Thursday, December 9, 2010

December Artists - Peter McDonald and Debbi Swanson Patrick

The Coffee Gallery is very pleased to announce our artists for December: watercolorist Peter McDonald and scanographer Debbie Swanson Patrick.

In the main room we have the wonderful abstract watercolors created by Peter McDonald.



Peter was a restless journalist when on a whim he took a painting class and discovered a passion he never knew existed.  "It was," the Australian born artist recalled after the first water color class, "love at first brushstroke."  He was immediately drawn to abstraction and his distinctive work is built on watercolor bases and random color and texture and transformed by intricate line work.

More than two decades later his work has been seen in both national and local shows winning numerous awards including the National Watercolor Society's Frode Dann Award. The late Dr. Alex Vilumsons, the prize winning abstract-impressionist, and Tom Fong, the California master teacher and artist were influential in his development as an artist.  He currently studies with ntoed watercolorist Fealing Lin and abtract artist and teacher Terri Balady.

"For me, life is a wonderful abstraction of elusive beauty, mystery and spiritual transformation I feel compelled to explore as an artist and try and make sense of in, well, the abstract," he explains.  He is a member of the National Watercolor Society and the Pasadena Society of Artists.

Visit his website at PeterMcDonaldStudio.com

In the conference room we have the intriguing scanography works of Debbi Swanson Patrick.



Of her work, Debbi states:

"Since the day my father brought home a Polaroid camera I've been in love with making images, the joy of discovery in capturing a moment that will never be again.  Now, I've embraced the art of scanography with it's incredible quality of light and detail to tell stories, capture mood, create a visual-sometime ethereal and whimsical-festival of life and death.  I'm intrigued with contrasts: life/death, old/new, dark/light, real/imitation, daily reality/eternal spirit to connect into our individual emotional waves, and how we manage to live, to cope, and laugh in spite of it all.  Ultimately my goal is to transform past challenges into the beauty of original "Still lives" that reflect joy and lifes' emotional layers by contrasting polished, raw, manufactured, natural and found objects in startling ways.

One of the best moves I ever made was the one to Altadena 15 years ago.  Thank you to all my Altadena/Pasadena friends and family who've been such great supporters and helped me through this past year! Special thanks to Dawn Stevens of Clickers and Flickers and Ed Martin, my scanography mentor and inspiration.  This show is dedicated to my late husband, Steven, for his never-ending faith.

Please visit Debbi's other work at:

photodeb.viewbook.com
AltadenaAboveItAll.com
AltadenaDailyPhoto.com
KPPC's The Freeway on Facebook
digiphotomag.com

Please join Debbie for an 

Artist's Reception on

December 16th 

from 6 pm to 9 pm

at 

The Coffee Gallery.