Participating artists
Colors in Art: Voices Soft and Loud
Showcasing 53 unique works from 52 artists
Exhibition Dates - January 18, 2024 to March 14, 2024
Dirk Alphin
About the Artist
A San Francisco resident, born and raised in Southern Idaho’s Great Basin, I am both a lover of nature, open spaces and small towns, as well as having a strong urban appreciation and outlook. I spent several decades in performance art as an actor, director, producer, designer, and playwright. In Fine Art I have explored stage design, graphic design, digital art, photography and painting. At present, my medium of choice is mostly with oil paint.
Artist Statement
Overlooked, fleeting, peripheral moments show up in my art. Individuals seeking beauty in an isolating world seem drawn to my vision. My canvases are epiphanies of mosaic and kaleidoscopic, mysterious hints. They shed catharsis in their wake. My styles vary: abstract to realism. Since I choose to bring attention to the easily overlooked, I often paint large: 36” x 36” and 36” x 48” are a couple of my favorite sizes upon which to create.
Lucy Arnold
About the Artist
Ms Arnold’s award-winning art is in collections in four countries and 23 states. It is featured on book covers by Simon and Schuster, SAGE Publishing, Corwin Press, Pen Women Press, and Inevitable Ink Publishing. She is an Artist Member of Marin MOCA, Signature Member of Marin Society of Artists, National Art Editor of The Pen Woman magazine and National Publications Chair for the National League of American Pen Women, Inc.
Artist Statement
I love combining art and science. I feature actual species in realistic watercolor paintings, while inspiration is more intuitive for my abstract artwork. I find the amazing variety of organic forms, patterns and blend of colors that can be achieved with liquid acrylics to be irresistible. I develop and employ a wide range of techniques with which to explore micro and macrocosms of energy, dimensions, and the cosmos
David Baldwin
About the Artist
David has had a 40-year career as a graphic designer and has been painting his entire life. He is now excited to turn that passion into a career. He is also an avid cyclist and musician. If not painting or riding his bike around Sonoma County, he is creating music under the name "Unhowto." Born and raised in Southern California, David now resides in Santa Rosa, California.
Artist statement
David's acrylic on canvas paintings are about personal honesty, letting go of the trickery of technique, and allowing ideas and feelings to come to the surface in the most distilled, pure manner. Simple shapes and colors create feelings and movement that evoke the complexities hidden inside the simple. Ultimately, these works are all about being fun and easy to live with.
Ben Benet
About the Artist
Ben was born and raised in Marin. He had often been interested in creative fields such as writing, music, and art. After bouncing between colleges he found a resting place at College of Marin and enrolled for several years taking art classes. He currently works out of his studio in Sausalito and lives in Strawberry.
Artist Statement
I am drawn to portraiture and often ponder the veil that one puts on when confronting life. What is behind it? I tend to think and believe there is more than meets the eye and using color in my portraiture is one way I “unveil” a truth that I may see.
Debra Jan Bibel
About the Artist
Debra Jan Bibel is a polymath, accomplished in medical research, art, science history, philosophy, ethnomusicology, and poetry, with 5 books and numerous articles. A former U.S. Army officer, she has worked in research institutions, universities, and biotech, where skills in art, editing, and web communication served in research activities.
Artist Statement
Debra Jan Bibel has been painting for 50 years. Although bold colors and solids have often figured in her approach to art, since 1990 her geometric works have been directly influenced by her experience in science and in her Zen Buddhist practices. Klee and Mondrian (a Theosophist) are her philosophical and compositional models, but finds some concordance with Ralston Crawford and Helen Lundeberg's simplified architectural solids.
Michelle Bond
About the Artist
Michelle immigrated to San Francisco in 1980 from the Philippines. Growing up in a musically inclined family, her artwork is influenced by music, poems, and short stories, and works of artists like Picasso, Kandinsky, Miro, and Dali. Her paintings are expressive depictments of events in her daily life. She is an abstract expressionist who works in watercolors, oils, and acrylics since 2014. Today, she paints in her San Francisco art studio and in Santa Rosa, California.
