|
Acrylic Painting on stretched canvas. Expressionist motivated |
Big Al's Tulips by Lisa Barker |
|
|
Following graduation from The Art Center College of Design, John Burrows began his successful career in interior design, and remains active in this field through Burrows Design located in Newport Beach, California.
Through his art, John gives the viewer a sense of shared identity with subjects and scenes familiar to us all. John tends to paint using a larger format, as he is convinced that simplicity demands a broader canvas. One patron commented that John’s paintings look like recalled memories. John and his wife Jeni, also an artist, share a home in Newport Beach, California. |
Shopping by John Burrows |
|
|
George has spent most of his professional career as a social worker. George, now in his mid-50s, paints almost every day. He is inspired by the beautiful northern Colorado countryside and the many people who share his life. George is a Renaissance man whose talents include furniture and cabinet making. His home is adorned with his handcrafted furniture, cabinets, two looms and numerous paintings.
“I always believed I had the ability to draw, which is the foundation of my desire to paint,” he says. George started painting with watercolors in 1986 at the Denver Art Students League. In November 1998, he focused on oil painting under the teaching of Liz Todd, an artist from Fort Collins, Colorado. During this period, he developed a passion for oils.
George works from life. His models sit for him until completion. George’s landscape paintings are composed on location to capture the essence of light. His larger landscapes are completed in the studio from his on-location field studies. George is inspired to paint subjects, mostly his friends and acquaintances.
George is known for his landscape “road trips,” taking him often to neighboring states to capture a three-hour segment of light. George enjoys surprising his painting companions by taking impromptu excursions that often end in Wyoming |
Michigan Creek by George Coll |
|
|
Full time artist, Nancy Eckels, was born in Kingston, N.Y., and grew up in Utah. After high school she attended the U.S. International School of Performing and Visual Arts in San Diego, California where she earned a BFA degree, and concentrated on acting and musical theater.
Nancy was a late bloomer when it came to the world of art. A different creative career preceded her move into painting. Always wanting to work in show business, she followed that direction and, after several years and many different television jobs, she became a director on the CBS daytime drama, "The Bold and the Beautiful". But eventually, the lack of control over her time and her life convinced her to try painting full time. Having dabbled with painting throughout her life, and given her family background, it seemed like the most natural transition she could make. Her parents met in an oil painting class, and her sister, aunts and uncles are all involved in art. Nancy considers herself a self-taught artist, and refers to the "osmosis method" when asked about her training. She obtained a wealth of art knowledge by growing up around talented, artistic family members.
Nancy’s paintings use uninhibited texture and color and are created in acrylic paint with an unplanned improvisational style, allowing them to be more about emotion and mood than tangible elements. Nancy just begins to paint and lets her instincts and emotions take her wherever they may. |
Resting Red by Nancy Eckels |
|
|
The colors and forms in my paintings are the result of a spiritual process for me. I often paint while listening to music in my studio, and it becomes a meditative act that removes me from the mundane concerns of everyday life.
I often use geometric shapes in my work because I find them calming. In Buddhism, the circle, square, and triangle are the shapes found in nature, they are basic elements of everything you see…you just have to look. When I paint, I’m simply breaking things down into their basic elements. Reality is in simplicity—the more complex something gets, the less real it becomes.
I believe my art comes from the Creator working through me, allowing me to get closer to spirit, calm my mind, and live in the moment. It’s that peace that I hope viewers experience when they look at my work. |
A Rare Gift by Mike Fletcher |
|
|
My paintings are produced in the medium of watercolor, using Winsor and Newton transparent watercolor exclusively. I work on 300 lb. Arches watercolor paper which is permanently mounted to an acid-free backing board. I use only five colors when I work: warm and cool reds, a pure blue, a pure yellow, and for my Southwestern work, burnt sienna. However, most of my colors are mixed from the primaries.
Over the years I have become a studio painter, never painting on location. I work from my photographs (I have thousands) and have the ability to reconnect on an emotional level with the scene as first experienced. I add and delete information as composition dictates, but basically attempt to give the viewer the same experience that I enjoyed.
