Iwasawa Reception

October 12, 2018

Thank you to everyone who came out to the “Conversations With Culture” reception last Saturday at Iwasawa Oriental Art, your interest, support and company was so very much appreciated! The show, part of Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area, continues on until tomorrow, Saturday, October 13th.

Meticulously styled after a traditional Japanese mercantile building, this has been Iwasawa Oriental Art’s 36th year in operation!

Love it when my dear friends show up for me at my events, so grateful to have them in my personal and professional life!

Artist Theresa Giammattei dropped in!

Evelyn Consorti – mixed media

With my oil paintings Mr. Katayama’s Peony and Beijing Grey and Ken Matsumoto’s vase.

Lorraine Lawson and Gallerist Kumiko Iwasas Vadas and her apron which says “Best Merchandise, Best Price”.

Reception repast.

Patrali Paul – acrylic

Patrali and Lawson in the garden.

Lorraine Lawson mixed media with a stone vase sculpture by Ken Matsumoto.

Ken Matsumoto Vases with a Lorraine Lawson mixed media painting

James Ong with When Dreams Wake Up.

James Ong describing his process to gallery visitors.

James Ong acrylic print.

So happy to see artist Miguel Machuca drop by!

Gallery vsitors.

Hiroko Ohno – Galaxy – pigment on paper

Brooklyn based Hiroko Ohno with Whitney Modern Gallerist, Suzanne Whitney Smedt.

Hiroko Ohno – reconstructed painting pigment on paper

Ann Waltonsmith, Board Chairperson for Hakone with Hiroko Ohno.

Rosalio Vargas and Gallerist Kumiko Iwasawa Vadas.

Rosalio Vargas with gallery visitors.

Rosalio Vargas’s splatter cars.

Lorraine Lawson with Jeweler Erin Yoshizumi

Erin Yoshizumi’s work can be found at AtelierThe Hun.etsy.com

Conversations With Culture

October 6, 2018

I’m very excited to be exhibiting in “Conversations With Culture” at Iwasawa Oriental Art, 75 Universtiy Ave in downtown Los Gatos! It’s an exhibition arranged by Gallerist, Kumiko Iwasawa Vadas in her gorgeous, authentically Japanese Gallery to be part of Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area 2018! Like Asia Week, the show runs October 5-14 and there is a special reception TODAY from 1-5 pm with exhibiting artists, Hiroko Ohno, James Ong, Lorraine Lawson, Patrali Paul, Evelyn Consorti and myself giving artists talks (maybe around 2 pm). The show is free and there will be wonderful refreshments.

Artists are like sponges, soaking up all kinds of influences along their path but what they squeeze out in their work should not be a mere imitation of something they’ve seen before but something new, filtered through their own idiosyncratic prism of experience, perspective and vision. The paintings I create are rooted in my own personal narrative and the manner in which I handle paint, color and line are certainly my own but I feel there is a certain Asian resonance when it comes to composition and depth of field in many of my paintings. There is also a shared reverence for the beauty of nature and sense of season.Having said this, It is quite natural that when I paint a flowering cherry branch or a lily floating on a pond, or a peony in full bloom, I can’t help but think of all the exquisite depictions of these very flowers by Japanese and Chinese artists over the centuries and this rich tradition will inevitably pull me in that direction. But it happens even with less obvious subject matter. My paintings have been made better through my exposure to Japanese prints and Chinese brush paintings as well as their influence on artists I much admire like Whistler, Van Gogh and Monet. Often this cultural conversation is taking place in our heads without us even realizing it! I will be showing the following Asian influenced paintings that I have done over the years and I will talk about how this influence came about and how it has affected my work.

