Oakland Art Association Fills Gallery with Color and Light
By ELANA O’LOSKEY
Staff Writer
The Lamorinda Arts Council will exhibit a wonderful and diverse show from the Oakland Art Association (OAA) during the month of August at the Art Gallery in the Orinda Library. You can meet council members at the artist reception for this show on Sunday, Aug. 5 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. when light bites will be served.
The OAA is a nonprofit group of over 55 artists and art supporters from Alameda and Contra Costa counties. They are an important part of the Bay Area’s vibrant art community because they support each other and, together, offer a full range of artistic activities and participation levels to their members. For example, every year they exhibit in at least 10 locations.
Media represented in the show includes watercolors, oil paintings, photographs, collage, acrylic paintings, pastels, ceramics, drawings and prints, including etchings, aquatints, etc. Over 80 works in genres from portraiture, landscapes, abstraction, still life and figurative will be on view. To learn more about OAA go to https://www.oaklandart579.org/.
Jenifer Kolkhorst, organizer of the show, says, “We hope viewers see an example of a community group that accepts all types of artists and, fueled by volunteers, promotes the sharing of art throughout the year.” She says John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem sums up how art can feed the soul of a community: “If thou of fortune be bereft, / and in thy store there be but left / two loaves, sell one, and with the dole, / buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.”
John Henry of Albany is showing an 18” x 24” photograph, Flight – Punta Allen. It transports one to the largest village in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve at the end of the remote Boca Paila Peninsula in Mexico. Punta Allen, a small fishing village, is located in the Tulum municipality of the state of Quintana Roo. Famous for bone fishing, it also boasts an iconic 72’ lighthouse – complete with a view of Belize – that puts you almost level with the flock of soaring white streaks in his photo. The pristine Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre covering over 400,000 hectares.
Walnut Creek resident Tina Nelson’s Chicks is a 13.5” x 18.5” graphite drawing of a child in a state of wonderment while cradling baby chicks. Jenifer Kolkhorst of Orinda uses abstraction to spread out symbols and references to her 30” x 23” watercolor’s eponymous title, Steampunk. Rounding out the genres, George Ehrenhaft of Moraga takes us to Italy to view Tuscan Market, his 20’ x 16” watercolor. If you’ve ever been to Italy, the vista of a hill town towering over colorful market umbrellas will be easy to recall. All of the works described above are prize winners from area art shows.
Visit the gallery at 26 Orinda Way during normal library hours – Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Call 925-254-2184 for more information or visit http://ccclib.org/.
