Environment plays a huge role in all of my art. My goal as an artist is to raise awareness on issues like Gender Equality, Women Empowerment, Black Lives Matter, and Self Love. Talking to other artists about their techniques motivates me to try new things and stay challenged.
I took an art class in high school but mostly did cartooning as a teenager in my spare time. In the 1970's I dabbled in oil painting but never really became dedicated to it and eventually gave it up. After retirement I started attending a basic water color class for beginners. In addition to water color painting, I started experimenting with acrylics and was encouraged to enter a few of my paintings in the Ventura County Fair. I did have some success and started doing mainly acrylic paintings on canvas. After a while I decided to try acrylics on other surfaces. This led me to painting on old surfboards, skim boards, and snowboards. In my 40 year profession I did a lot of drafting by traditional methods and then later switched to computerized drafting (AUTOCAD). I believe this technical type of drawing enhanced my desire to attempt artistic endeavors post retirement.
Ever since I was in Jr. High School I had a camera in my hand. Maybe it’s because my parents were the Photographers at the Spade Cooley Ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier in the ‘50’s, or maybe because I had a darkroom built in my bedroom bathroom. Photography has always been part of my life. I graduated from College with a Photo-Journalism degree. One spring evening when I was in Kansas City, I got caught in a Tornado Warned Storm. The weathermen showed, to the minute, when it would start raining and where the storm was. Then at that exact time it started pouring like I had never seen in my life. I had to learn about it. I learned how to spot a storm, how to read a radar, where to position myself in a storm so I’d be safe and how to get the best pictures of that natural wonder.
I have always been inspired by images and words that stir my soul. As a child I always loved playing with clay and paint, nothing like getting your hands dirty. After retiring from many years working in visual effects for film and TV, I moved to Oxnard, CA. Here I started exploring my art again doing mixed media collages which lead me to discover Assemblage Art. Throughout my life I have studied drawing, painting, sculpture, bronze casting and fashion design. I always seem to be drawn to the female form which is represented in most of my art.
Influenced and inspired by the ancient mythology and legends of her Greek and Mexican ancestry, Cecile’s art has a style all its own, ready to be interpreted differently by all who view them. Whether Cecile goes to work with an idea in mind or with nothing of the sort, when her hands find the clay, her creative nature comes to life to create these masterpieces. Simplicity is a rarity, as curly eyelashes, shells, hand-crafted jewelry, and occasional metal screws are added to create diversity. Different firing processes are used including raku, a low-fire hands on firing. The magical raku firing process usually produces brighter colors, and generates metallic flashes of copper, gold or silver.
I was about 15 years old when I first started working with clay. My art teacher inspired me to apply and be accepted right out of high school into the School For American Craftsmen at RIT in Rochester New York. After getting my BFA in clay I thought OK i'll be an artist in my own studio. Being 20ish and not knowing anything about life I soon realized I was lonely working by myself and very unhappy. So the young me got out of clay and learned all about making a life with exciting friends and new adventures. I've had many art related jobs, everything from doing display in a six story department store to designing event spaces for parties and working in the floral arts. In the end Art School worked out great because it taught me how to use my design eye and gave me a base to create a well rounded happy life. Fast forward to being 59 and missing clay and finally having enough money to set up a studio and here I am. I'm now in my 60's and making clay and could not be happier.
Curtis Stokes is an artist, a SoCal native, specializing in larger than life artwork, black light, and invisible black light painting.
"I need to tell stories and express what I feel. I always figured that if everything was painted really well, you could say whatever you wanted. I think hidden behind a lot of my candy colored pieces are revolutionary slants leaning toward the misfits and underdogs. Subtle jabs at Classism, racism, greed and commodified sexuality. It’s all in there, but never in your face."
Denise recently retired and has finally been able to pursue her lifelong passion of painting and creating in her home art studio in Ventura. Denise started painting very young. In fact when she was in Kindergarten and grade school, her paintings were hung in the principles office. While the other kids were doing finger paintings, Denise painted portraits and landscapes. She always knew being an artist was what she wanted to do when she grew up and pursued it ardently in High School and College. Alas, finding herself a recently divorced single mother at an young age changed her career course for the next 28 years where she landed a job working for the Department of Defense/Navy. The job was rewarding and enabled her to travel the globe and meet and make many new cherished friends however, her heart longed to be an artist. Now her dream has come true and she is free to paint to her hearts desire.
