ACCI Gallery Holiday Show and my storybook corner

My small group of "Storybook" gouache paintings in the current ACCI Gallery holiday exhibit in Berkeley.  All of my  paintings are framed in rustic woodsy frames, and the gorgeous walnut burl lectern/music stand in front of them is by master woodworker Peter Howkinson. Don't they look great together? (And, in case you aren't in the market for a framed original, all of these images are also available as high quality greeting cards at ACCI, as well as at Books Inc in Alameda, Collector Art Shop in Berkeley, and at the Framer's Workshop in Berkeley.)

Gouache paintings L to R: "A Winter Nap", "The Playhouse", and "A Walk in the Woods".

ACCI Gallery hosts the "Wonder" Exhibit

On October 10th another show with my work in it opened at ACCI Gallery in Berkeley. This is the "Wonder" exhibit, a "selection of oddities and curiosities", inspired by early European Cabinets of Wonder.  It is a fascinating exhibit, filled with mysteriously strange and wonderful objects. I love the combination of The Bone Room curiosities, and fabulous art inspired by taxidermy, tarot images, magical miniatures, mounted butterflies and beetles, skulls, old engravings, and preserved specimens.  The Wonder exhibit will be in the gallery through November 5th, 2015.

My friend and patron Jerene Meissert and me with my trio of "Kunstkammer" still lifes.

The Wall of Small Wonders

The Bone Room's mounted Goliath beetles, and Tom Chen's even BIGGER beetles

Ryan McJunkin's "mounted" cut paper butterflies, Bone Room skull.


My Three Cabinet of Wonder Still Lifes (oil on museum board):

Kunstkammer 1: Mounted Manakin

Kunstkammer 2: Skulls

Kunstkammer 3: Glass Dome

Lisa in two October Art Exhibits in Berkeley Galleries

This autumn my art shows got a little more complicated than I had planned! Bold Botanicals at ACCI Gallery just ended last week, and on October 9 (Friday) and October 10th (Saturday) two more exhibits with my work in them will be having opening receptions in their respective galleries...

Lisa with her paintings at the Bold Botanicals show, ACCI Gallery, Berkeley

Lisa and more of her work now exhibited at Collector in Berkeley

The reception on Friday, October 9th from 6-8pm is at Collector Art Shop (2950 College Avenue, near Ashby in the Elmwood district, Berkeley).  I will have nine paintings in this show, along with six other exhibiting artists.  On Saturday, October 10th I will be back at ACCI Gallery (1652 Shattuck Avenue at Lincoln, Berkeley) showing work in their Wonder exhibit, "a selection of oddities and curiosities" for Halloween month. I have 5 pieces in this larger seasonal show, including my new trio of Cabinet of Wonder still lifes. This opening reception is also from 6-8pm.  Both exhibitions will be in the galleries for about a month after the artist receptions.

Lisa's Paintings in "Bold Botanicals" Exhibit

This fall my work will be in three separate exhibits at two different galleries, and this is the first one to open!  For the past year several ACCI Gallery artist members, including me, have been cleaning up, replanting and reorganizing the ACCI sculpture garden behind the gallery in Berkeley. It has come out beautifully, and this is our celebration of it's grand opening - the "Bold Botanicals" show. There will be outdoor garden sculpture and indoor pieces too - including several paintings and giclees of mine with a garden theme.  The exhibit runs from September 16 - 30th, but come by September 18th from 6-8 pm for our festive preview party with Brazilian Jazz and sangria to meet the artists and hang out in the garden!

And after this?  In late September through October I will be exhibiting a selection of landscapes in oil and gouache at Collector in Jack London Square, and in mid-October I'll be back at ACCI for their "Cabinet of Wonders" exhibit, with my newly completed Kunstkammer group of still lifes. 

    

Paintings at ACCI Gallery, Berkeley

ACCI Gallery In Berkeley, is currently displaying some of my work -  The gallery is looking beautiful, and the new sculpture garden in the back is a lovely asset, especially in balmy spring weather.

From left to right, my gouache painting "Garden Reflection", a small giclee of my gouache painting "Dusk", oil on panel "Planting Oaks" in an antique gilt frame, "Multnomah Falls" in a wonderful Tramp Art frame from about 1900, and a small oil I did of "Maine Rowboats", aesthetically moored at the end of Mount Desert Island when we visited in the Fall of 2013.

I am now on Instagram, as is ACCI, and the gallery posted a picture they took of my rowboat painting, along with many other examples of their exhibited artists' work.  I am attaching a screen shot of the Instagram posting below, but you can also go to Instagram and see more of my artwork at #manopantheart or at #accigallery to see my pieces, and the work of many other artists represented by the gallery.

Display of a group of my paintings at ACCI Gallery, Berkeley

Instagram posting featuring "Maine Rowboats" at ACCI Gallery

Mount Diablo, oil on canvas

Mount Diablo

In late fall I began a commission to paint Mount Diablo, in central Contra Costa County, for a client and friend who sees this view from her bedroom window in Alamo.  She may be moving to southern California in the next year or so, and wants to "take the view with her".  This is a pretty big painting for me, at 24" x 30", and the huge mountain looms so close to the house that it was a challenge to really get the scale of the thing.  The near foreground was not quite as arboreal as it appears here - the view was filled with her neighbors' houses, driveways, and recycling bins, and when I drove out to do my on-site sketches, clouds covered the top ridge, creating another problem for me.  (A day or two later the sky cleared and the client sent me a photograph of the top of the mountain so I could fill in the blank in my drawings...)

I decided that to make the mountain look Really Big, it needed to be bathed in late afternoon sunlight, the clouds above it retreating in perspective, and the foreground had to be in deeper shadow to make the composition more dramatic. I eliminated the houses between me and the closest foothills (while keeping a few of their trees and shrubs) to keep the view pristine and powerful.

All of this is a demonstration of how artists can paint the truth without necessarily painting exactly what they see!