I produce about 150 originals a year, continue to grow, and have sufficient control to express my views on a regular basis. Self-expression is my driving force and a large part of the compensation in this discipline.
I am self-taught in watercolor, but I was born to the creative process. Technique is only a part of art and creativity cannot be taught. Artists are born, not made. Keep your heart as well as your eyes open when you view art. Enjoy. Be happy. Be whole. |
Santa Rita by Tom Gavitt |
|
|
Lana Grace, Painting, Auburn,
California |
|
|
|
There was something about being an air force brat, and doing a fair amount of moving around, that really sunk in as part of Kara's inner landscape. “I feel very alive when I travel. When I’m seeing new scenes, new landscapes, feeling different climates and energy I feel I’m in my element.” The ‘scenes’ captured in any painting are a slice of life. “Sometimes there’s movement, sometimes a stillness, and often both – that’s just how life is to me”
Somewhat ironically it was the fact of having landed in one place for a stretch of years that allowed the space for painting to happen. Having lived in the Sierra Foothills since 1989 and raising a family she began painting in 2003. “In January of that year I became a painter. I’d wanted to paint for a long time; I’d done a lot of other kinds of art but not painting until then.”
"Every painting presents the question, how do I paint what I see? I find more and more that any ideas I have when I start are usually best put aside. My mind will probably never know beforehand what will happen in a painting; at best the ideas form a loose framework. It's a constant dance of intent and letting the mystery unfold. Usually it's the mystery, not knowing how this stroke, this line or this color will turn out but forging ahead anyway, which proves to be most intriguing and also hardest to do. My favorite paintings happen when I can let that mystery take the lead." |
Greece As I See It by Kara Gridley |
|
|
Family outings and fishing trips with my Uncle David Rich and my brother Todd led to a deep and lasting connection to the outdoors. Fishing, baseball and drawing were my primary interests.
I graduated from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1982, majoring in business and studio art, and spent an equal amount of time chasing trout around local streams with a fly rod. It wasn't until a couple years later, during an apprenticeship with Richard Beale, a wonderful painter and teacher, that I realized I would pursue a career as a painter.
Rivers and streams first captured my imagination when fishing with my Uncle David. Fishing led to canoeing, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing; spending as much time outside as possible. Reading the work of authors Barry Lopez, Richard Nelson, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, Harry Middleton, Rick Bass, David James Duncan, Cormac McCarthy and others helped me to further explore and define my relationship to the land. After years of working as an illustrator, using my free work time to paint any number of subjects, it wasn't until my mid-thirties that I began to define for myself what my work is about.
In a culture that increasingly separates us from the natural world, my interest is in how we relate to it, how it lives in our minds and memories, and can provide a sense of belonging, of connection, of home. |
Darby's Barn by Richard Harrington |
|
|
Mark primarily achieves his images by applying acrylics to canvas using brushes, knives, forks, fingers, dripping, etc. He has developed a unique style of painting signified by a strong use of color, composition and layered paint.
Born in Fergus Falls, Minnesota in 1976, Mark Jesinoski was compelled to paint via the combined influences of resourceful parents, a strong desire to understand the world around him and stubborn penchant for experiential learning.
Mark invariably learned by doing. By way of this development Mark’s present style and methods in painting were not gleaned in the classroom but were honed by the hands of experience. Through it all Mark has fervently sought a deeper understanding and modality for communication with himself and his environment through the looking glass of paint on canvas. |
Annabelle by Mark Jesinoski |
|
|
Born in California and raised in New York, Lisa received her art education at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology and then worked for six years as a designer of children’s clothes.
After marrying and raising a son and a daughter, she continued to strengthen her design skills by studying and working as a floral designer. Her paintings have appeared in numerous juried exhibitions and one person shows and have garnered many awards. Her work has been exhibited in prestigious galleries in Los Altos, Carmel and Half Moon Bay, CA.
Lisa now lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills with her husband. An avid gardener, she photographs her flowers and gathers ideas while working in her garden and surrounding forest. |
Foxy Lady by Lisa Lang |
|
|
Galina was born in Lugansk, Ukraine, in the time of the Soviet Union at its prime. She had no formal Art education in Ukraine. Russian Art History was part of her education in History.
