Visual Ovation

In Remembrance

 

A tower of roses

In honor

In remembrance

 

Late Spring Show at Riverfront Art Gallery

 

We are delighted that our work is being shown permanently at Riverfront Art Gallery in Petaluma.  We are getting used to the schedule and routine of gallery life.  Every two months, artists gather at the gallery to rotate their work into new locations, and to show new material.  Even better, the new cycle means that there will be a new "featured artist" or "featured artists," and it is particularly inspiring to see a new body of work by our colleagues.

While this is only our second experience with the gallery "hanging days," we are struck by the sense of community and camaraderie.  There is a sense of closure in taking down the prior show and excitement about seeing what will be revealed in the new one.  There is a chance to talk and get to know our colleagues a bit.  And there is nothing like having the hits of Motown turned up loudly on the gallery sound system to provide an atmosphere of fun as we make our way around our spaces, patching walls, painting, packing and unpacking, wiring, and trying to find the most effective way to display our images.

For this, the Late Spring show, we decided to honor the season with images from the amazing Keukenhof Gardens.  I suppose Keukenhof has been on my mind lately, both because it is open and must be in its full glory now, but also because we have been getting ready for this show.  Frank is showing a collection of large images, showcasing the glorious vistas in the Gardens.  The image above is one of his favorites, called "Don't Fence Me In."

We decided to work in an integrated way for this show, so I am also featuring images from Keukenhof.  But where Frank's work has showcased the "big picture," my images take the more detailed view, with the position that all those big pictures are made up of small, individual flowers.  So I am displaying a collection of portraits of tulips, both highlighting their external beauty, and also revealing the lovely secrets that lie within their petals.  The following image is in the show.  It is called "The Tulip's Secret I"

 

 We hope you will stop by and let yourself be transported to what we call "Botanical Heaven" with our images.  And the delight of visiting any art gallery is that in experiencing art of all sorts, you may be transported to many places (external and internal) in a single visit.  A gallery space provides an artistic journey for everyone who enters, artists and visitors alike.  The newest journey at Riverfront Art Gallery, the new Late Spring Show, opens tomorrow, Wednesday May 11th.  Come and join us.

Nature's Artist

 

It is Spring and we are thinking about the beautiful Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands.  We have called Keukenhof "Botanical Heaven" because of the almost overwhelming beauty of the place.  Rivers of flowers flow throughout the gardens in the most amazing fashion.  Sometimes these rivers of color wind through the trees in a natural, free form manner, as above. 

Sometimes, the floral streams are more orderly, like this:

 

Or like this...

 

Can you imagine?  It really is even more beautiful than these images can convey...

 

We noticed that one little flower seems to run through many of these spectacular floral vistas.  It is a stunning blue, a tiny, compact flower called Muscari which provides a beautiful artistic accompaniment to almost any other spring bulb.  There are many varieties of Muscari, but we saw this one and understood at once that it was quite aptly named: 

 

Muscari - nature's artist - but of course.

For Those Who Suffer in Japan

 

 

 After devastation...

 

 

...a visual offering of hope. 

 In time, the chrysanthemum will bloom again. 

Waiting for Sunshine

 

Like these lovely gerbera faces, orienting towards the sky, we patiently await the arrival of "Sunshine." It is a good lesson:  She will come in her own time.