Introducing: Western Edge
January 25, 2023 § Leave a comment

WE’RE PLEASED to present the inaugural exhibition of Western Edge, a powerhouse creative collective of established Santa Barbara artists. Many of these artists have known each other and collaborated together for years. Now they have joined forces to present a broad spectrum of realist and abstract work, including paintings, assemblage, ceramics and sculpture.
Members participating in this exhibition include Dorothy Churchill-Johnson, Pamela Hill Enticknap, Nancy Gifford, Ruth Ellen Hoag, Cynthia James, RT Livingston, Cynthia Martin, Joan Rosenberg-Dent, Kerrie Smith, Marlene Struss, Susan Tibbles and Veronica Walmsley.
The exhibition is curated by Andi Campognone, director of the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, CA. It opens on First Thursday, February 2, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. A second reception with the artists will be held on Friday, February 10, from 5 to 8 p.m. The exhibition continues through March 25 at the Thomas Reynolds Gallery at 1331 State Street in Santa Barbara, near the historic Arlington Theater.
INTRODUCING: WESTERN EDGE
A Creative Collective
Curated by Andi Campognone
Director, Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
[click on images for full view and details]


DOROTHY CHURCHILL-JOHNSON



PAMELA HILL ENTICKNAP


NANCY GIFFORD


RUTH ELLEN HOAG


CYNTHIA JAMES


RT LIVINGSTON



CYNTHIA MARTIN


JOAN ROSENBERG-DENT



KERRIE SMITH


MARLENE STRUSS



SUSAN TIBBLES



VERONICA WALMSLEY
INTRODUCING: WESTERN EDGE
February 2 – March 25, 2023
THOMAS REYNOLDS GALLERY
1331 State Street • Santa Barbara, CA 93101
415.676.7689
info@thomasreynolds.com
Open Thursday-Friday-Saturday, Noon to 5 p.m.
or by appointment
Getting on Jerry’s list
January 18, 2023 § Leave a comment

By MARIANNA STARK
I first met Jerry Ross Barrish in 2015 when he curated a solo show of Sam Perry’s sculpture at the nonprofit community gallery, Sanchez Art Center, in Pacifica, California. Sam Perry, who is my husband, and I were soon added to Jerry’s enormous “studio party” guest list. These “behind-the-scenes” affairs are magical in nature: Picture yourself at a packed artist studio party surrounded by Jerry’s sculptures of jazz musicians, angels, animals, clowns, dancers, Statues of Liberty, plus live music. On January 1, Jerry telephones every friend on his list with a New Year’s greeting and follows up throughout the year with invitations to opening receptions, fundraisers and artist talks at Sanchez, where he serves as artistic director.
In his sculptures, Jerry Barrish applies his deft hand to the cast offs of our materialistic consumer society to tell immutable tales of love and loss. Familiar items like umbrella handles, funnels and toys are transformed when combined with takeout containers, janitorial supplies and vacuum parts. Each element of these assemblage sculptures is placed in a way that perfectly expresses the universal language of gesture.
In my earliest imaginings of M. Stark Gallery, I knew I wanted Jerry’s art to inaugurate the gallery exhibition program.
To me, the piece Jerry calls Teaching, The Most Honorable Profession (2016) is in many ways a self-portrait. Since he became the artistic director of Sanchez Art Center in 2003 he has mentored dozens of artists. In the process of selecting works for exhibitions, he also discovers works in artist studios that merit further exploration and development and he continues the conversation with these artists in furtherance of both. After many, many helpful conversations about opening this new gallery — lighting, installation, public programs and even business hours — I am proud to call Jerry my mentor as well.
— excerpted from “Jerry Ross Barrish: Protagonist,” catalog for the inaugural exhibition at the new M. Stark Gallery at 727 Main Street in Half Moon Bay, California.

A tapestry of flowers
November 26, 2022 § Leave a comment

Gary Bukovnik with his “Flower Cascade” tapestry.
WHEN TWO TAPESTRIES of his flowers are released in the coming months, it will mark the realization of a long-held dream for Gary Bukovnik, the San Francisco artist whose floral watercolors are admired around the world.
“Many years ago when I when was first beginning to see tapestry as a possible fit for me and my art,” Bukovnik says, “I was contacted by the Atelier Raymond Picaud in Aubusson, France. After some talks we decided we should proceed. I made a cartoon for the 1 meter x 1.5 meter tapestry woven in the traditional way of Aubusson.”
It was a great success, and the six large tapestries of white pelargonium woven in the mid-80s sold immediately. So did a smaller tapestry of a waterlily. One of each is in the museum in Aubusson. But an economic downturn took the tapestry studio under before the partnership could flourish.
“Ever since those first works, I’ve wanted to return to this medium,” Bukovnik says. After viewing a 2020 exhibition of artist Hung Liu’s paintings hanging alongside tapestries of her work, he set about searching for a way to revive his interest in tapestry. He found it close to home. Magnolia Editions, which had made the Hung Liu tapestries, was just across the bay in Oakland.
“They were Jacquard woven tapestries that involved the newest technology,” Bukovnik says. “I had known Don Farnsworth, the director, a long time ago and asked for his guidance. There was a lot of back and forth across the bay, and finally we had chosen two images for weaving, which was done in Belgium, near the city of Bruges.”
Magnolia Editions describes itself as “a handshake between the art of the past and the art of the future” and notes: “Tapestries are an ancient medium, with antecedents from centuries past including Chinese kesi, Middle Eastern kilim carpets and Medieval European wall hangings. Yet these editions are created using cutting-edge software on state-of-the-art Macintosh computers and hot-rod industrial looms.”
The floral tapestries will be released by Magnolia Editions in an edition of 10, complete with hanging devices, for $18,000 each. Bukovnik is delighted. “I think they are quite amazing,” he says, “and I am really excited that I am on the path again to seeing my art interpreted in tapestry.”

