Enamored With Canvas and Clay
“Great Dane in Chair,” a 12” x 11” x 5” ceramic by Bonnie Fry brings a smile to anyone who’s ever found their beloved dog taking over a favorite chair.
The Lamorinda Arts Council welcomes the New Year with a collaborative exhibit featuring painters from Bay Area Studio Artists (BASA) and ceramicists from Rossmoor Ceramic Arts Club (CAC) and Main Street Arts. It’s all waiting for you in the Art Gallery at the Orinda Library from Jan. 3-30.
Exhibiting BASA artists include Suzun Almquist, Lassie Colebourn, Pam McCauley, Ellen Reintjes, Ruth Stanton, Sharon Tama, April Ward and Marcy Wheeler.
BASA, which began in 2010, is a group of artists who paint together and show work on a regular basis. I say, “When artists collaborate, the heavens quiver.”
Painter McCauley agrees.
“As a new member of BASA, being part of a group of artists is a really good feeling, a safe feeling; we can help each other. Respect for my fellow artists has grown as I’ve seen the process they go through to achieve their final paintings,” she said.
Visit bayareastudioartists.com/ to learn more.
Wheeler, who had the idea of curating a combined show, is well placed to understand collaboration as she is both a BASA painter and a ceramicist.
“I’ve been painting all my life and have been a ceramicist for one year,” she said.
Expect to view about 25 ceramic pieces and 65 paintings. Many themes the artists are enamored with emerged from this mix: places they love; people who have touched their hearts; birds and bird watching; dogs as a valued part of life; whimsical and humorous subjects and the bounty and beauty of fruits and vegetation. All themes appear on canvas and in clay.
CAC ceramicists in the show include Nan Chrostek, Diana O’Byrne, Anne Shulenberger, Barbara Ward, Gordon Ward, Barbara Wheat, Marcy Wheeler and Bonnie Fry of Main Street Arts.
For information about CAC go to tinyurl.com/yc8yu5za; for Main Street Arts info go to mainstreetarts.net/.
Shulenberger said, “Clay is the best medium I’ve ever found for sculpture – I’ve tried other things. It comes from the earth and is not very expensive – you can add and subtract it as you need to and it is very durable once fired.”
She points out there are prehistoric civilizations named after the type of pottery they made and early forms of writing are on clay.
Visit the Gallery at 26 Orinda Way. Hours are Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday–Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., closed Sundays and Jan. 1 and 19. Call 925.254.2184 for more Library information or visit ccclib.org/. Questions about the exhibit or need more information? Email gallery@LamorindaArts.org, visit LamorindaArts.org/galleries-2 or call 925.359.4490.
How do we see things in the world? In our mind we see one image but we do it with two eyes – sometimes with binoculars. Miraculous if you think about it. Reintjes explores this phenomenon in her 16” x 20” acrylic painting, “What the Binoculars Saw at Sunset.” View it in the Art Gallery at the Orinda Library through January 30.
Virtual Gallery: Interested in a community gallery exhibit?
Lamorinda Arts Council invites you to apply online for a free online exhibit of up to 20 photographs of your artwork for a one month period here: tinyurl.com/bdefwr2t. For more information, email info@LamorindaArts.org or call 925.359.9940.
Art to take your breath away
“Rave Into the Future” is “A love letter to the dance floor,” said the New York Times. It celebrates the dance floor as a source of resilience, freedom and joy. “New Japanese Clay” shows the global nature of art training and practice – which pushes boundaries to a purely sculptural experience. Ends Feb. 2, Asian Art Museum S.F., asianart.org/.
“Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale” where over 1,000 volunteers sort, clean and repair goods from Bay Area donors for the oldest, largest rummage sale in Northern California. Over 20 departments with low-cost to outright steal prices and all sales benefit the museum. Preview Jan. 25. Open Warehouse Jan. 29 – Feb. 21, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.(Pre K-12 teachers free after 11 a.m.). Info at tinyurl.com/2r5pv9x2; Tickets at whiteelephantsale.org.
Rose B. Simpson’s “Behold,” a monumental bronze sculpture 24-feet tall, commissioned by SFMOMA for its Floor 4 terrace, opens on Jan. 17, sfmoma.org/. View Simpson’s artful custom rebuilt muscle cars that merge Pueblo art and lowrider culture at the de Young Museum, S.F. through Aug. 2, 2026, tinyurl.com/34hz2dre.
