Monday, January 31, 2011

Group show opening in San Francisco

The group exhibit of 4 Pixar artists that I've been a part of at the Holton Frame Studio is traveling across the bay and will be opening at the Northpoint Gallery in San Francisco this Wednesday night. As the show has sold well, we've all had to contribute a few more pieces for the new venue. Here's a work that I painted last fall off the side of Redwood Rd., looking into a tangled mass of bay laurel, eucalyptus, blackberry vines, as well as the trickling headwaters of Redwood Creek.

Watershed
8.25 x 12.25
Pastel on Canson Paper

It is interesting to have contemporary work by living artists who paint landscapes hanging in a room surrounded by 19th century work of the same subject. We are from different centuries and spheres of influence, yet certain aspects of nature and light are constants in both. I'm tempted to say the 'epic vision' has been replaced with a more personal viewpoint, but that is not entirely true. One aspect one can observe from local landscapes of the past is the immense amount of growth and development around the bay, well exemplified by a painting by Thomas Ross of Fort Point and the Marin Headlands, painted in the 1870's, some 60 years before the Golden Gate Bridge was completed. It is comforting to see that the Headlands remain entirely recognizable 130 years later.



For a more intimate viewpoint from the past, there's one beautiful example by Jules Tavernier shown below:


The opening reception is from 5-7 this Wednesday evening, and I believe all the 'living' artists, Sharon Calahan, Ernesto Nemesio, Dice Tsutsumiand myself will be there. Perhaps the rest will be there in spirit! Hope to see some familiar faces.