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New Representation in Monterey California!
Recently, I was invited to be represented in a Monterey Gallery Reflections Elegante Fine Art Gallery. August first, I delivered 5 paintings, and they are hanging in the gallery. This is an exciting opportunity for me. Click here to view the 5 paintings currently at the Gallery.
Lori, the owner, is a strong and knowledgeable businesswoman, well connected in the local art scene, and fun to talk with. Her Gallery is located on Alvarado Street, near the Monterey Plaza Hotel and the Monterey Convention Center, a 4 minute walk to Fisherman's Wharf.
I hope some of you will visit the gallery, and see my paintings there. She represents other fine artists - sculptors, water-colorists, pastel painters and more. The gallery is open every day but Tuesdays.
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King's Mountain Art Fair - I'm sad to miss this one.
On the home front, my guy is preparing for knee replacement surgery very soon. Richard will be recovering for a while and I will need to provide close support for a few weeks. I regret that I have had to cancel my participation in the King’s Mountain Art Fair this year, the 3 days of Labor Day Weekend. Do visit the fine people at the Fair if you can, I hope to return next year.
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Coastal Contours, 11x14, oil
Juried into SCAL's 2026 "Landscape Exhibition"
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Blue Sky Day, 30x40, oil
In progress, available at Open Studio 2026,
Oct 3, 4, 17, & 18
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95th Statewide Landscape Exhibit at the Santa Cruz Art League:
July 15- August 21. Reception: August 7, First Friday 5-7PM. And yes, this Santa Cruz art organization has been around over 95 years.
My painting Coastal Contours (11x14, oil) was selected by master artist Warren Chang for this exhibit. On a sunny day in May, after a few days of fog, the weather was predicted to be clear. I was on retreat with seven of my fellow painters in the Big Sur area. We drove the coast and had a great day painting in several locations. My friends were even able to set up at Hurricane Point without wind. The tourists were too numerous for me to concentrate in that pull off. So I drove on to the scenic overlook above Julia Pfiffer Burns State Park. I decided to use a dark panel for this painting, and I liked how the dark blue emphasized the coastal shapes. It was a bit of a challenge to think about the negative spaces, how to leave dark patches to give the landscape form.
I am currently painting a 30x40 of this view, inspired by this plein air painting. Again, I am working from a dark canvas to get that same amount of drama.
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California Art Club virtual Associate Member Exhibit: Rising Voices.
My painting Morning Hike will be on view on the CAC website from August 7 to November 6. This painting was developed as a study for a large 72”x 42” painting. I enjoyed the depth of view in the reference material.
I am also finishing a 24”x36” painting of a similar view named Wilderness Preserved. The imagery is from the Russian Ridge Preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains, part of Penninsula Open Space Trust (POST).
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Tip for Artists: Just Take a Pause
Many years ago, when I was still a clinical social worker, I told a fellow therapist that I was closing my practice to devote my time and attention to painting, she joked “Yeah, your paintings won’t talk back to you”.
Well, she was wrong! My paintings DO TALK BACK on occasion! (And sometimes in CAPS.) I was painting away on a large landscape and my painting kept interrupting me: “your foreground is too light, your clouds are too dark!! Won’t the rooster be eaten by a coyote without a fence?” My husband came into the studio to see if I was ready for lunch. I shared my mental turmoil with him, and he convinced me to stop, put my brushes down and walk away. Sometimes when a painting starts talking to me like this, instead of pausing, I become more and more frantic to “fix It”. I was ready to take my DeWalt sander to this painting!
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I did stop, cleaned up and went for lunch. When I next returned to the studio, the painting didn’t look too bad! I no longer thought I needed to take the sander to the entire painting. (You can see both the paused and final versions on my blog.)
If you get that anxious feeling that the painting is just not turning out as you had visualized it, just pause, put your brushes down, and take time out. On returning to it, you will see more clearly where you want the painting to go.
Read more tips and detail on my blog here.
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Wishing you an enjoyable late summer,
Michele
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