Category Archives: Ventura Art Scene

Ray Jaurique art at Bell Arts Factory

by Staci Brown

Ray Jaurique has been painting for just a few years but his talent is immeasurable. With no professional training, Ray was inspired by his own father’s art that he wanted to imitate. He finds inspiration in many places and states that a lot of his inspiration is from shapes appearing in his reoccurring dreams. He is also inspired by all of the shapes and colors in sea life, sunsets and the shapes and colors that appear when closing your eyes after staring at the sun. He likes to give the impression of movement and enjoys painting the iris. Ray sees creation and inspiration everywhere and is always creating.

Ray often has five or more pieces going at one time. He can spend all day going back and forth working on the canvas as he feels inspired by each piece.  When he feels inspired, he wants to get it sketched out as soon as he can. Creativity constantly flows.

Ray is also a superbly talented musician. He plays and writes music with his band Ray Jaurique and the Uptown Brothers. They are currently working on a new original CD. He builds guitars, cooks and makes beautiful jewelry using inlay work, pearl, decorative hard woods and abalone.

Ray’s work is displayed at the Bell Arts Factory across from Executive Director, Jim Rice’s office. Go by and see his work and try to catch one of his shows. You will not be disappointed.

 

Grand opening held at Ventura College

Roe Estep creator of sculpture explaining the steps to her creation to friend Kathy Johnsen. Photo by Bernie Goldstein

On Dec.1 the Ventura College Art Department held the grand opening of their remodeled Studio Arts Building (SAB) and the newly constructed New Media Gallery  at 4667 Telegraph Road.  It featured  studio class demonstrations, faculty and student displays, and a closing reception . The Art Department maintains two galleries: Gallery 2, a student-run gallery and art lab, and the New Media Gallery exhibiting work by historically significant and nationally known artists. Additionally, these exhibition spaces provide students with hands-on experience in gallery and museum management.

 

“Dainty Trio”, mixed media by Nancy Horwick

art-dainty-trioBuenaventura Art Association’s annual Small Image Show is going on now through January 7 at the Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St. in downtown Ventura. No painting or sculpture is over 16 inches in any direction. Concurrent with the show is the Holiday Boutique filled with unique artisan crafts and gifts. All of the artwork is priced competitively so that the gift of original fine art or artisan crafts is not significantly more expensive than buying a framed print at a big box store… and it’s much more personal! Shopping local supports local artists and businesses rather than large conglomerates!

“True Colors,” featuring Phillip Zubiate III and Eileen Maloney at Fox Fine Jewelry through Jan. 16

art-foxEileen Maloney won the 2016 Strawberry Festival’s Poster Contest for her painting of strawberries dripping with chocolate and wet paint. An artist since she was young, Maloney continued her art as a teacher and mother.

Now retired, she enjoys painting fruits, vegetables and flowers in her home studio. Says Maloney of her watercolors, “I always use bright colors and lots of detail. That’s how people recognize my work.”

Fox Fine Jewelry
560 E. Main St.

Mermaids galore at Mermaid Gallery & Studio in Ventura Harbor

art-obrien‘Mermaid and Her Seahorse” 24″ x 48″ oil by Tina Obrien at the Mermaid Gallery & Studio in the Ventura Harbor. If you are a mermaid or know a mermaid, come and sea Tina Obrien’s beach art at the Gallery. Tina has mermaid cards and prints, mugs and her Mermaid Sand Dollar Ornaments. The gallery is full of original oil paintings featuring our beautiful Ventura beaches as well as her 2017 Calendar ‘Ventura Seaside’.  Be shore to stop by.

Ellen Wohlstadter hand building demonstrations at Ventura Country Pottery Gallery at Ventura Harbor Dec. 10 & 17

art-wohlstadterEllen Wohlstadter will be doing hand building demonstrations at the Ventura Country Pottery Gallery located at Ventura Harbor, Saturday December 10th & December 17th from 11:00 – 3:00.  She will be working with paper clay creating bowls, texturing, darting and manipulating the clay over balls.

“Clay is a marvelous material to work with.  There is the childlike fun of getting dirty, the challenge of the technical aspect of working with clay and glazes, the joy in the creating, and the excitement of opening the kiln.”

Ellen and her husband recently moved to Ventura.  She decided to cut back on her teaching and focus more on creating her own ceramic creations.

 

Photographs of Cuba by Tomi Murphy at Traveler Café until Dec. 3

art-murphyThe photographs of Cuba by Tomi Murphy are on display until Dec.3 at the Traveler Café, 1070 E. Front St.

“Whether in my everyday life or on my travels, I find so many things around me to be beautiful. With my work I try to capture the beauty that I see and present it so that someone viewing that image can feel what I felt in that moment. My greatest pleasure is seeing someone react to my work and knowing that they are experiencing the same emotions I had when I took the photograph.”

Photographs of Cuba by Tomi Murphy at Traveler Café until Dec.3

 

 

Dab Art presents Collective Dissent: Rethinking Rationality at H Gallery

art-h-gallery2Dab Art is pleased to present Collective Dissent: Rethinking Rationality at H Gallery (1793 E. Main). The idea of abstract painting and mixed media is to create objects without reference to the world outside, or as a strictly vestigial image or form. The artists in this exhibition have each pursued abstractions, sculpture and photography with unique and individual character within the realms of mixed media modernism. This exhibition aims to show these works in sympathetic relationships to each other, in spaces with ideal light and proportions. The installations and pieces exhibited in Collective Dissent represent a new visual language based on assemblages of the unbounded world, rejecting mediocrity and redefining high art. Art idealism is confronted and explored through the works of three principled and distinguished artists. Opening Reception |Saturday, December 10,  7-10pm

Glenn Carter stands as one of the most inventive artists ever exhibited by Dab Art. His approach to making art using conventional materials and everyday objects has eviscerated the distinctions between medium and genre, abstraction and representation, while creating an enduring change in the relationship between artist, image, and viewer.

Artists on exhibit: Glenn Carter + Michelle Robinson + Yari Ostovany