Artist Statement
I am an artist. I feel. I see. What I feel and see, I paint. What touches me in real life, I will convey in some form of abstraction. What LIFE gives; I express. There are challenges, failures, pains, regrets but love and happiness too. That’s the Poetics of Life captured in Art. What I express I create with my heart and mind like a child.
Kendra Bontz
About the Artist
Kendra Bontz is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Mill Valley, California. She looks to nature and everyday objects as inspiration for her realistic oil paintings. A self-taught artist, Kendra has studied throughout the years at established art institutions in the Bay Area. Her works have been included in several juried shows both in Marin County and San Francisco.
Artist Statement
My work highlights familiar, modest objects that don’t ordinarily receive the spotlight. Painting in oils seems to slow down time and gives me the ability to play and experiment, layer upon layer. I look to nature and everyday objects as inspiration for my realistic paintings. My still lifes offer a closer look, a sense of simplicity, and a bit of whimsy. I search for beauty in the ordinary.
Renée Bott
About the Artist
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Renée Bott has always made and worked in art. In 1985 Renée started working as a printer for Crown Point Press in San Francisco, collaborating with artists like Richard Diebenkorn. In 1996, Renée and a fellow printer founded a fine print atelier located in Berkeley, California. In 2016 Renée left the press to pursue making her own art.
Artist Statement
My work is based on the minute and detailed lines found in etchings and engravings from the 15th to 17th centuries. I photograph the prints and use Photoshop to digitally modify the images, which serve as general outlines for my compositions. I enjoy thinking about how these old images were ubiquitous tools for communication in the past, and how obsolete they are today.
Susan Caput
About the Artist
Susan Caput studied art and graphic design in college. Her award-winning design studio catered to corporate clients for over 25 years. Upon retirement she took up painting and was an active member of the San Clemente Art Association where she exhibited regularly.
She is currently a Member-at-Large with the Arts of Pt. Richmond and, in addition to painting, teaches workshops on botanical printing and Shibori dyeing.
Artist Statement
My intention is to invite the viewer to collaborate with me and “fill in the blanks”. My goal is to paint with the looseness of a child and my hope is for the viewer to experience that freedom.
Kay Carlson
About the Artist
Kay Carlson received her BA from the University of Wisconsin in English Literature and was awarded a graduate trip to Paris. She then followed her interest in painting, enrolling in postgraduate study at the San Francisco Art Institute. Her diverse accomplishments include fifty solo exhibitions and hundreds of group shows. Her many collectors range from corporations to individuals. Kay is also the co-founder and current executive director of Marin Open Studios.
Artist Statement
I paint directly on location en plein air and in my Sausalito studio with oils in the California colorist tradition. From the waterfront and changing seasons in vineyards of Sonoma/Napa, I explore special times of the day when waves, clouds, and atmosphere create visual drama. My passion is to express how light transforms color, and I enjoy doing custom commissions for collectors, ranging from corporations to individuals in the US and Europe.
MC Carolyn
About the Artist
MC Carolyn studied at College of Marin, UCBerkley, Art Institute of SF (AA, BA & Graduate Studies). Her paintings have been exhibited in NY and the SF Bay Area.
Artist’s Statement
One of the most important drives born into our human bones is to keep learning something new then to teach that new knowledge or skill to another human. New amazing human avenues become tangibles as MC explores beyond a camera image staying within our human alphabet of recognizable images.
Sandra Cassayre
About the Artist
Sandra Cassayre is a painter living in Napa, California. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Artist Statement
My practice is about the critical observation of physical reality, but also the appreciation and enjoyment of the intimate scenes, profound views, and unconscious mannerisms that can be found when you open your eyes to them. I aim to give the viewer the image or memory I see imbued with subtle clues about how I feel about the story unfolding on the canvas.
Cynthia Correia
About the Artist
Cynthia Correia is from Berkeley, Ca and graduated from San Diego State Univ. with a B.A in Art and Design. Her paintings have been shown at the de Young Museum and bay area galleries. Her love of color is influenced from nature and Joseph Albers. She is a minimalist painter and uses geometric shape ,dimensions and color to awaken emotions in the viewer.
Artist Statement
My dimensional geometric paintings reflect my graphic design and building background. I am a minimalist painter with a love for color and the emotions they invoke in the viewer. My paintings and sculptures are painted on wood to give depth and texture as well as a playful sense. At times I use additive measures and at other times I invoke subtractive measures to draw the viewer in.
