Santa Barbara News Press Review

Art About the There There

IN 'THE VIEW FROM HERE,' THE CURRENT EXHIBITION AT SOLVANG'S ELVERHOJ MUSEUM, LOCAL ARTISTS PRESENT THEIR PERSPECTIVES ON SANTA YNEZ VALLEY

Josef Woodard, a News Press Correspondent.
March 29, 2013   

           This is an excerpt from a review of the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art show I am currently in titled "The View From Here". The show consists of paintings created by 6 local artists and how each artist interpretes their view of the valley in their art. The show is wonderful thanks to the calibre of the artists and each of them has their own take on what we all see in our daily lives here in the valley. I was very happy to be asked to be a part of this show.
  
          "With the show truthfully titled "The View from Here," six area artists take on the subject of the "there here." What emerges is a sense of place via landscape painting, of six individual sensibilities at work. Along the way, the show roughly tells the story of this Valley's continuing evolution over the years.

Entering the gallery, the viewer is greeted dramatically by the tall, vivid presence of Ron Guthrie's "Morning Sycamore," on the far wall facing the entrance. But the same artist also shows a more unusual painting just to the right of the door, "Mission Santa Ynez Bluffs," a happy convergence of hillside, trees and yonder foothills, a poetic pact of light and composition. Mr. Guthrie also impresses with the vertical tree study "Majesty" and the peaceable atmospherics of his "Storm Clouds Over Adobe Creek."

The rest of this very good review on all of the artists is availble to read in the "Scene" section of the SBNP paper...cost $2.50 to read if you are not a subscriber, sorry.
...a very cool review of the show Mr Woodard, thanks!

Showtime....

Entry way into the show. This doorway thing is actually there all of the time. Worked for us though.

I'm really out of shape when it comes to spending a day doing a show....an outdoor show. The show was yesterday and I was dead when I got home. What's worse is I woke up feeling as if I had a hangover and I didn't drink a beer all day. My problem was I only slept 3 hours the night before the show getting ready. Nerves and last minute changes I guess....well, mostly changes. As for the show well, they don't go over well in a bad economy. We did a heroic effort at putting on the show...lots of planning and losts of work. It looked great and came off very smoothly considering this was the first effort of a show by this group here in Los Olivos. I've been to worse shows that had been going on for years. This one was first rate. The problem was that buyers were in short supply. People spending $20 or $30 for jewelry or small crafty items but barely any on paintings. We had groups of artists in 4 locations throughout the town. In our group only 3 small paintings sold...in the group across the street only 1 sold. I don't know about the others but I've heard it wasn't any better. I managed to only sell a couple of books. Ho hum and ---- this economy. Sorry but it's starting to piss me off.

There is always good news and that is we had awesome compliments on my work. We had a hugh number of "lookers'' walk through our canopy and lots of great comments. We had a lady show up who came to see my work and she drove all the way from Palm Desert! That's half way across California. She saw my work online and told me she had to see it in person and she loved it. That was very cool. She bought a book and said she would go see more of my work at the gallery. I love people like that.

I suppose I could be more mad at no art sales but honestly I know I'm doing my best work to date and this economy is killing everyone around here. We made a very good presentation in the booth and I'm always good with the visitors. Come November maybe things will get better....VOTE!

Here are some pics of the day.....

My canopy , above and below, which looked pretty good out there.

As you can see the whole event looked good and there was some outstanding art there. This was Jim Woodark and Richard Rice's setups. Killer work from both artists.
This potter set up next to me and she sold about 7 or 8 pieces by the end of the day. I think her mugs were about $20. Very cool work. She does shows about once a week and told me this summer has been very good for her....so maybe pottery classes are in my future....or jewelry making. Actually those 2 types of items always sell at fairs.


The tire planters were interesting but I think they went home with a big zero too. Nice couple and you had to give them an "A" for effort. I'd have given everyone that same A because all of the artists had good looking work...well, except for one guy. He was juried in with some female portraits but showed up with total nudes that looked as if they were posed by girls out of playboy...too funny. I should have gotten pics of that but I'm sure Linda would have kicked my butt if she saw me with the camera heading over to his booth.

There were many types of art...probably too many. I wasn't crazy about the artists being split up over the town and there were a lot of distractions. We had a paint-out down in the center of town, some things going on in other parts of town, bands, pay areas setup...things I don't normally see at shows. I've sold more at smaller shows but that was when we had an economy to speak of. This was in August too... you know, hot August, so it was a bit too warm for a lot of people. Still everyone gave it their best shot. Win some, lose some. Outdoor shows are like shooting craps no matter what the situation is like, sometimes you sell and sometimes you just go home tired.

Now that this show is over I have a renewed urgency to paint new work for the upcoming Studio Tour in November. I also have a show in October but that is a low keyed show where I don't need to be there. I'm itching to do some new work to replace old ones I've looked at too long over the year. New ideas and you know what the wiseman says...when sales are slow paint your butt off because you'll need a backlog of work when it picks up. Zoom!