Ascension, oil and acrylic with iron oxides on canvas, Jill Sattler

Members of the Buenaventura Abstract Artist Collective, an offshoot of the Buenaventura Art Association, will exhibit their recent work starting Friday in Studio 99, BAA’s new gallery space at Bell Arts Factory, 432 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura.

The artworks by 17 painters from throughout the region, from Lompoc to Santa Monica, will be on display through Sept. 25. An opening reception will be 6-9 p.m. Sept. 3 in conjunction with Ventura’s monthly First Friday gallery crawl.

Studio 99’s operating hours during the COVID-19 pandemic are limited to noon-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and other times by prearranged appointments. Masks are optional and encouraged for all vaccinated visitors and required of unvaccinated adults.

The Abstract Artists Collective was founded in January 2020 and has been meeting on Zoom since July 2020. Every month, 15-20 artists gather online to present and discuss their paintings, which do not aim to represent external reality but to achieve its effects using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month. For information on joining this group, please contact Joe Osborne at [email protected].

Buenaventura Art Association, founded in 1954, also has an outlet at Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts at Ventura Harbor, and artworks on display at SpiceTopia and Very Ventura, downtown shops on Main Street. BAA directors, staff and volunteers are seeking additional business partnerships to expand exhibit space and artist exposure.

For more information about BAA and its programs, call the gallery at 805-648-1235 or visit buenaventuraartassociation.org.

Pacific Point Fine Arts will be showing artwork of painter and sculptor
Tim Hill. Last weekend of August. Come and enjoy the one of a kind
quirky vision of Cars,Trucks and Flying Pigs. Weekend of August 28 and 29 with live music.

3172 Bunsen Ave Ste J, Ventura

Art City Studios in Ventura means different things to different people.
For some it is a font of imagination and freedom of artistic expression.
For others it is a haven and a refuge from the troubles in the world.
For others, the hundreds of international who have worked here in the 36 years
since it moved to Ventura from Santa Barbara,
Art City is a source of deep personal expression and their foremost way of staying connected with their patrons and the community as a whole.

Art City has been through a lot in its over three-decades of existence in Ventura.
It has weathered many a storm and always come out swinging for the Arts in our community. There simply is no other place like Art City in our increasingly mechanized and inhibited society. All the more essential that this proud resource not be allowed to be destroyed or altered beyond all recognition.

There is nothing that says Art City Studios should not have to adapt and change with the times. But any wholesale assault on its independence, its right to exist, would bring shame on those whose misguided efforts in this regard fail to take into account the unique place Art City Studios has in Ventura.

Our major collaborators over the years, including the City of Ventura, the Museum of Ventura County, The Ventura Botanical Gardens, Cal State Channel Islands, Bell Arts Factory, and many more, all believe that there must be a way forward for Art City that assures it of remaining what it has always been, a place like no other here on earth.

197 Dubbers Street
Ventura, CA. 93002
www.artcitystudios.com / [email protected] / 805 653-6380

Gerd Koch and Carole Milton, Jungfrau, Switzerland, 1986, photo by Donna Granata

The Journey Together:
Abstract Paintings from Lifetime Partners Gerd Koch & Carole Milton

The public is cordially invited to attend “The Journey Together: Abstract Paintings from Lifetime Partners Gerd Koch & Carole Milton.” This memorial art exhibition is scheduled August 7 through September 2 at the Ojai Art Center, with a free public Reception & Celebration of Life on Sunday, August 8, 5-8 p.m. featuring live music and refreshments. The Ojai Art Center is located at 113 S. Montgomery St., Ojai. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Gerd Koch was born Jan 30, 1929, in Detroit, MI to doting parents who had emigrated from Wuppertal, Germany. Gerd received a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in 1951 from Wayne State University, MI and in 1967, a Master of Fine Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Carole Milton was born July 18, 1931 in Yakima, WA.