Christin Coy
About the Artist
For over thirty years Christin Coy’s artwork has reflected her appreciation for nature through her landscape paintings in the style of classical realism. She finds inspiration for her artwork through her daily Marin hikes. A founding member of BayWood Artists, she has helped raise funds for Bay Area environmental organizations through the sale of her paintings for the past 26 years. Her paintings are in collections throughout the U.S. and represented by Holton Studio Gallery, Berkeley.
Artist Statement
I have always enjoyed observing the moon in the night sky and often will include the moon in my paintings. I once attended an event at the Corinthian Yacht Club and captured the image for “Full Moon Rise - Tiburon” with my phone camera.The full moon rising with the glittering reflection on the water in the harbor made for a perfect subject matter for this painting
Barbara Crow
About the Artist
I have been making art my whole life. I received a B.A. majoring in Art History from George Washington University. A lifelong career in graphic arts management gave me a strong sense of color and design. During this time I also attended Santa Rosa Jr. College where I studied painting.
Artist Statement
Feeling a deep affinity for color, shape and line, my work pulls me along as I respond to juxtapositions and the spontaneous occurrences that arise as the surface texture gradually builds. My hope is it holds resonance for viewers to experience in their own way.
Laura Culver
About the Artist
Laura Culver was raised in Orinda, CA and earned a B.S. in Graphic Design at UC Davis. She settled in San Rafael, where she chanced upon a local art class. A little fun became a passion, as she pursued the creativity and challenge of plein air (outdoor, on location) oil painting. Laura is an Artist member of the California Art Club and a member of the BayWood Artists, a group of professional landscape painters in Marin County.
Artist Statement
For the last 18 years, I’ve dedicated myself to painting the California landscape in the “Colorist” tradition, using intense warm and cool colors to translate the effect of light. I never tire of studying and interpreting the sense of place and light in each scene. My favorite days are spent painting on location, immersed in nature.
Anne-Marie de Rivera
About the Artist
Anne-Marie has resided in many countries, from the U.S. to Canada, Chile, and Switzerland, graduating from l’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Geneva, Switzerland. She was strongly influenced by the “Fauves”, a loosely allied group of French painters with shared interests, including Matisse, Gauguin, Chagall, and Rouault, among others. Her works blends the European influence of her childhood, with the colors, passion, and folklore of Latin America where she later lived.
Artist Statement
Anne-Marie’s paintings often express contrasting feelings, one might suggest closeness and community, another introspection and reflection. Subject matter ranges from portraiture and figuration to landscape, and themes surrounding humanness, climate response, and relationship. She has exhibited locally throughout California, and International exhibits include a solo show at Centro Cultural de Las Condes in Santiago, Chile, group shows at Gallerie Everarts and The Grand Palais in Paris, France, as well as Stockholm, Sweden.
Melinda diSessa
About the Artist
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY into a large immigrant Italian family, I have not always been an artist. I have a PhD in philosophy from NYU and taught philosophy for many years before moving to Berkeley and working seriously in art. I began in print making and moved into oils and mixed media. I have exhibited throughout the Bay Area including the inaugural de Young Open exhibition in 2020.
Artist Statement
Artists must be observant and opportunistic. Something unexpected happens on a canvas, and you have to see it and take advantage of it. I love the challenge of truly listening to what comes to you by chance as well as what comes to you by choice. My art hovers between reality and imagination, and it is important to me to be attentive, uncluttered, personal, and inventive in my art.
Eva Facey
About the Artist
Facey questions what it means to be a woman in this modern world. She captures her subjects in photographs, digitizing them on her computer, and then merges age-old techniques with modern technology. She uses layers of transparent color and sometimes mixes colors directly on the canvas creating alluring color palettes. Awaiting the viewer’s imagination, her pieces hope to evoke emotions that bring more than just what the eyes are seeing.
Artist Statement
In my artistic exploration, I capture the essence of a young woman navigating the intricacies of life as a free spirit. The juxtaposition of a cool, lacey background against the radiant warmth of her sunlit skin symbolizes the complexity of her journey. Through this portrait, I aim to evoke contemplation and celebrate the strength inherent in embracing one's individuality within the tapestry of existence.
Pamela Fletcher
About the Artist
I practiced law for years, but was motivated to stop after I started painting. I also love to hike, especially in Spain on the Camino de Santiago.
I have been honored to win numerous awards and to have my work included in the de Young Open and the Crocker Museum auction. I frequently exhibit locally and am represented by Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek.
Artist Statement
I paint both abstracted people and nonobjective paintings. I work intuitively and seek to express feeling and emotion – in other words to capture what you cannot see. I start with an idea, a mood, a memory, or something similar and then move quickly to express that. As the painting takes shape I slow down, reflect, and refine in order to communicate my vision most effectively.
Michael Friedland
About the Artist
Michael studied painting and design at Paier College of Art, Coronado School of Fine Arts and Philadelphia College of Art. After a career as a designer, he has taught painting (with watercolor) for nine years in San Rafael, Corte Madera and Belvedere/Tiburon. He taught design and typography at two universities, teaches in Yosemite’s Artist in Residency program, taught a workshop in Italy this summer and is an elected BayWood Group member.
Artist Statement
I fell in love with watercolor my first year of art school and have focused on painting with it ever since. I love the way that this very unique medium can capture the feeling of light and how it can be made to do things with color that no other medium can. It’s a really wonderful medium to have spent a lifetime with!
Jonathan Gaber
About the Artist
After a forty year business career, I have returned to my college roots of creative endeavors. I wake up everyday with new ideas for combining my love of color, of mathematics, and patterns.
Artist Statement
The Chroma Series combines my hard edge graphic style with studies of the color spectrum. The fourteen colors are applied over a black and white background.
Karen Gann
About the Artist
By birth I am half Scandinavian and half Italian and grew up in both Italy and America. Have been widowed for many years but am blessed with three children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. A Harvard graduate in European History and a graduate of the Rudolph Schaefer School of Design I started painting to decorate my house, illustrate flower arrangements and my garden. I now live alternately in Italy and Marin County.
Artist’s Statement
The artistic influences in my life have been my years in the ballet studio as a young
girl and then later the study of color theory. In painting I strive for a harmonious sequence of colors related in hue yet covering a range of value and intensity. My work reflects the rhythm I see in all nature. With the paint brush I again feel, as in the ballet studio years ago, that I am really dancing.
Julie Garner
About the Artist
I am a self-taught, mixed media, collage artist working primarily with paper. Most of the paper I use has been altered by spray painting to create textures and patterns. I also work with photographs, combining multiple images together through the process of weaving. My work has been exhibited throughout the Bay Area and California for the last 20 years.
Artist Statement
“Boulder” was created with spray paint and paper collage. It’s one in a series reflecting on the unsettled state of the world. As the series developed, the artworks took on names of geological phenomenon, often as otherworldly landscapes. Initially I conceived of stacking the boulders in balanced symmetry, however, being in a state of instability, or even tumbling, seems to more accurately depict the zeitgeist of the moment.
Gail Gurman
About the Artist
I have a BFA from George Washington University in painting and did 10 years of postgraduate study at the Corcoran College of Art. My work is in many private collections and has been exhibited in numerous juried exhibitions.
Artist Statement
The basic structure of my paintings is established using Sumi Ink which I then enhance with Japanese Watercolor. There is a tradition of using metal leaf in Asian painting which I have integrated in many of my recent works. Finally, a thin layer of varnish is applied to protect the paint layers so I do not have to put the work under glass
Sarah HaBa
About the Artist
I began painting as a child. In difficult times, my painting has been a lifeline for me, pulling me forward with my desire to see the next painting, and always with the expansive potential to capture my emotional life.
I now live in Mill Valley — My studio overlooks my wild-blooming garden. I sit at my big art table, head down, listening to music, lose myself in thought, and paint.
Artist Statement
My paintings are a built emotional refraction of space — the space that is the shadowed weight that holds an object to a surface, the space that is the sea, the air, the trees, the space in-between my breaths, the space in-between my brushstrokes — all of which overflow with emotion. None of my world is bare bones.
My paintings become an external product of an internal process — my explanation of life.
Michelle Hirsh
About the Artist
Like her mother, Michelle grew up in a military base in Manila, Philippines and currently lives in Penngrove. After working in the pharmaceutical industry for 14 years, she moved to London to pursue a postgraduate art degree at Goldsmiths. Her work was exhibited in the 2023 de Young Open. In 2022, she received the Creative Sonoma ArtSurround Grant and the YBCA Artist Power Convenings Grant.
Artist Statement
I experiment with found and commonplace materials in my mixed media works to create visual metaphors that express fragility and resilience amidst trauma. The recurring themes in my work are related to identity and healing.
Lars Johnson
About the Artist
Lars Johnson was born in Seattle WA in 1949 and moved to San Francisco in 1962 where he spent the remainder of his working life. He currently maintains a studio in the Hunters Point Shipyard. He resides in Marin County with his wife and dog.
Artist Statement
The piece "Cornucopia" was meticulously painted in oil over several months. Each layer was applied in a translucent glaze and allowed to dry before adding the next layer. This painstaking process gives his work a unique appearance.
Grace Kennedy-Panda
About the Artist
Grace Kennedy-Panda is a San Francisco-based mixed-media painter, and alumna of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, and SF Ruth Asawa High School of the Arts. Grace works for her family's solar energy business and paints from her home studio. Grace's pieces have been shown at the DeYoung and PAFA Museums, and are currently held in private collections of California and the Northeast.
Artist Statement
Mark making is a universal language, decoding complex emotions. Visual elements, sound, and movement, help articulate inner and outer landscapes. My work explores color dynamics and shape relationships to illustrate a fluid connection between psyche and observation for personal transformation. Although primarily abstract, my pieces often depict narratives from observation and memory to create immersive art spaces or stories. I use less-toxic mediums and recycled materials in my process.
Barbara Kibbe
About the Artist
I am a painter, a printmaker, and an art quilter. I print and paint on a range of fine art papers, panels, and other substrates. A single work often combines zinc plate monoprint with screen printing, block printing, hand coloring and/or stitching. Scale is relative; the most intimate prints can suggest broad landscapes and larger works can explore a microscape.
Artist’s Statement
For me, art-making is equal parts sense-making and solace. My most successful work springs from an internal truth that is tethered to external reality. I don’t know where I’m heading when I pick up my tools, but along the way the work reveals something about me and my experience of the world. “Inheritance” began as a reflection on springtime and renewal. It evolved into a visual exploration of the resilience that can emerge through adversity.
Carolyn Lord
About the Artist
Carolyn Lord’s early career was influenced by the 20th Century California Watercolor Style of Millard Sheets and his peers which featured bold color and strong design. Art History and drawing lessons at ateliers has brought aspects of Tonalism and Impressionism into her current watercolors and oils. Lord exhibits at Calabi Gallery, Santa Rosa; Studio Gallery, San Francisco; and is a perennial participant in Sonoma’s Plein Air Festival. Member of California Art Club and California Watercolor Association.
Artist Statement
“Abbie’s House” was built in the 1800’s and the current house color, yellow was chosen by Abbie when she lived there while raising her children. She has moved away but I still think of her when I pass by because the house remains yellow. I decided to paint the house mid-day, mid-August with the goal of depicting the brilliant, golden sunlight.
Catherine Mackey
About the Artist
When Mackey moved to San Francisco 25 years ago she left her career in architecture to follow her dream of painting, but never lost her love for structures and spaces. Her works are inspired by abandoned buildings whose walls hold stories about past uses and occupants. As part of her creative process she creates a playful interaction between a street poster collage and the paint, reminding us of the narrative layers found in the urban environment.
Artist Statement
An abandoned classroom on the decommissioned naval base at Mare Island, CA: study chairs clustered and tumbled, the far wall blank except for a flyer on the chalkboard, a doorway directs our gaze into other classrooms, sunlight from the windows breaking the gloom.
The unplanned collage of street-posters, which lies beneath the painted image, energizes the space adding unpredictability. An unknown man glances back as he exits bottom right.
Monika Mayer
About the Artist
Monika is a visual artist based in Berkeley. Born and raised in a rural area of Germany, she was exposed to a rich tradition of textile craft and making from a young age. The iterative design process became second nature in her work and life. Throughout her career as an educator and museum professional, she has been supporting people at the intersection of creativity and hands-on learning. She recently joined Mercury20, an artist-run gallery in Oakland.
Artist Statement
Experimenting with materials, texture, pattern and color is part of establishing my own style and visual language. Working across a broad range of mediums, I create two- and three-dimensional work. I often incorporate traditional textile techniques in unusual ways to give my artwork additional color and bring it to life. My approach is experimental, my creative process intuitive and iterative, often layering techniques to create organic textures and dimensions.
Helen Mehl
About the Artist
Helen Mehl is a Sonoma County artist. She has been finding joy by creating art since her youth. She received a MA in Art from San Jose State University after graduating from Stanford with a BA in art and history. After Helen and husband, Wayne, raised a family, she resumed creating art full-time. She taught art on the secondary and college levels as well as adult education for several years.
Artist Statement
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving through you, a joy.” -Rumi.
Color is central to Helen’s paintings, which express an idea, mood or emotion. Her art communicates wonder and gratitude for beauty in nature and the changing seasons. Helen’s paintings are in private collections in the United States, Canada and Europe.
Catherine Moreno
About the Artist
I began learning oil painting in mid-1990’s art classes and workshops in Marin, but am largely self-taught, having learned a great deal from artist colleagues when I joined groups such as the Marin Society of Artists long ago. Oil painting is still my preferred medium, sometimes acrylic.
Artist Statement
I am fascinated by three-dimensionality, motion, luminescence, color, shadows and reflection, and abstract effects, so water in motion or in any state is my favorite subject. I am drawn to close-up details, rocks, leaves, sand patterns, whatever, and I am always experimenting. Once in a while I try abstraction. I work until I am satisfied that the details of the painting are mind-catching. In the end, I may have achieved the goal toward which I set out.
Dominique Pfahl
About the Artist
Currently a featured artist at the De Young Open. In July, exhibited at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts "Bounty". Featured artist at "The Passdoor" Santa Rosa in May. Exhibited at "Shadow and Light" at the Healdsburg Art Center in May. The Sonoma Clean Power Headquarters "Local Art Exhibit". From May/June, at the Arc Gallery show, “Kaleidoscope” in San Francisco. February through April, the Graton Gallery and the Sebastopol Center for the Arts.
Artist Statement
The many years of using fresh flowers as sculptural elements have trained my eye to compose these collaged details from art history and natural history. The combined elements become something both steeped in the past and full of surprises. My signature is hidden – it is a genuine four-leaf clover. The clover is not easy to find in nature either, but if you look carefully, it will reveal itself.
Ian Price
About the Artist
Ian Price is a graphic designer and artist. His work has been exhibited at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, and Windows for Harvey exhibitions in San Francisco. He appears in an installation in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), More Real, Art in the Age of Truthiness, directed by Jonn Herschend. He has designed publications for The National Portrait Gallery and The British Museum in London, as well as The Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
Artist Statement
Ian Price: In the image, Escalating, repetition is employed as a key element of this work, isolating each grouping in white space to define the colors. Graphic shapes take on different personalities by means of strong color contrasts. My recent work transforms images into bold blocks of color, while retaining the integrity of the original form.
Tom Purdy
About the Artist
I live in downtown Tiburon and get inspired by the shipping traffic coming and going in SF Bay. With no painting education, I work with colors and shapes that remind me of my childhood, and make me happy.
Mark Roberts
About the Artist
Mark Roberts is primarily an oil painter. He received his bachelor’s degree in graphic design at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Later, he continued his art education at the California Art Institute. Roberts earned his Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he taught drawing from 2005 – 2014. Presently, Roberts teaches art at Las Positas College in Livermore.
Artist Statement
There is a quiet streak that runs through my work. I strive for a timeless, universal quality by combining formal beauty with enhanced mood that is designed to move the viewer towards quiet contemplation. My paintings are becoming more abstract and minimalist. I have done some painting studies that are essentially reduced to color and atmosphere.
Connie Ryan
About the Artist
Connie Ryan, born and raised in Ireland, lives and works in the SF Bay Area, where she discovered a love of art and painting. She is an artist member of the nonprofit Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek. She exhibits her work in Valley Art Gallery and has also participated in juried shows at Marin MOCA; Sebastopol Center for the Arts; Harrington Gallery, Pleasanton; ACCI, Berkeley; Gearbox Gallery, Oakland; and Artworks Downtown, San Rafael.
