By STACY TREVENON
Half Moon Bay Review
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This year, a lot of color has also sprung up in wonderful scenarios in oil, acrylics or mixed media, either locally available or created by local artists. Those colors will shine in several art shows and opening receptions scheduled for this weekend.
A world-renowned artist will visit Half Moon Bay. Two Moss Beach women are showing work in Pacifica. Classes of local seniors strut their art stuff. Two sisters - one on the Coastside, one on the East Coast - are having simultaneous shows. The Day of the Dead will be celebrated in art.
And there's more. Check it out.
Howard Terpning:
A national icon preserves American Indian history
Called "The Storyteller of the Native American" for his evo-cative, realistic, moving images of American Indians, artist Howard Terpning is a national treasure.
He enjoys the same stature at Borsini-Burr Galleries in Half Moon Bay, which has carried his work since its 2001 opening.
Terpning will visit Borsini-Burr, at 225-235 Main St., from 3 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2, for a 25-year retrospective.
That makes owner Dianne Borsini-Burr whoop with joy.
"He's the most sought-after living artist today," she said. "It's an absolute honor" for him to visit, with his fine-art editions.
Terpning, in his late 70s and living in Tucson, Ariz.,documented the Vietnam War and painted movie posters before, at nearly 50, becoming intrigued with American Indians. He studied historic photos and, fueled by a growing respect for Indians, sought to chronicle them realistically and honestly. His work resulted in multiple awards and four published books.
Borsini-Burr is expecting a flood of visitors Saturday "just to shake his hand." She asks for RSVPs at 712-2111.
Montalto:
A sister act
Growing up in New Jersey, Linda Montalto, now
of Miramar, and her sister, Mary Jane, now of New York City, didn't discuss art.
That changed when they left home in their later teens.
"We realized the similarities we had," said Linda, wife of classical guitarist Richard Patterson.
Art was the link: Linda has done three-dimensional work and paints in acrylics, Mary Jane sculpts and paints in oils.
Each will display her art in simultaneous, separate Bay Area shows beginning this weekend.
Linda will show at the Stanford Art Spaces gallery on the Stanford University campus, from Oct. 1 through Dec. 2. (Call (650) 725-3622.) Mary Jane will show at the Hastings House - Linda's picturesque Miramar home - from an opening reception Oct 3 through a closing reception Oct. 24, both from 2 to 5 p.m. (Her art is shown by appointment. Call 726-2513.)
In the past, both have focused on photos snapped by their late father Dennis Montalto, an amateur photographer who died when they were young.
"This is about discovering, and understanding more about, our father," Linda said.
Mary Jane's show is of photos he had taken as a boy in Brooklyn in the 1930s. She scanned them, made inkjet transfers and painted them with oils on wooden panels.
Linda had reworked his circa-1950s photos in her paintings. But the Stanford show is different: it is of her nature-themed paintings.
Baker:
Teach your elders well
Some of Mariellen Baker's students are teens, some are adults. Some are professional artists; some are amateurs, some are just curious.
All of them will be showcased Saturday in the third annual exhibit of Baker's students. That's two classes of seniors from Senior Coastsiders, age 60 through 88, and one class of community members from 18 up through Half Moon Bay Department of Parks and Recreation. The show will be at La Di Da, at 500 Purisima St.
The exhibit, starting with a reception from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, runs through Oct. 31.
All of Baker's students get the same thing: insight in how to paint in oils from established and professional painter Baker.
Whether seniors or young adults, all students get the same approach, Baker said. Some are experienced painters and some are beginners but, said Baker, "I have to tell you, they're all fabulous."
She starts with basics like mixing paints to achieve different hues. "You have to understand paint before you can mix it," she said.
Her students use photos they've chosen, which they copy on canvas and enhance with techniques such as glazing, a way of applying multiple layers of color over opaque paint to achieve an unusual effect.
"You get a sense of depth," said Baker.
La Di Da can be reached at 726-1663.
