wheelbarrow and from the Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize will include:

Len Anderson
Rose Black
Dave Denny
Alex Giardino
Rosie King
Lita Kurth
Peter Nash
Dion O’Reilly
Lisa Allen Ortiz
McTate Stroman II
David Allen Sullivan
Aimee Suzara
Robert Sward
Cynthia White

In celebration of the Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize:

Partridge Boswell, from Vermont
Gary Young
Lauren Goldstein, from New Mexico
Susan Kelly-Dewitt

Fade – Artist Talk

I was delighted to give an impromptu Artist Talk at Fade (my solo show at Vargas Gallery at Mission College) prompted by my friend artist Lorraine Lawson who kindly rounded up a great group which included people with backgrounds in galleries, marketing and art.  It is a special thing when artists come out to support other artists!

I loved sharing the stories behind these paintings, how I choose both medium and technique to help tell the tale and the symbolism I try to employ.

Telling the story behind Blooming Deadwood.

So nice to see artists Veronica Gross, Dotti Cichon, Lorraine Lawson and Linda Benenati! We are enjoying the suggestion that I get a scissor lift for my paintings like Hung Liu uses!

Sometimes you can better see what’s in your heart with your eyes closed.

Talking about employing chiaroscuro (light /dark) in both the lighting of the figure but also more figuratively in the lightness of the feathers and the darkness of the Bacchanal in the folding screen.

Talking about combining different experiences to create an image, the albino deer of Pine Mountain Lake, the dormant forest at Picchetti, a nest of branches at Kirkwood, the fawns that visit my backyard and the antler drops I have in my studio.

With gallerist Kumiko Iwasawa, Lorraine Lawson and designer Robin Sedgewick.

Kumiko Iwasawa in front of Blooming Deadwood – we spoke of exhibiting at her gorgeous gallery, Iwasawa Oriental Art, in the spring!

Waterlines Artist Talk at NUMU Tomorrow

Please join me for a conversation with curator Marianne McGrath at NUMU tomorrow, Saturday, November 4th. We will be talking about the genesis of my pieces Stilla Maris (drop of the sea) and California Water Rites, currently on exhibit with Waterlines. We will explore my artistic process, my relationship with water and notions of what might be considered sacred. Come and ask me stuff! Share your experience of water and what it means to you!

Here are some panoramic view of the exhibit which includes  (painting, photography, assemblage, installation, video, drawing prints and sound pieces)  by Judith Belzer, Barbara Boissevain, Marie Cameron, Matthew Chase-Daniel, Christel Dillbohner, Linda Gass, Nancy Genn, Liz Hickok, Theodora Varnay Jones, Pantea Karimi, Cheryl E. Leonard, Danae Mattes, Marsha McDonald, Klea McKenna, Ryan M. Reynolds and Linda Simmel, curated by Marianne McGrath.

Several artists exhibiting with Waterlines will speaking about their work in conjunction with NUMU’s Winter Celebration which will run from 12- 4 pm. Check out this link for all the activities (including decorating sugar skulls)!  This is free for all NUMU members, $10 general admission, $6 for seniors, students and military and free for everyone 18 and under.

NUMU is at 106 E. Main Street in Los Gatos, California.

How much is that Doggie in the Window?

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where the dogs went.” – Will Rogers.

A pack of pooches were juried into the display in the front window of Gallery 24 for the month of November. Paintings are by Julia Watson, Kay Duffy, myself, Sandi Okita and Kevin Kasik.

Here’s a close up of my painting, Retriever in the Orchard, a 12″ x 12” oil on panel. I met this beautiful chocolate lab bounding through the historic apricot orchard in Saratoga  between rain showers and piano lessons one spring.

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!