Beijing Grey
Oil on canvas
48″ x 30″

Pond Lily Magenta
Oil on canvas
24″ x 24″

Mr. Katayama’s Peony
Oil on canvas
24″ x 24″

Blooming Deadwood at Iwasawa Oriental Art

January 10, 2018

I am very honored to be exhibiting Blooming Deadwood at Kumiko Iwasawa Vadas’ gorgeous gallery, Iwasawa Oriental Art in downtown Los Gatos where Every objet d’art is carefully selected for not only it’s craftsmanship but how it artfully reflects the season and relates to its neighbor! Thanks to Lorraine Lawson, David and Kumiko for your help with the install!

Unveiling.

Measuring.

Placement.

Hanging.

Leveling.

Happy artist and gallerist.

You can take the girl out of the valley, but you can’t take the valley out of the girl! I grew up in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia with it’s orchards flanked by basalt mountains and now I find myself in the Santa Clara Valley, formerly known as Valley of Hearts Delight, famous for its orchards and now more commonly referred to as Silicon Valley. I adore how my painting, Blooming Deadwood, has been paired with Ken Matsumoto’s stunning Floating Usu, carved out of basalt!

I love the relationship pieces have with each other at Iwasawa Oriental Art, especially this Meiji period vase and bird with Blooming Deadwood as a backdrop, can you feel spring coming? I am told their will be cherry blossoms in a few weeks!

Galaxy by Hiroko Ohno, pigment and acrylic on paper mounted on wood panel.

Giclée of Tokyo Waterfall by Hiroko Ohno.

Also, Iwasawa Oriental Art will be conducting their first calligraphy class of 2018 with Kihachiro Nishiura January, 11th e-mail iwasawaart@comcast.net or contact them at (408) 395-2339 to reserve a spot.

Iwasawa Oriental Art

December 3, 2017

Have you been to Iwasawa Oriental Art yet? It’s a lovely gallery of fine Japanese art, furniture and design serving a very discerning clientele and celebrating their 35th anniversary this year! It’s located at 75 University Avenue in Los Gatos, California.

Kumikio Iwasawa Vadas, the gracious owner, exhibits work that reflects the changing seasons and is currently showing Water in Life an exhibit that runs until February 28th, 2018. How perfectly this parallels the current Waterlines exhibition at NUMU (where my pieces Stilla Maris and California Water Rites are currently showing) for which she is one of several generous sponsors! She is standing in front of a beautiful work of calligraphy by Kihachiro Nishiura – Sound of Water – Sumi Ink of Canvas. This skilled artist teaches calligraphy lessons at the gallery!

On display in front of the calligraphy are these amazing stone vessels by Ken Matsumoto, the one at the bottom is called Spillway Wash from 2015.

Ken Matsumoto – Grant Lake RipRap – Unidentified Stone – 2016

A painting from Masamichi Kotaki’s series, Neither a Point or a Line, work that echoes the gestural sweeps of calligraphy in Sumi Ink, mineral pigment and gold on hemp paper from 2006.

This beautiful Urushi or lacquerware green tea container is part of several vignettes of Toriawase in the gallery, the poetic art of arrangement, which is highly evolved throughout Japanese culture and maybe nowhere more so than in the Japanese tea ceremony in which the host can covey more than can be expressed in words with artful, thoughtful arrangements. The Chrysanthemum of autumn, depicted in gold is a symbol of longevity and follows the idea of Shitsurae, the practice of arranging decor to reflect the season or occasion. This piece is an example of Utsushi, where craftsmen look to employ and improve upon traditional imagery and methods, not to copy but to participate in an artistic dialogue that spans centuries.

Not only did I want to share this wonderful gallery with you but also share the exciting news that Kumiko Iwasawa Vadas has invited me to exhibit my triptych, Blooming Deadwood, here in the spring! We discussed it with a few friends over some lovely plum wine, cheese and crackers after my artist talk at Fade where the painting in currently on exhibit at Vargas Gallery. I am so honored to think of my work adding to the conversation of art and nature that envelops you when you enter this very special space!

Lorraine Lawson – A Sense of Place

June 14, 2016

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!