Art had always been a passion of hers, but the opportunity to work it all into a busy schedule as a student and mother, in Ukraine, never come to pass. Coming to America finally gave Galina a chance to begin to find training in Art. She looked inside of herself and found her childhood dream.
She started with Art Books and touring Galleries. Galina then took local college courses in Fine Arts in Redding, California. In order to grow in the field of Art, she enrolled in a number of workshops, located in the Western United States, with famous artists, including Anthony Rider, David Leffel, Ray Roberts, Ned Mueller, Huihan Liu, and Dan Gerhartz.
After viewing the works of many of the European Artists of the past, in the best European Museums, that included Titian, Michelangelo, French Impressionists and others, she was inspired to use oil as her prime medium. Pencil charcoal drawings are also a prominent part of an artist preparation for Realistic Art. Galina always thought that to be an artist was like being a wizard. She wanted to be a wizard, so she entered the Masters of Fine Arts program with major in Figurative Painting from which she will graduate shortly. |
San Francisco by Galina Milton |
|
|
Denis Minamora comes from a tradition of pictographic artists and storytellers. It is in keeping with this tradition that he creates his mixed-media paintings.
Denis combines watercolors, pen and ink, and chalk pastels to create paintings that inspire the storyteller in all of us. As the viewer approaches his paintings they experience a transition from a clear reality to a multilayered image that encourages them to see the story within.
Drawing upon his training as a professional photographer gives Denis an eye for clarity of light and proper proportion. Add to this his love of the lyric effects of watercolors and pastels and the result is art that can change appearance when viewed from different distances.
This combination of illusion and strict proportion prompts Denis to think of his work as "Romantic Realism."
Denis Minamora's work is shown in prominent galleries and juried shows. He is included in collections both public and private across Canada and the United States as well as in Europe and as far away as Japan, Korea, Israel, Indonesia, and Australia. |
Ponte Vecchio by Dennis Minamora |
|
|
Inspiration has always come to me from nature in all its’ variations: animals of all kinds, ocean, beach, river, lake, desert, mountain and the human form. I remember when I was 11 years old my Grandmother took me to Yosemite National Park (in her new 1963 Thunderbird!). Nana knew how much I loved the beauty of nature and she wanted to share one of her favorite natural places. After entering the Park, I’ll never forget Nana pulling the car over at the scenic turnout after emerging from the tunnel. It is there that you get the first and most famous view of Yosemite Valley. As we stood together at this breathtaking vista I looked up at Nana and she was crying. I thought something terrible was wrong so I asked. She smiled and said, “I always cry when I see truly beautiful things”. Well, I can’t say I always cry, but I know where a big part of my reaction to the beauty in nature comes from!
The experience of traveling to Yosemite with Nana set an example that I would carry throughout my life: experiencing nature everywhere, from the backyard to road trips to beautiful places. My wife Kit and I love to go on scenic drives, whether it’s the local back roads or our annual two (or more) weeks trip to different areas and National Parks throughout the US and western Canada, always sketching, painting and taking lots of photos. |
Anywhere California by Bill Monaghan |
|
|
Lisa Roche is an award winning artist who loves to use vibrant color to express bold passion, energy, and soulful light!
Lisa’s rich paintings are renowned for their daring style, always making her audience smile as they sense the importance of fun that her subjects emote. Collectors of her work love color and are not afraid to display it. Her primary and preferred medium is oil, as she also loves to play with texture; all in an effort to make the encounter with her pieces more striking and memorable.
No stranger to Wine Country, Lisa was just recently the exclusive featured artist at the 2007 Paso Robles Zinfandel Festival. One of her paintings, Jammy, was not only the promotional piece for the festival, but was auctioned for a record setting price within the 14 year history of the event’s Live Auction/Grand Tasting.
Grass Valley locals may also recognize Lisa’s work, as four of Lisa’s paintings have been used on the labels at Luccheshi Vineyards as part of their Masque red table wine series, and their newly released champagne!
