Bonnie Bostwick Featured Artist July 2011

Bonnie Bostwick is a local artist and high school art teacher. She works with both gouache and acrylic paints as well as a variety of three-dimensional media.  Many of her paintings explore the deep emotions and compassion found in faces across all cultures and the unexpected beauty found in unlikely places. Some pieces focus on the bonds and interconnection between feminine archetypes from infancy throughout old age.

Artist reception: Sunday, July 10th 4:00 - 6:00 PM

LISA GEORGE - FEATURED ARTIST JUNE 2011

Lisa R. George is a figurative and plein air painter who works in oils and various other media. This series of paintings was inspired by walking in the foothills, road trips, or a momentary reflective facial expression.


Designing each painting came down to how to encapsulate the moment visually with texture, tone and light. The way light shined on each subject, or didn't, created the most dynamic composition.

"Although I love painting a variety of subjects, I find I often return to painting trees or people. Their forms and moods are strangely similar and interesting. There is always a different, original story to tell."

Lisa studied at Colorado Institute of Art and Art Center College of Design. With a background in graphic design and fine art, her experience led her to work for various entertainment studios in Los Angeles, including Disney and MGM.

Her artwork has been displayed locally in Altadena at The Gallery at the End of the World, The Spring Towers in Downtown LA, and La Jolla.

Richard Davies - May 2011 Featured Artist

    ARTIST RECEPITON SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2011 5 - 8 PM

     The artist works that are presented in this exhibition consist of two elements: the oil painted images created by Richard Davies, and the unique frames crafted by Richard Benson. Davies and Benson are former colleagues at the Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory where they pursued efforts to explore the planets in our solar system.
     The images in the paintings are extensions of landscapes and skyscapes, all related to the various creations of Mother Nature. The oil painting techniques are several but the most easily recognizable is the use of pointillism. The paintings are contemporary in feel because of their abstract construction, but they are nonetheless about something natural.
     Once one of these paintings was begun, it took on a life of its own, leaving the painter Davies somewhat at a loss to explain to others his mental processes during the painting. Davies hopes a viewer will be instantly intrigued by the images and will wish to take a second look and a third and other longer looks.
     The materials used in the frames made by Benson are cherry and dark walnut wood that Benson took out of forestland his family owns in Michigan.
     Davies has exhibited elsewhere. Locally he has shown his work at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena and the Gallery at the End of the World on North Lake in Altadena.

Nancy Desmond Armitage March 2011 Featured Artist

Nancy is a landscape, figurative and contemporary painter.  Her recent series "The Adventurers Club" is featured at The Coffee Gallery and illustrates fascinating people, places and memories from around the world.  The layered paintings depict treasures and maps from a faraway land, local birds and fishes, people and customes from certain places - a pictoral journal.  Nancy received her BFA at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.  Additional works can be viewed at http://www.nancyarmitage.com/ or http://www.artslant.com/

Linda Ternoir February 2011 Featured Artist

Linda Ternoir is a local artist who works from her imagination. She paints with acrylics, uses collage, draws with ink, and uses a variety of color media. Movement is the most important aspect of her art. She invites those who view her paintings and drawings to engage, participate, and become involved. Linda is an award-winning artist who has exhibited in many solo and group shows.


Dates: February 1 through 28, 2011

Reception: Sunday, February 6, 2011 from 5 - 8 PM











Thank you in advance, best regards,



Kathleen

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.

September Artists - Janos K. Lanyi and Dorothy Shepherd

In the main room we have the vibrant photography of Janos K. Lanyi.

Artist Profile

As a pre-teen Janos spent all his time drawing and painting, but made the decision to abandon art and turn toward science, which also fascinated him.  He never touched the sketching pencil again, but neither did he stop looking at the world with an artist's eye.  Now, sixty hears later, he has begun to create photographic images, which reflect all he learned from his visual experiences.

Just as every block of marble contains a great sculpture and one need only to trim away the excess, the world is full of great images and the task of the photographer is only to keep an open eye.  He keeps trying to catch those magical moments when form and content come together.  When they do, then there are no questions, no doubts, and no ambiguity: the image is just right.

There is nothing subtle in his photography.  Color or black and white, it is intended to grab your attention, and to demand a "wow".  Being a scientist in his other life, he strives for technical perfection, but that is only the first stage.  the second is when the image connects with the viewer.  He connects best with people, so his subject always includes people or a hint that people are nearby.  the third stage of the "wow" is the soul-crashing impact that is rarely achieved, but once seen never forgotten.  A photograph like that can be a life's ambition.  You have to aim high.

Visit his website at http;//www.janosklanyi.com  

In the conference room we have the beautiful watercolor paintings of artist Dorothy Shepherd.

Artist Profile

Dorothy has been painting in the Chinese brush style of watercolors since 1996, with Chinese 

 Brush artist Nan Rae.  She particularly likes to pain animals, landscapes and flowers.  For the last two years, she has been studying with master Chinese calligrapher Tom Shantian Chow and is learning to paint some of the Chinese calligraphy characters in cursive style.  Many of the brush strokes used in her watercolors are also used in Chinese calligraphy.  By practicing both forms of brushwork she hopes to improve her painting.

Janos K Lanyi's artwork will be on exhibit through September 29th.

Dorothy Shepherd's artwork will be on exhibit through September 22nd.