Compelling photos are a convergence of location and timing. Artfully frame an intriguing subject in your viewfinder, then trip the shutter at exactly the right moment. Tomi Murphy does both challenging tasks very well. Havana, Cuba is the subject and title of the Oxnard photographer’s July 26-Aug. 20 solo exhibition at the Buenaventura Gallery in downtown Ventura, featuring images from a 2012 visit. She will attend an opening reception 5-7 p.m. July 30. She will be at the gallery every Saturday and a few other days during the week.

And on Saturday, July 30th from 5 to 7pm. Cuban food, at Copa Cubana in the Ventura Harbor . To hear Andy Fernandez talk about Cuba and his family tie to Cuba around 6pm and to see my photographs.

“My photographs do not take critical views of things or people. They just capture images that make life a little bit more pleasant and more hopeful, a bit sweeter and more peaceful. I enjoy finding the beauty and interest of unexpected places and things,” she said.

Examples of her fine art photos can be found online at tomimurphy.com.

Ojai artist Uta Coleman is a resident artist at the HUD Gallery located at 1793 E. Main in Midtown. The gallery presents progressive exhibitions focusing on contemporary artists, while promoting a wide spectrum of genres and mediums in solo, group and juried exhibitions.

Their resident artists range from photography, mixed media, abstract to realism, oil paintings to pencil drawings.  Come for the art. Stay and meet the artist.

The Museum of Ventura County is proud to present an exhibition of twelve oil paintings by Carpinteria-based artist Whitney Brooks Abbott from July 22 through September 5.  These lush landscapes feature local rural scenes with barns, trees and farm equipment that many will find familiar and pleasing, with names like “Open Barn”, “January’s Harvest” and “Hoops and Hives”.

Whitney Abbott was born in 1972 in San Francisco, CA. At the age of three, she and her family moved to Carpinteria where she spent much of her childhood drawing the life she found around her on her family’s avocado and lemon ranch.

Ag Museum at 926 Railroad Avenue in Santa Paula.

by Jen Livia

On Saturday, July 16, 6 – 8pm, Fox Fine Jewelry will host an Art Reception and a fundraiser for the Family Reconnection Program. Neighbor Gallery V will host a Book Signing and Music Event on July 16 from 6 – 7pm.

Jen Livia and Hilda Kilpatrick-Freyre will display their art in a show titled “Local Color” at Fox Fine Jewelry through September 11, 2016. Strolling magician Kris Sheppard, Magic Castle member, and George Spike, musician, will perform during the reception on July 16^th, 6 – 8pm.

The Downtown Ventura Partners’ Family Reconnection Program provides free transportation for homeless individuals wishing to connect with a family member. In just four years, the program has reconnected over 100 people at an average cost of $200 each (http://downtownventura.org/reconnection).

Raffle tickets are available for art from the artists, and the grand prize of a Fox Fine Jewelry $1,800 14kt .55ctw diamond ring. Raffle tickets and donations are available online at http://squ.re/29gX6Td or at the event. Fox Fine Jewelry is located at 560 East Main Street, in downtown Ventura,

Charcoal portraits drawn by Sandy Treadwell will be on display at the Ojai Community Bank until July 29.

Treadwell has been a journalist and politician and was New York Secretary of State. He and his wife Libby moved to Ojai in 2010 to be near their Los Angeles-based family. In 2014 he became a student of Ojai artist Dan Schultz and discovered both an ability to draw and the joy of portraiture.

His portraits – many are Ojai residents – are done in charcoal on paper.

Ojai Community Bank, 402 W. Ojai Ave., Ojai

Vita Art Center, 432 North Ventura Ave. Studio 30 www.vitaartcenter.com

Trevor Norris-House Inside Out and Other Stories

Opening reception: July 1 from 6-9 p.m.

Exhibit until July 30

Gallery hours: M-F 10-4 pm Sat. and Sun. by appointment

“The works shown in House Inside Out and Other Stories pay homage to my family history, and to some amazing examples of unintentional and ephemeral art that I see every day on walls driving around Southern California. It’s not graffiti that interests me, most of it made in a far too self-conscious and ego driven manner – I am more intrigued by tagging painted over with colors that don’t match, in shapes that don’t conform to anything familiar.  Combining these influences, I aim to reveal the personal in a universal way without resorting to a literal narrative. You will not be able to ‘read’ my story in these paintings.”