Artist Statement
My paintings are rooted in remembered landscapes where I explore ideas about land, memory and belonging. While often starting with a traditional landscape, I allow the paintings to move into abstraction in response to my memories, thoughts and feelings. Using paint, ink, collage and maps I create works that enhance our awareness of the beauty of the natural world, and contemplate what it means to belong in a place.
Siana Smith
About the Artist
First generation immigrant and former engineer Siana Smith embraced art post child-raising life, painting vibrant, large-scale everyday scenes and objects. An MFA graduate from California College of the Arts, her socially and psychologically engaging work has shown in prominent venues, including The de Young Museum. Siana also has a passion for public art.
Artist Statement
My art, shaped by my early life in post-Cultural Revolution China and life in the U.S., delves into the personal and societal dimensions material possessions evoke. Using vibrant hues, grand scales, and detailed artistry, I aim to explore the transient nature of objects and the unseen depth of beauty, urging viewers to ponder the complex interplay between visibility, social norms, and inner experiences.
Donna Solin
About the Artist
Studies at both College of Marin and Indian Valley College and has received private instruction from local artists focusing on: life sculpture, bronze casting, oil painting, watercolor, drawing acrylics, pastel, wood block printing, etching, photography, ceramics and clay, cartooning, illustration, and botanical drawing.
Artist Statement
A love for animals and nature keeps my interest in finding the ‘right’ medium for each subject. Pastels are the perfect way for me to capture an animal’s softness for pet portraits and use wonderful pure colors. Landscapes and seascapes call for using a variety of mediums depending on the story I want to tell. I also enjoy painting outdoors (plein air) throughout Marin using oil paints. In my studio I use a combination of different mediums.
Gary Spratt
About the Artist
Born in Coeur D’ Alene, Idaho during World War II - into a family that valued greatly the landscape around them. After the War, Gary traveled to the Southern California High Desert and coast in the winter where his grandmother lived. His mother painted and encouraged him to pick up a brush as well.
In 1962 he moved to San Francisco where he met and formed close ties with many of the artists in the city.
Artist Statement
“ I Paint as in a Garden
Things happen in the Quiet
Moments that turn with the Day
There I loose myself
And leave a Picture “
Stephanie Thwaites
About the Artist
Stephanie is a graduate of the Yale University Fine Arts program, where she developed a strong understanding of composition and an eye for color and harmony. An award-winning artist, she has shown her work through solo exhibitions and in many national and local juried shows and galleries. Stephanie's paintings are included in collections around the country and internationally. She works out of her studio at Marin MOCA in Novato, CA.
Artist Statement
I love making art and looking at the world with an artist’s eyes. I especially find inspiration in nature — the freedom of its organic shapes, the endless variation of colors, the ever-changing light. From representational to abstract, I strive to create dynamic space that is intricate, but also grounded. I hope the viewer will look, and then look again more closely, exploring the depth of the painting.
Luis Tinoco
About the Artist
Luis Tinoco is a Mexican American painter from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a self taught artist and has been active since 2009 working primarily with oil paints. Among some of his achievements have been 2 solo shows, co-producing a three person show featured in Remezcla. In 2020 his painting was exhibited at The de Young Museum for the first “de Young Open Exhibition”.
Artist Statement
“Night Wave” series focuses on women of color in contemplative moods and subversive surroundings made up from neon settings captured in compositions reminiscent of detailed master paintings. The vibrancy from neon signs illuminate its surroundings and can be a beacon for people, whether it’s an iconic landmark in a city or simply a captivating colorful glow.
Richard Weinberger
About the Artist
I was born in New York City in 1945 and attended The High School of Art and The School of Visual Arts. I lived and painted in Munich, Germany from 1969-1972. I attended The College of Marin from 2002-2005 where I studied with Jack Scott. My studio is in Greenbrae, and I’m a member of The Marin Society of Artists, Artworks Downtown, and The Studio28 Painter’s Group.
Artist Statement
In my work, I try to invite the viewer to see beyond the picture itself and maybe to inquire why I chose that particular subject and why I painted it that way. It’s always nice to get feedback on my work because some people connect with it and see things in it that I never thought of. That’s what makes it fun and inspires me to keep painting.
Melissa Woodburn
About the Artist
Melissa Woodburn, raised in Iowa, always knew she wanted to be an artist. Growing up in the woods started her lifelong love affair observing cycles and rhythms of nature. Graduating from Wittenberg University with a BFA, cum laude, she worked as a graphic designer for fifteen years in Chicago and San Francisco. In 1996, she returned to her fine art roots, working with fiber and ceramic.
Artist Statement
I am inspired by this life on earth: the rhythms and cycles of living. A BFA in printmaking and fifteen years working as a graphic designer helped attune my eye to pattern and repetition.
“What Has Happened to Us?” is part of a series using recycled shipping cardboard, ceramic, patinas and paint. The series speaks to borders, divisions, and deep feelings held close.
Lorraine Woodruff-Long
About the Artist
Lorraine Woodruff-Long is a self-taught San Francisco quilter with a primary focus on color, improvisation, and recycled/repurposed fabrics. Her work has been juried into exhibitions at the de Young Museum/San Francisco, California Heritage Museum/Santa Monica, Sanchez Art Center/Pacifica, Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center/Anaheim, and others. She has received numerous awards for her quilts. She currently teaches quilting at City College of San Francisco Extension.
Artist Statement
Using variations on a traditional log-cabin quilt block and small recycled fabric scraps, I sought to create pulsing energy and movement within the quilt. I limited block sizes to 9, 6 and 3 inches. Each block is developed using as much variety in color, “wonky” sizes and contrast as possible to create blocks that pop and move to the viewer. The improvisational nature is furthered by a random, puzzle-piece layout.
Wilma Wyss
About the Artist
For over a decade I've been making mosaics professionally. I'm pursuing two complementary directions: fine art mosaics and architectural mosaics for public and private spaces. I've created numerous mosaics for parks, including a large circular seat wall by the Bay Trail in Mill Valley. My fine art mosaics are shown at Bay Area galleries and open studio events.
Artist Statement
My fine art mosaics are inspired by the outdoors, particularly the Northern California landscape. I'm interested in a variety of themes: the complexities of relationships, how we view one another, and the serenity and fragility of nature. For "Summer in the Park, July 2020" I was inspired by drone images taken during the pandemic of grassy parks marked with white circles to encourage social distancing.
Stephanie Zaczek
About the Artist
After a science focused formal education, a decades long health care career, and raising 2 lovely children with my husband in Tiburon, I decided to turn my attention to painting. In my pursuit to capture the beauty of the world around me. I had to learn how to harness the power of color and light to help me express and communicate. The process has been a fascinating, enriching and humbling experience.
Artist Statement
This cheerful Coffee Cups representation depicts 12 different color schemes. The colors selected are based upon the Color Wheel - a simple visual tool that shows the relationship among different colors.
The color schemes are as follows, shown by row from left to right:
Top Row: Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, Triadic
Middle Row: Tetrad, Split Complementary, Analogous Complementary, All Neutral
Bottom Row: Neutral and Saturated, All Saturated, High Key, Anything Goes.
Erika Zhang
About The Artist
Erika Zhang, age seventeen, was born in Boston and moved to Tiburon when she was five. Erika graduated from Marin Academy in June 2023. She is now in her first year of university, studying at New York University’s Stern School of Business. She enjoys spending time with friends, skiing, and traveling.
Artist Statement
I picked up visual art in class during elementary school, and I have stuck with it ever since, taking classes inside and out of school. I draw and paint as a hobby, and I sell my work when opportunities arrive. I love the story-telling ability of art, and I want to explore concept art. Though I enjoy watercolor, pencil, digital, and acrylic, my favorite medium is oil paint by far.
Tom Zizzo
About the Artist
My early formal education and training as a microbiologist helped develop a fine visual discrimination know-how. In later years my printing and graphic arts company tuned my eyes to design and color relationships. I have found this unique set of skills invaluable in developing my fine arts process.
Artist Statement
As an artist, I am driven by the act of creation. Currently, my works are both abstract and representational. Color always takes center stage in my paintings, and the natural world is an important source of inspiration.
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