Gary Bukovnik, “From the Garden of Earthly Delights,” 48 x 62 inches, Jacquard tapestry

Gary Bukovnik, “Flower Cascade,” 48 x 68 inches, Jacquard tapestry

A pair of Staprans studio visits
October 13, 2022 § 1 Comment

THE GREAT CALIFORNIA-LATVIAN painter and playwright Raimonds Staprans turns 96 today. It has been a treat to watch his friendship blossom with fellow artist Sandy Ostrau. Not long before his birthday, she paid a visit to his San Francisco studio. In turn, he and his wife, the scientist Ilona Staprans, repaid the visit with a stop at Sandy’s studio in one of the original buildings at the Sea Ranch, on the northern California coast.

“I love when he pokes my paintings!” Sandy says. “He liked that one, but the bottom needs resolving.”

“Ilona is just as amazing. PhD in Bio-Chem, ran a research lab at UCSF, and really supported Raimonds in his early career.”

“They appreciated my new easel, too,” Sandy says. “Both are remarkable. They are making a documentary in Latvia about him that is nearly done.”
Happy 96th, Raimonds!
— Thomas Reynolds
EARLIER: “Feasting with the Staprans“
From architecture to art, via Paris
October 7, 2022 § 3 Comments

I FIRST MET Michael Reardon when he was a regular with the Sunday Afternoon Watercolor Society, the gently mocking name a group of San Francisco architects gave themselves when they gathered in some scenic spot once a month with their watercolors.
I’d seen one of Michael’s watercolors in a group exhibition of the California Art Club I hosted in 2009. I thought I didn’t much like watercolors, but I loved the abstraction of Michael’s vertical painting of a Sonoma winery.
So I invited myself to visit his studio and see more of Michael’s work. He was still working in architecture, having become a much sought-after architectural illustrator. But he painted watercolors on location quite often, too. He had a lot of beautiful work of various subjects, but no apparent theme for an exhibition. Then he pulled open a drawer of paintings he had done in Paris when he was awarded a three-month residency there to study some aspect of French architecture. He chose the historic fountains of Paris, and painted many of them in watercolor. He even wrote and published a book. We held his “Fountains of Paris” exhibition in 2011 at my San Francisco gallery. That’s when he and the other Sunday watercolorists painted in nearby Alta Plaza Park in the video above — and not long before Michael decided to graduate from architecture and give himself over entirely to painting and teaching.
I’ve thought since I got to Santa Barbara that this is another great architectural destination Michael might be moved to paint. That hasn’t happened yet, but the ARTchitecture exhibition provided an opportunity to introduce his work here. Demonstrating the wide appeal of his paintings, the first three claimed are going to Australia.
— Thomas Reynolds
Painting Via San Francesco
August 17, 2022 § Leave a comment
MICHAEL REARDON demonstrates how his watercolor painting, Via San Francesco, came to life.
His spirit lives on
July 20, 2022 § Leave a comment

WHEN THE CHARLES CAMPBELL GALLERY opened in January 1972 at 647 Chestnut Street in San Francisco with an exhibition of work by Nathan Oliveira, Campbell had known many of the prominent San Francisco artists for almost 30 years, and art had undergone several changes.
The Charles Campbell Gallery was unusual, noted for its relaxed attitude and a comfortable sofa in the front room. According to Barbara Janeff, who worked with Campbell from 1983 to 1993, the gallery was “very informal and eclectic. . . . It was a hangout place. It was a low-key fun party, with people drifting in and out.” It was also very well respected. The San Francisco Chronicle, Artweek and other regional papers took notice right from the beginning and reviewed the gallery’s shows regularly.
Dancing With Charlie: Bay Area Art From the Campbell Collection brings together works of art that the legendary San Francisco gallery owner amassed over a period of some 60 years. Campbell collected and exhibited both emerging and long-established artists he believed in, irrespective of the market or fashion; all were friends and members of an extended family and many eventually turned out to be central figures in American art history.
— excerpted from Dancing with Charlie by Susan M. Anderson, a catalog of the exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.
EARLIER: “Right place, right time“