It feels so satisfying to bring paintings to completion, the multitude of little drips and details, the compositions, colors, textures, flow and glow and expressions – right down to my squiggly signature. Finding the right title is fun too – Unwilding, Periphery and Hinterland – thanks to author and friend Christy Ann Conlin for playing the name game with me!
My little herd.
Hinterland
Periphery
Unwilding
A really fun Art and Wine Festival is happening this weekend, Capitola’s 37th annual! I was delighted to take it in Saturday morning, taking the shuttle from the Target mall (because Capitola weekend traffic on steroids- or Chardonnay). Before checking out the chock-a-block booths filled with art: glass, metal, leather, fabric, stone and paint or curated. (the gallery where my work is on exhibit) I made sure to get my toes in the sand and ocean waves!
Blown glass
Art Tents
With Melissa Kreisa and Theresa Nelson, the amazing women who are curated. and my newest little painting.
My little florals hanging with Ursula O’Farrell’s figures.
My Shell Grave and a few Birds and Teacups. (bit backlit)
Gail Ragains and Lorraine Lawson
Melissa Kreisa and Jay Ruland
Jay Ruland, Dee Hooker, Jane Ferguson
Jane Ferguson
Russell Powell with Theresa and Melissa.
Russell Powell
Melissa Kreisa (detail)
Gail Ragains (detail)
Noelle Correia
Carrie Clayden (detail)
Dee Hooker
Lorraine Lawson (detail)
Dee Hooker, Jeff Owen?
Good day for a hat!
Can you spot the handstand?
Fresh of the easel – these little 6″ x 6″ oil paintings on cradled panels were dropped into deep gold floater frames and popped over to curated. (309 Capitola Ave) in Capitola, California for the 37th Annual Art and Wine festival this weekend (Sept. 14th & 15th) Over 150 fine artists and 22 Santa Cruz Mountain wineries, local music and amazing food. Admission is FREE. Shuttles will be running into town from the Capitola Mall every 20 min.
Lifeguard Tower 7
Naked Ladies
Storm Cloud
Lifeguard Tower 11
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″