At eighteen, Carole was accepted to the University of Washington where she hoped to study Art, but her parents refused to let her pursue a major of “loose morals and heathen values.” So, as Carole told it, she went after her “MRS degree.” A year later she married Saylor Milton, who would become a Science teacher at Santa Paula High School. Before having children, she was a secretary and when she became a homemaker, she enjoyed dabbling in oil painting.

Cayetana Conrad (AKA Tani) studio is located in Studio74 at the Bell Arts Factory 432 N. Ventura Ave.

“I was born in San Francisco. My father was a writer and painter. My mother was an architect. All three of my siblings are in the arts. I went to college on the East Coast and raised my three children in Connecticut. In 2005 I moved back to California where I have always loved the light.

 “I currently live in Carpinteria, but enjoy the peaceful drive down to my studio at The Bell Arts Factory in Ventura every morning . When I start the nature and figure paintings which are done in oil paint , I always start with an intention, a loose plan , as opposed to the mixed media paintings which are done in acrylics and are completely intuitive. Aside from my Bell Arts Factory studio, some of my paintings can be seen at The Doora Collective on Main Street ( between Palm and Oak St.) in Ventura.”

Her work including mixed media and figures can be seen at Taniconrad.com For hours she is at her studion contact [email protected].

On July 2 Studio 99, at the Bell Arts Factory held a grand opening.

A reception was held from 5 – 8pm. This was also during the first in-person First Fridays art crawl of 2021!

The Collage Lab is a group of Ventura artists who create pictures using paper, photos, fabric and other mixed media. “Picking Up the Pieces” presented a selection of recent work reflecting thoughts, ideas, feelings and inspirations that carried the artists through the COVID lockdown. Featured artists are Janet Black, Karen Hoffberg, Darlene Roker, Wendy Winet, Janna Valenzuela, Karen L. Brown, Mary Kolada Scott, Joyce Lombard, Virginia Buckle and Tasia Erickson.

Exhibiting: July 2 – August 15, 2021

Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays, noon – 4pm

and by appointment – 805-648-1235

Studio 99 is at the back of the Bell Arts Factory through the Wall Street entrance. 432 N. Ventura Ave.

According to her bio and other reports, Margy drew her first portrait at the age of 4.

She went on to earn a master’s degree in fine art from Claremont Graduate University, where she studied with iconic painters of the time, including Millard Sheets and Phil Dike.

In 1978, she and her husband, Charlie, and two of their three teenage daughters moved aboard a 39-foot sailboat in the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard. When her children graduated from high school, Gates and her husband lived for the next 24 years aboard a sailboat near the Whale’s Tail Restaurant in Oxnard.

Margy was a gallerist for more than 35 years. She opened her first gallery in the 1980s in the Marine Emporium Landing on Harbor Boulevard in Oxnard. Later, she moved next to Mrs. Olson’s Coffee Hut on Los Altos Street.

Finally, she opened her Sea Gate Gallery on Ocean Drive in Oxnard. The 10-by-10-foot space, nestled between a real estate office and the Rudder Room bar, was previously a hot dog stand. After 15 years, she closed the gallery in 2015.

Margy was one of the resident artists at BAA’s Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts in 2016 and 2017. Her daughter, Alison, hosted Margy’s shifts at the gallery and maintained her display space while Margy painted at home.

John Nava’s 87”x330” brilliant Jacquard tapestry can be viewed at the Museum of Ventura County. He stated “The Promenade near surfers’ point is, in fact, a magnetic gathering place for our community, a place where all sorts come to stroll, to surf, to rest in the sun. We find ourselves immersed in this beautiful nexus of shore, and sky completing the composition. I wanted to make Ventura’s own Arcadian image.”

This summer the second Sunday of the month from 11am-3pm patrons are invited to come and visit the Olivas Adobe. June 13^th was Plein Aire day, artists were invited to come out and find inspiration on the historic grounds. Check out what’s coming up in July at www.cityofventura.ca.gov/OlivasAdobe