Lisa resides in Carlsbad, California. Paintings by Lisa are in private collections throughout the United States, and can be seen at her website. |
Concealing Spice by Lisa Roche |
|
|
I use transparent watercolors (quinacridones)on 300 lb rag paper and watercolor canvas. |
The Gathering by David Rojas |
|
|
My intention in painting is simply to be a contributor of beauty to this world. I wish to create images which express in form the subtle moods of nature, images which call forth the entire range of human emotional aliveness, which express perspectives that bring freshness to the familiar, which provide cultural access to normally unfelt sensitivities, and which chronicle the human spiritual journey.
To fulfill this intention, I work to achieve what I call following the beauty. The art of this, while actually painting, is in an active surrender to the constant choices that arise. And then, to know when to stop. Like finding focus in a fog, to evoke with my medium just enough form, just enough definition, just enough Art to cause an embrace of the emotions or trigger original perception... whatever my styling or subject matter, it is for this I labor. |
Peacockness by David Seacord |
|
|
San Francisco artist, Todd R Thompson, puts a new stroke on landscape paintings, steering them somewhere between traditional and contemporary. His soft palette brings a peaceful warmth, and his simplicity of composition leaves viewers wondering what's just over the next hill.....
The majority of influence and reference in Todd's landscapes comes from spending many years hiking the mountains of Utah, walking the wooded trails of Wisconsin and currently, spending time enveloped in the rolling hills of Northern California.
Todd began his appreciation for art at a young age spending his early years in different areas of Europe living and traveling with his family. In visiting new cities and countries, works of art were purchased from local artists; thereby amassing a collection of precious art and memories that would serve him, not only as visual inspiration, but also as stepping stones to his unique style of painting, which began in 1986 with the completion of his first work in oil.
In search of an inspiring arts community, where he could continue to develop his style, Todd found himself in San Francisco and earned his Master of Fine Arts while attending the Academy of Art College. While experimenting in various mediums and styles, the majority of his current work consists of series of both landscape and abstract paintings.
“Painting in different styles keeps imagery fresh, not only for me, but also for those who view my work, and enables my paintings to evolve along with me as an artist." |
Through the Mist X by Todd Thompson |
|
|
I've enjoyed living in the Portland area since the mid-1970s. The natural beauty of the region inspired my return to art to better share my wonder and delight with others. I studied photography and worked with clay as an undergraduate, but the lure of fresh clean color and the apparent simplicity inspired me try watercolor painting. After several years of learning the basics I was juried into the Watercolor Society of Oregon. This opened my eyes to the many possibilities of water media and creativity. WSO has given me the opportunity to learn and grow by studying with national and regional artists. Over the years I have received awards at many of WSO's biannual juried shows, in addition to having paintings selected and awarded by regional and national shows.
A variety of subjects, themes and 'isms' inspire my paintings, I enjoy working in more than one style. In my landscapes, it is the quality of light, the time of day, and the mood that intrigues me and makes me want to create. When it is painted on location there are extra risks and rewards to the process. The excitement and challenge of working from the model is getting it down fast, catching the gesture, the attitude, and doing it all in 20 to 30 minutes. I enjoy people-watching; and observe folks eating, drinking and having fun. My figurative paintings hint at a story but the larger challenge is conveying my enjoyment of good food, good friends, and fine conversations with the viewer. The sketchbook habit and a camera are great tools to help create these works. Painting in the studio allows time for reflection and combining many elements, and designing the painting to convey one idea or mood.
For me painting is a joyful creative activity using the elements of color, line, texture, shape and pattern to build a mood and make a pleasing image. The excitement of what will happen this time makes getting started on a new painting an endless delight. It is my hope that you will share the joy and energy in these works. To share an unusual point of view, a unique texture, a beautiful color combination, or a specific time of day is all the motivation I need for picking up a brush to begin an other painting. |
Reflections on Endings by
Bruce Ulrich |
|
|
Linda Ann Vorobik, botanist, editor, and illustrator of numerous botanical publications, cherishes all three west coast states as home. She holds a PhD from the University of Oregon, Eugene, conducts field research and teaches in the Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon, and is a Research Associate at both the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, Seattle. She lives at her family home on Lopez Island, Washington.
Dr. Vorobik is a Visiting Scholar at the University Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley, and at the Herbarium, University of Washington, Berkeley. She specializes in botanical illustration and plant systematics.