I took art and ceramics in high school. I have always loved to draw. In the Navy I had a friend who oil painted said I should try it so I did and found I enjoyed the possibilities paint provided. I eventually moved to acrylics and experimenting with other stuff just making art. I had a lot of long breaks artistically but now that I'm retired from the Navy I have more time for it.
I am a passionate multi-talented individual, an Art Director, Graphic Artist, Acrylic Painter and New Media Artist. I've lived five miles from NYC my whole life and have been drawing since the age of 12. My inspiration comes from Pop Art, Van Gogh, Warhol, and Abstracts with texture. My artwork exonerates beauty with impressionist colors, bold hues, varied textures and subtle to bright color palettes. Fall in love with my art that will bring joy to your mind, body, and spirit.
Capturing nature's essence, as well as the intrigue and depth of numerous cultures, Eric Hall has been taking thrilling and awe-inspiring photos of places across the glove for over a decade. Raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Eric left home at 18 and has been to all seven continents. He now lives in Ventura, California, which currently serves as his camp for embarking on adventures in the California wilderness.
College during the early ‘70s was a very eclectic period of discovery for Fred producing a number of critically acclaimed pieces, at least by his teachers. He delved deeply into life drawing, painting, fiber construction, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, photography, air brush, and advertising design. Then life took over, and the next forty years were spent in many divergent industries making a living. These included: advertising, aerospace technical art, the film industry, and finally gaming. He has since retired and returned to his passion for art. Fred is a perfectionist and therefore works in the abstract. Where he asks, what is perfect? He is currently working in water color, gouache, colored pencil, charcoal, oil and soft pastels. He has also created maps that are guaranteed to get you lost.
I’m a portrait artist in Ventura, California. I was born in Russia, Western Siberia. Here in California, I spent a decade working as a graphic designer for local businesses, and another decade as a Russian translator for the FBI in Los Angeles. I’ve been a full-time artist 7 years, focusing on portraiture and working in watercolor. What I love about watercolor is it’s fluid, spontaneous nature. I love painting people. To me, it’s the most intriguing and rewarding experience. When I look for a model/muse for my portrait, I look for something that connects me to that person. As I paint, I try to interpret what I think my muse is feeling.
As a young child growing up in Long Beach California Geaniel took every opportunity to fill her life with anything creative. The ocean and its many wonders was a wonderful classroom. Moving to Maui Hawaii in 1976 was the beginning of her artist evolution. There Geaniel met her first big influence, Japanese artist Yoshiko Fujita. Later returning to Santa Cruz and then Santa Barbara Geaniel studied under renown artists Howard Ikemoto, Tom Allen and Master Artist Buck Paulson.
Gerry Segismundo was born in the Philippines. His interest and passion in art became apparent in his earliest days of childhood where he started painting birds and landscapes in watercolor. Stemming from the influence of talented parents and blessed by grandparents and great grandparents who are both artistically and musically inclined, he drew well from an early age and was naturally gifted. Gerry has studied in the field of psychology, psychiatric nursing and medicine while polishing his aesthetic skills under the guidance and tutoring of distinctive, accomplished artists in the Philippines including his cousin national artist Lito Mayo, realist painter Teodorico Cumagon Jr., and famous portrait artist Henry Dizon. While working as a psychiatric nurse, he continued to further enhance his skills in Los Angeles through extensive formal training in figure painting and gesture drawing under Samuel Goffredo, impressionism and abstraction under Renee Amitai.
HAKUBI — means “White Rose” was given to Mrs. Pat Kyoko Atake, as her art name by the Japanese great Sumi-e (Su-mi-e: Japanese traditional painting in charcoal ink) artist and master calligrapher, Mr. Ukai Uchiyama. Hakubi's art became known as graceful yet exotic through her unique brushwork and use of color.
The stamp you see on her art, “白薇”(pronounced Hakubi) is the name:
白 (haku) = white
薇 (bi) = rose
With her creative roots born in Chicago, Heidi is passionate about the arts as public good and the power of arts+health+science for healing and well-being. Inspired [and frustrated] by marine debris collected during weekly beach clean-ups, she creatively reimagines and recycles found objects to bring attention to the global plastic pollution crisis. A portion of proceeds support the Santa Rosa Island Research Station's marine debris research and cleanup programs.
I am an old school Brooks Grad with several years in the business in the 70’s and 80’s, both locally and in the midwest. I was sidetracked and was involved with non-photo employment for the next 30 years up to 2015. It was about 12 years ago, I dusted off and traded my film cameras for a new digital camera kit and started playing with photography again. Fell back in love with my first passion and would like to make it a part time career again during retirement. I hope you enjoy viewing my images as much as I enjoy creating them.
Jim Darin is watercolor artist who works with live models and painting the immediacy of life!
Traveling the world piloting large ships and sailboats as a professional navigator in the days of celestial navigation, and surfing since the ’50’s, created a deep connection with the ocean. A lifetime of backpacking and rock climbing and a love of nature has inspired Jerry’s watercolors, where he tries to capture moments of beauty, energy and serenity. Jerry is a self-taught artist and has been a featured artist at galleries and venues in Ventura and Cambria - winning multiple awards at juried shows.
John Darren Greene is a portrait painter based out of Los Angeles California. After a long history creating artwork for the music industry John transitioned to portrait painting several years ago and quickly became adept at creating stunning visuals through his art. Combining classical oil painting techniques with contemporary imagery John is creating a new vision all his own.
Creating is my passion; Pyrography is a form of therapy and wakeful meditation for me. The process reminds me to slow way down and be in the present moment. Every item you see is handmade, with love, using a wood burning tool. No two items will be exact.
Playing with a ball of mud (clay) when I was very young started it. From the beginning transforming clay has struck me as magical. Clay is my key to the secret garden, my way down the rabbit hole through the looking glass and out again. Over the years, that magical process has had its way with me, leading me from hobby to professional artist and ceramics teacher. Ceramics fills me with a sense of accomplishment and integrity and has proven a most amenable vehicle for translating inner vision to outer reality. But basically, I create my figures because I am compelled to!
For Kimberly Davis, every painting is its own little journey. A native of Oxnard without formal training, Davis has honed her craft alongside the city itself – friends, family, diversity in her community, and the beauty of the surrounding nature have all contributed to an emerging artistic sensibility. Her early works varied in form and function; from collage assemblages in open-call exhibitions to public murals at local high schools. Landscapes and other works inspired by nature soon followed. Today, pour-painting finds itself at the fore of the artist’s style.
An internationally recognized sculptor and an avid equestrian, Andreason is noted for her powerful bronze and cast stone equine, figurative and mythological forms. From her studios in Spain and the United States, Andreason creates her original sculpting in either bronze or fired clay limited editions. She uses water based clay to sculpt and employs a foundry to cast her bronze pieces. Andreason has taken numerous art courses from universities and colleges. She learned the technical aspects from private study for five years with the late Tony Peril who taught her the basics of sculpting and was her greatest mentor. Her knowledge of equine anatomy she learned from her mother who was an avid rider as well as an artist. She receives inspiration from the work of Moore, Zuniga, Marini, Picasso and Manzu. Her work has appeared in one-woman exhibitions internationally and nationally. She is currently represented by galleries in Spain, Paris, London and the United states.
Mario Mora is a Ventura-based artist who mainly works with pencil and ink. He enjoys all mediums and loves to create everyday. He is constantly learning and improving. His artwork has been described as very intricate and creepy.
Recently retired from Delta Airlines after 41 years, my husband and I moved to a new home that had an artist's studio in place. I had taken a ceramics class in college and dabbled in calligraphy, but now, with new found time on my hands, my love of the arts was reawakened. I decided to take painting classes from a local artist in Ventura. These classes lead me to want to explore all mediums especially mixed media. My current love is to use bits and pieces of anything I find, using discarded pallets and raw edge wood to add texture and depth to my paintings. Inspired by the colors of Monet and the intensity of Van Gogh, I look to nature and natural setting as the influence in my pieces. Waterscapes, cloud formations and foliage are a particular favorite in my work. While not knowing where my artist adventures will take me, I look forward to the journey.
Mitchelle Manalo is a contemporary artist currently working with mixed media, acrylic, and abstraction. She studied graphite drawing in Los Angeles, oil painting from plein air workshops, pastel painting, and traditional shibori techniques in Japan. Her photography has been displayed at various venues in Ventura including hotels and medical centers. She discovered acrylic pouring during the pandemic and enjoyed the versatility of acrylic paint. The vast array of techniques that can be utilized with fluid art and the incorporation of her previous knowledge in composition and color combinations produced gratifying results.
I have been oil painting since I was nine years old and have always been drawn to the beauty of landscapes around me. I didn’t start taking painting seriously until I attended an art market a little over a year ago and suddenly felt a desire to grow to my practice. Since then, I have painted landscapes from all over the world and now take on commissions. This allows me to bring special places and moments to life for others which gives me such a deep sense of fulfillment that I had never experienced with painting before.
Nahzy Tabrizi studied art at Azad University in Iran and earned her B. A. in Art from the University of California Northridge in 2016. As a woman living in Iran, Nahzy felt the strain of everyday life with every breath that she took. She took to drawing as a young child, and developed her skills as a painter over time. The calmness and empowerment that she obtained by producing her work was the only thing that kept her going, and it became her main focus as a teen. The war between Iran and Iraq also had a profound impact on her and further compelled her to concentrate on her artwork. Nahzy now resides in southern California where she continues to follow her passion of producing and studying art. Much of her work embodies themes of nature, depicting serenity and tranquility but also invoking feelings of wariness. Showing her desire to be at peace shadowed by a towering past, she strives to secure a calmness but is ever aware of the impossibility.
I have always been fascinated with our natural world, and have held a camera since age 2, musical instruments since age 6, and still to this day am thrilled by the dazzling world of crystals, gemstones, and 3 dimensional art. Also an abstract painter, these days I focus on bringing functional art to those who wish to have a beautiful conversation piece that not only dazzles visually, inspiring the imagination, but helps create a permanent clockwise or life affirming molecular spin: radiating out of the art itself - via the piezo electric or "orgone" effect, thus harmonizing ones environment on a molecular level from the damaging affects of wifi, cell phone towers, home routers, and high tension power lines.
I have been creating ceramics for 8 years. Growing up in Japan, California & Hawaii I developed a love of the ocean. I am inspired by combining my love of ceramics and the ocean in my work. I enjoy capturing the fluidity & movement of fish in my sculptures. What I value most in my art is people's positive reactions to the pieces I create. Working on my pieces has allowed me to develop a greater appreciation for fish species, anatomy & habitats. Jaques Cousteau once said, "The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."
I am an artist living in the Sacramento area of California. I work in a style I call "Suburban Primitive." This style combines my interest in the origins and functions of art along with life in the suburbs. For me the draw of art lies not in the depiction of physical reality but rather the representation of my emotional, psychological and intellectual reactions to the environment in which I live. In general painting, for me, is visual thinking. It is a way of making sense, finding connections and organizing the seemingly incongruent thoughts that bounce around within my head. Ultimately I hold the belief that all things, within our existence, are somehow tied together and my task, as an artist, is to find and explore these ties.
Sherí Garwood is a multi-disciplinary artist. For the last few years she spends most of her time in a private art studio in Ventura where she explores mostly painting and music. Her favorite project is whatever she is working on at the moment! She has over 20 years experience teaching several subjects including watercolor, acrylic painting, drawing, and fashion art. Her newest passion, music, has her immersed in ukulele and singing, as she and her partner, Bill, are beginning to record original songs.
Shigeo Atake was a scholar with an IQ of 169 who also loved to paint. He passed away in 1989. His daughter, Marie Atake, is the founder of Forte Animal Rescue in Marina del Rey, California. Two-thirds of the proceeds for each of his paintings will be donated to Forte.
I have been painting all of my life. The images I paint are often inspired by what I see and feel when visiting the Big Sur, Santa Barbara, and Ventura coasts. I photograph constantly, but generally will use an original reference photo as a guide, allowing it to remind me of the beauty, wonder, and mystery of nature.
Little is known of Utamaro's life. His work began to appear in the 1770s. He produced over 2000 known prints and was one of the few ukiyo-e artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his lifetime. In 1804 he was arrested for making illegal prints depicting the 16th-century military ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and died two years later.
Wendy Winet, a New York City native, has drawn and painted since she was a young child. Winet graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Fashion Design from Pratt Institute, and worked in NYC as a clothing designer. She later moved west, settling in Ventura in 1977 in the very house she lives in today! She has planted a lush garden which serves as inspiration for many of her works. Winet is well known locally for her watercolor florals, but has recently enjoyed much success with her torn paper collages, either as abstracts or landscapes.