After spending years recovering from a severe infection, I now know precisely what I want out of life! Life is too short to not be appreciating all of the beauty and good fortune it holds! If you, like me, know what you want out of art, and if you know you are searching for unique pieces with thick, textured brush strokes of vibrant colors, please enjoy my paintings!
Yes, my paintings, although cheerful, do have deep meaning. I try to make that meaning revolve around celebrating life and healing changes.
My paintings deliver a positive burst of energy to you. The bold color and movement in my work is for those of you who are sensual. Have a tasty glass of wine while perusing my art. Why not just imagine yourself escaping into the joyful places I depict during your meals? Share my art with others! After all, my art is all relaxation and no angst.
After early experience with watercolors, I fell in love with the qualities of this medium – the vivid colors and the expression of fine detail. I enjoy interpreting what I see thru color and imagination. I have recently completed a series of local scenes to capture the beauty of the Monterey Peninsula Coast. In this series of trees and cottages, I have included elements both of the sunshine and the sea mist that defines the light of this region. I also enjoy painting portraits, landscapes, and Monterey Peninsula wildlife.
Christine’s 35 years experience in the arts ranges from painting murals in some of America’s most beautiful homes to painting fine art oils in her own Monterey Peninsula neighborhood, and as far afield as Europe and the Fiji Islands. She is a respected teacher who believes artists have a mission to foster the continual growth of the arts and an appreciation of beauty.
I am studying Fine Art at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
I think an artist's job is to freeze precious moments. We live in a beautiful world and there are so many beautiful things to see, hear, taste, touch and smell. But in our busy daily lives we forget to take a moment to appreciate those moments. I hope I can capture some of those moments and paint them on a canvas so that you can enjoy them, too.
Some of these moments might be just for fun, others might be comforting and healing, and others might be just breathtaking.
Oil painting has become a part of my life. It is not all consuming as with some other artists but rather a, "reason," for contemplation and looking for the possibilities that exist with seeing nature, objects, form and spacial relationships that allow for them to be interpreted and put down on canvas. I feel I was given a gift that transcends time and place and each painting is an extension of who I am and what matters. My paintings tell a story that is in some way a part of me. How I see a sunset or landscape is transferred in the form of personal expression and creativity that has a stamp of enduring enjoyment. I hope you enjoy my art as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Jean has lived on a farm in Aptos, CA for over 40 years, juggling parenting with a part time adult educaton job. She was a potter, watercolorist, and currently has focused on oil painting. Since retiring, she has taken her paints to Italy, New Brunswick, and more frequently, New Mexico. But, since flying is not what is once was, she is increasingly content to paint the farm, valley and local coast. Her art education was from Cal State Northridge, UCSC and Cabrillo, in addition to private workshops from Karen Frey, Charles Reid, Hedi Moran, Randall Sexton and Tjasa Iris in Italy. She is a member of the Pajaro Valley Arts Council, Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters' Association, and the Santa Cruz Oil Painters, a wonderfully active and supportive group. In November, she puts the paintsaway and makes wreaths, a different art form. Locals also come out to the farm to make their own wonderfully asymmetric wreaths.
Jim Willis has a background in technical writing and technical illustration. In 2009, he started painting in oil under the tutelage of long-time friend, Bay Area artist Ramona Kennon. From an almost laughable beginning, Jim’s paintings gradually improved to the point that he felt confident showing them publicly. In 2012, his painting “Old Man in a Hat” took first place in the Portraits, Figures, and Animals category of the Monterey County Fair’s Juried Division.
I am a native of Fresno, California and received my education in this community from grammar school through the University undergraduate and graduate levels. I have been a professional Interior Designer for many years, but I established myself as a studio artist, when I was introduced to painting as a pathway to healing after a family tragedy in 1986. I paint in the representational tradition of Alla Prima, which means “from life,” and I engage in a sensitive dance of brush and paint – color and light – to create beautiful works of art as still life; figurative, and landscape paintings. I enjoy the camaraderie of an art group as well as work shop study with master painters, and I am currently in a mentoring continuum of study with the acclaimed young artist Daniel J. Keys.
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa with a passion for the outdoors. The Monterey Peninsula has been my home for 30 years. My artistic journey with painting started 13 years ago, inspired by my horses in the landscapes of ever-changing light in their pastures that surround my home in The Steinbeck Hills. Whatever I paint has to capture my attention, otherwise it's just another thing to do!
Inspired by the spectacular scenery of the Monterey Peninsula I started painting en plein air, or outside on location. This became a passion and eventually fine art painting became my full time vocation. My interest in subject matter is not limited to just the landscape, I also paint still-life, architecture and figures.
Michele LaMontagne Hausman creates original landscape oil paintings both en plein air and in her California studio. Her love for painting first led her to watercolors but in the mid 1990s she found her true love in painting with oils. Constantly honing her craft, Hausman sees painting as a life long adventure of study and exploration. She has studied at the Scottsdale Artist School and with modern day master artists in the USA and in France. Hausman also teaches painting at her Soquel studio and through the Santa Cruz Art League.
I have been honored three times at the Carmel Art Festival, was winner of the first Monterey Plein Air Festival, and have been part of a number of painting competitions and exhibits across the nation. I have lived in nearly every region of the country from Alaska to the Deep South, from the California to Maryland. This variety of scenery has contributed to my long fascination with the enduring beauty of the landscape. Plein air painting is the perfect expression of my love of landscape and being in the landscape.
Ruth has a B.F.A. from C.C.A.C. in Oakland Ca. in drawing. Her studies included life drawing and portraiture, watercolor and bronze sculpture. She spent ten years doing commercial art for the amusement park industry, carving and sculpting full size carolsel figures as well as painting scenic panels, etc. Her work is all over the world. For the past seven years Ruth has been focusing on painting with oils on canvas and encaustic on panels. She is committed to paint what inspires her. Her favorite subjects include landscape, still life and figurative work. She enjoy's getting outdoors to paint in plein air and also working in her studio. Ruth's studio is at the 17th Ave. Studios in Santa Cruz, Ca. She has participated in the Open Studios Art Tour in Santa Cruz for six years.