Dr. Vorobik is currently editor of Fremontia, the journal of the California Native Plant Society, and conducts research on the genus Arabis (rock cress, Brassicaceae; ITS analysis to determine taxonomic relationships between species in the A. macdonaldiana group).
Dr. Vorobik is principal illustrator for several books, including Flora North America Volume 25 (Grasses), The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California, The Jepson Desert Manual, and A Flora of Santa Cruz Island.
She has taught numerous courses, including An Introduction to California Plant Life (plant communities and plant taxonomy) and Botanical Illustration through several universities and field institutes. |
Western Sword Fern by Linda Vorobik |
|
|
Carole Wade is accustomed to a bold and adventurous lifestyle. Carole has returned from a 4-year single-handed circumnavigation of the Atlantic Ocean in her 30' Allied Seawind ketch, Italic.
Her major ports of call were Bermuda, the Azores, Spain, Portugal, Madeira and the Canary Islands. In June, 2003, she completed the final passage nonstop from Puerto Rico to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Having had a successful, award-winning career as a graphic designer, Wade has made the transition to fine art. She notes, “It takes more courage for me to put brush to canvas than it took to set sail on the ocean alone.” But desire to interpret her personal surroundings in a passionate, colorful style has won out.
Wade won the prestigious Juror’s Choice award at the 2003 Summer Juried Show and Best of Show in the Autumn Juried Show of the Falmouth (Cape Cod) Artists’ Guild. She won the $1000 prize in a Canary Islands competition in 2002 and First Prize in the Tubac Arizona juried show in spring, 2004. In 2006 Wade won first prize for painting in the Evergreen (Colorado) art festival and had a one-woman show in Connecticut in the fall. She will be featured in the Phoenix Gallery in Park City, Utah, in March 2007. |
Waiting for the Cut by Carole Wade |
|
|
Oil on canvas using black gesso, often my base painting is a color negative to achieve vibrancy. |
Studio Dancers by Russ Wagner |
|
|
|
View All Artists
Aoki, Yoshi and Susie
ATNqGvHmMAsjeas, kidrock
Barker, Lisa
Bassoff , Solomon
Blackwood, Larry
Blodgett, Eileen
Bridges, Deborah
Bruce, Stephen
Burrows, John
Coll, Geoge
Cranford, Dwayne and Jill
Depraida, Michael
Eckels, Nancy
Farina, Audrey
Fletcher, Mike "Satch"
Flood, Verone
Gavitt, Tom
George, Amber
Gill, Richard
Grace, Lana
Gridley, Kara
Hale, Karen
Harrington, Richard
Haun, Theresa
HMlcJwYLlewoxuOpL, Mike
http://rpeusmfvkhut.com/, http://rpeusmfvkhut.com/
Hubbell, Corey
Jesinoski, Mark
JzRTaiTLYPu, Timothy
KdnmBATjuOeNyvDx, UcIOtyLfrrQzAIMDic
Kennedy, Julia
Koetsier, Albert
Kulaas, David
Lang, Lisa
Leer, Bonny
Loughran, Kevin
LvtXsPWnVo, Riley
Milton, Galina
Minamora, Dennis
Monaghan, Bill
Morgan, Cyndi
Mueller, Steven
Noga & Silk, Andrew & Alexis
OWQyhePrFvdHMkq, Andrea
Pagni, Valarie
Parker, Dennis
Pott, Jennifer
RAjeNOUKWXiHA, Jayden
RFwyTqAckriwkiwC, Anthony
Richter, John
Roche, Lisa
Rojas, David
Rubinstein, Hong and Adam
Schendel Lane, Laurie
Seacord, David
Shachnow, Marjorie
Sherman, Charles
Stalteri, Carolanne
Stephenson, Mark
Suess, Matt
Thompson, Todd
Thum, Phil
toEGRFOSKnqbm, Ayden
Tritel, Jeff
Ulrich, Bruce
Vorobik, Linda
Wade, Carole
Wagner, Russ
Watson, Karen
YufLjqhgbWaOT, Layla
|
|
|
Business Resources
Bulk Mailing Permit
Search Membership By: