Category Archives: Ventura Art Scene

Channel Islands Harbor Arts Festival July 9–10 at Harbor Landing in Oxnard

This 15th annual Channel Islands Harbor Art Festival will feature accomplished artists presenting their original work in all mediums of two and three dimensional fine art, including paintings in acrylics, oils, watercolors, photography, and sculpture in glass, metal, and wood. Each artist will be present to meet with the public and discuss their work. All work is available for purchase.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

In addition to fine art, fine crafts will also be presented. Festival attendees will find blown glass, semi-precious jewelry, ceramics, and an array of high quality crafts.

Harbor Landing is located at 2800 Harbor Blvd., at the corner of Channel Islands Blvd. The hours of the event are from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Admission and parking are free to the public.

Beatles and me on tour book signing and music event

When Ivor Davis isn’t signing books he keeps fit at the Pierpont Racquet Club.

On Saturday, July 16, 6pm to 7pm. Gallery V will host a musical book signing event featuring author Ivor Davis and singer/composer Brooke Halpin. Gallery V is located inside Very Ventura Gift Shop at 540 E. Main Street, Downtown Ventura. The event is free.

In the summer of 1964, budding journalist Ivor Davis set off to New York on his first “Big Job:” to report on a hot, British Rock Band making their debut concert tour in America. What followed was a fever-pitched twenty-four-city tour over thirty-four days with four young musicians catapulting into forever stardom as The Beatles. Ivor Davis will share enjoyable antidotes from his book, “The Beatles and Me on Tour”.

Brooke Halpin is an accomplished broadcaster, pianist, composer, painter, and published author. He currently hosts the hit, syndicated radio show “Come Together with The Beatles,” on KBU, 97.5 in Malibu and online at www.kbu.fm.

Along with meeting Mr. Davis and Mr. Halpin, guests will be able to visit with the artists exhibiting at Gallery V. The current show Good Vibrations: A Harmony of Art & Music is a fine art collective with music and sound as motif. The Beatles will always be a part of musical history. Still to this day, albums such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are still enjoyed, maybe even with the addition of Graham Slee HiFi – preamp platform, to help improve the sound from the vinyl player. Either way, The Beatles did make a large impact on the music industry and someone like Ivor was there to witness it.

Gallery V owners Angela Rosales and Michael Mendelson have a steadfast passion for Ventura and coastal living. Gerald Zwers serves as curator of the gallery. Gallery V was launched in 2016, when the couple moved the business to its current location. Ms. Rosales describes the fine-art gallery as “a natural expansion to a business that is dedicated to serving the local economy and prolific arts community.”

 

Ojai Portrait Artist – Ojai Community Bank – Reception Thursday, June 16, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

art treadwellCharcoal 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

Trevor Norris-House Inside Out and Other Stories at Vita Art Center

art NorrisVita 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.”

An iconic image of St. Junipero Serra is now on permanent display at Mission San Buenaventura. 

art Serra TapestryArtist John Nava designed the tapestry based on the oil painting using the electronic Jacquard technology.  John Nava studied art at U.C. Santa Barbara and did his graduate MFA work in Florence, Italy. His work is found in numerous private, corporate and public collections throughout the United States, Europe and Japan including the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C. Nava has done large-scale public works including projects for the Tokyo Grain Exchange in Japan, the Seattle Symphony Benaroya Hall and Westmont College.

The Serra tapestry is an exact replica of the original tapestry that was blessed by Pope Francis in November 2015 in the sacristy of the National Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.  The original tapestry is on display at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel where St. Junipero Serra is interred.

Arts for Earth Foundation: Green Street Ventura comes to the July 4th Street Fair

by Karen Helen Szatkowski

Can passion for the arts create compassion for the earth?  Arts for Earth Foundation, (AFEF), was created to do just that.  Recently, founder Michelle Nosco, hosted think tanks on behalf of local environmentalism:  Sierra Clubs’ Wildlife Corridor, iMatterYouth’s Climate report-card and Surf Rider’s Matilija Dam Wetlands project. Now AFEF is sharing the wealth of Ventura’s artists and environmentalists with the public bringing “Green Street” to Ventura’s July 4th Street Fair!  Their booth, sponsored by the Ventura Climate Hub and Rincon-Vitova, unveils a 20’ hand painted tourist map mural highlighting local green projects.

Simply put, the arts community and the organizations for sustainable living in our beautiful city are logical partners to inform and inspire everyone. The intent of AFEF is to involve hundreds, even thousands of people at the festival to join the many different campaigns supporting the natural world right here at home.  “It’s all about reconnecting aesthetically to become healthy.  One gains a sense of well-being at an affordable price, and much of it is free.  Organic Gardening with neighbors for family and FOOD Share is sustainable.  Trading work for Ventura Timebank hours is a great way to shop local.” Says Nosco

See you at the Street Fair!  You’ll also meet the CA Native Plant Society, Bicycle Hub, Ventura Food Co-Op, Community Roots Garden, Abundant Table, artists: D.Bell, M.Brasa, S.Foster, ArtByJudd, Burton, K.Mann, “Kimo”, MJ.Murphy, M.Nosco, G.Pocock, C.Quan and L.LeTourneau. www.ArtsForEarth.org

Duo Show “Wild About Paper” by artists Janet Black and BiJian (BJ) Fan at Buenaventura Gallery

art BuenaventuraDuo Show by artists Janet Black and BiJian (BJ) Fan entitiled “Wild About Paper” at the Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St. Exhibition runs June 28 – July 23.

Artists Janet Black and BiJian Fan create figurative collages and sculptural images bringing to life a menagerie of creatures, real and imaginary, only using paper.

Fan, a Camarillo resident, and Black, of Ventura, will be at the gallery for a reception 5-8 p.m. July 1, during First Fridays Ventura, the city’s monthly arts celebration. Each is donating original art for a raffle at show’s end as a fundraiser for the Buenaventura Art Association.

“Wild About Paper is a statement of both my paper addiction and that both BJ and I are incorporating wild creatures (and some domestic ones) in our artwork,” Black said.