at the Santa Barbara City Hall. The building is on the corner of De la Guerra/Anacapa/De la Guerra Plaza. It's a great installation of new work and work from the Wildling show that gives the narrative of our watershed.
The exhibit will be up through March. Work is available for sale through the individual artists as the City Hall folks don't want to act as a commercial Gallery.
All my works from that show are here with purchase information.
Grouped in loose categories - fauna and flora, human intervention (often combined with nature) and structures.
A murder of crows, 3"x5" gouache $450
We were checking out the White Rock day use area and this group of crows were perching on the concrete pilings that mark out the areas. It looked like a good meeting place. I don't know why a group of crows is called a 'murder' - maybe they're up to something no good.
Small fry, 2 1/2"x4" gouache $400
When we discovered the Fish Passage at Salsipuedes Creek, we found a beautiful, hidden micro-environment. The creek was running, there were wildflowers, birds, frogs, turtles, tiny fish (maybe steelhead?) - it was truly magical and peaceful. Looking in the clear water, a streak of sunshine illuminated water plants of all kinds and this small fish holding steady in the current.
Succotash, 3"x6" gouache $450
Driving along Santa Rosa road we realized that most if not all of that area is dedicated to agriculture - an incredibly fertile area along the meander of the Santa Ynez riverVineyards, fields of an astonishing assortment of crops, orchards and grazing animals. This field of lima beans (a historic crop in the area) had rows of corn planted between each field.
The Jolly Green Giant would be pleased.
Flowers and bees, 4"x4" gouache $475
Another area that takes your breath away - the flower fields in Lompoc. We 'off-roaded' a bit and found this area filled with rows of commercially planted Stocks surrounded by wild growing flowering mustard, and stacks of bee-hives. This is what bee heaven must look like.
Hwy 246 bridge, 3"x5" gouache $450
Driving over the river on hwy 246 toward La Purisima Mission, you can see where the Santa Ynez enters the Lompoc Valley. This was in spring, just starting to get some flow down the normally dry riverbed.
Weir house, Juncal Dam, 4"x4" gouache $475
Back in the early part of our journey, we had a field trip back to Jameson Lake courtesy of the Montecito Water District. The water was so low, they were pumping through temporary pipes from the bottom of the reservoir. The weir house has all the measuring instruments for flow release.
I believe that this structure was spared by the Thomas fire, while other historic building were lost.
Devil's Canyon Weir, 3"x3" gouache $400
On another field trip early on, we toured Gibraltar Dam courtesy of the Santa Barbara Public Works Office. it was a hot dry day and we were hiking all around the area. this is an old weir structure meant to regulate flow of water coming from Devil's Canyon. One had to really use their powers of imagination to think that any amount of water would ever come through there. I loved it for being so not technical - it looked more like a Michael Heizer sculpture installation from the 70's.
Equipment Shed, Gibraltar Dam 4"x6" gouache $500
Struck as I am by small buildings and structures, this little shed, perched on the edge of the dam and gleaming white, caught my attention. It contains measuring equipment and instruments for water levels and other information. The low-level lake is visible behind. this dam is automated, but also fully operational manually - amazing to see the mechanisms for this.
Oak tree, Cachuma lake 10"x10" oil on canvas $750
The Rose Compass gals had a camping trip to Cachuma lake, staying in one of the yurts. That was a fun excursion - we took a pontoon boat out for a tour, hiked around, had great meals and of course painted. it was a dry Fall and the lake was still pretty low. The whole area below the oak tree would normally be under water. The evening clouded up and mostly obscured the full moon.
Estuary, Lompoc 10"x10" oil on canvas $750
A blustery day at the mouth of the Santa Ynez river just as it reaches Ocean Beach Park. There are a myriad of sea birds that flock here - ducks, gulls, sand birds and local wild birds. We came the earliest day we could after a big storm to see if the river broke through to the sea. Low coastal clouds were billowing up the distant fields and across Vandenberg AFB.
This was a small flock of coots, actually called a "cover of coots" and a nice contrast to first painting in this group.
For information about purchasing any of these works, send an email to the address listed at the top right of the page
All gouache pieces are done on archival Arches watercolor board and framed in neutral grey Nielson frames, with UV museum plexiglass.
The oil paintings are also framed, using natural wood floating frames.
No comments:
Post a Comment