Guion, Val:
Soothing stone, fluid lines
They're very different women with common bonds: Carol Guion is American, in her 70s and creates delicate yet evocative sketches. Sonya Val is Russian, in her 30s, and manipulates alabaster, marble, limestone and soapstone into mythology. Both live on the same Moss Beach street.
And both are currently showing their work at the Shelldance Orchid Gardens gallery, at 2000 Highway 1 in Pacifica.
There, you'll find Guion's figures, drawn with fluid lines and brought alive with delicate shading. You'll find Val's sculptures, smooth and polished, reminiscent of antiquity and mythology.
Like them, the art is symbiotic.
"I love the line," says Guion, who creates with crayon, charcoal, ink or "house paint from Home Depot that's for sale" if need be.
Stone has "an organic feeling, working with a natural material," said Val. "It's what I love and respect about it."
She sculpts without hurry, just as stone is formed. "You don't work fast with this material," said Val, who eschews power tools and sculpts by hand. "It takes millions of years for stone to form, so I don't want to hurry it."
In her life, Guion studied art and became an occupational therapist "so I could combine art and healing." She traveled the continent and then volunteered at the Freedom House in San Francisco in the 1960s, worked respective 18-year stints as an editor with the Association for Humanistic Psychology and the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and returned to art.
From St. Petersburg, Val graduated from art school, worked with the St. Petersburg Theater of the Absurd, taught art and worked as an interior designer. Then she "discovered stone and now it's my passion, my niche." She came to America nine years ago.
Her pieces interpret archetypal or mythological figures. There's Adam and Eve, a phoenix, Medusa, a unicorn, and the birth of Venus, alongside subjective pieces like "Nesting" of a woman with birds nesting in her hair, or the "Harp Spirit" playing the harp.
Shelldance can be reached at (650) 355-4845.
Lessa Artisan: Bringing the Day of the Dead alive
Lessa Artisan Studios has a colorful past on the coast.
One of the first studios to open in Half Moon Bay, in 1980 in Spanishtown, it offers designer jewelry, paintings, photography, sculpture, stained and art glass, and personal appointments for decoration ideas for the home.
This month, it's showcasing artists Joann Banuelos of the Peninsula, with Day of the Dead figures, and Isabelle de la Tullaye, originally from France and now of Redwood City, with copper work.
There will be a reception for the artists from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2, at the gallery. Their exhibit runs through October.
Banuelos started with polymer clay before becoming enthralled with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) sculptures.
"My Dia de los Muertos creations are my favorite pieces," she said. "They have given me inspiration and keep the child inside of me close."
De la Tullaye experimented with metal jewelry and focused on copper. She makes each link individually, and sometimes applies gold leaf or experiments with textural effects.
"Copper is my favorite because of all the possibilities it offers," she said.
The Lessa studio can be reached at 726-7353.
Coastal Arts League: Peninsula artists to be shown next week
This weekend, there's a lot of art being exhibited on the coast or by Coastside artists, to be sure. But it's not over, by any means. There's still more to come.
By next weekend, the Coastal Arts League will get into the autumn art act.
This organization, with its museum and gallery located at 300 Main St. in Half Moon Bay, will be the site of the San Francisco Peninsula Chapter of Women's Caucus for Art's group exhibition.
Titled "What Was, Is and Will Be," the exhibition is made up of more than 20 works including photographs, paintings, sculpture, textile art and glass, created by women artists from throughout the Peninsula.
That includes a handful from the Coastside. The show will run from Oct. 7 though Nov. 8.
The exhibit theme is how each artist views her own story from the perspectives of present, past and a possibly uncertain future.
Some of the questions the exhibit asks, according to show public relations chair Karen Rosenstein, are, "Who am I? How do I see myself? How do my loved ones see me? Is there a difference? How can I express who I really am?"
The show is dedicated to late WCA member Maxine Gonsalves. An artist and a former mayor of Pacifica and a woman dedicated to supporting the arts and art education in the Bay Area, she died earlier this year.
There will be a reception for this show from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9 at CAL, which can be reached at 726-6335.
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