Gualala Arts Promoting public interest and participation in the arts since 1961
Art in the Redwoods
2018 Fine Arts Exhibit winners here.
Hats Off Dinner
Call 707.884.1138 for reservations!
Thursday, August 16, 2018 at 6 pm
Entertainment by “Four Shillings Short”
$150 per person, includes $100 letter of tax deductible donation
Chef Sheralyn Kirby’s Menu Includes:
Appetizers by Gualala Arts Culinary Arts Guild
Beef Tenderloin Roulade stuffed with cherries, spinach and goat cheese
with a second offering of either salmon or steelhead
Crab Cakes with crab from Kaitlin Fisheries
Roasted potatoes and fall vegetables
Stornetta Brothers home-grown fava beans
Woodenhead Wines
Complementary cuisine by Chef Rebecca Stewart of
Blackpoint Grill at The Sea Ranch Lodge
Dessert buffet by Devon King of The Ranch Cafe
Champagne Preview
Friday, August 17, 2018, 4 to 7 pm
Doors Open at 4 pm
Champagne served 4-6 pm
Husch Vineyards and Handley Cellars
Outdoor Artists Vendor Booths preview at 4 pm
Fine Art Exhibit opens at 4:30 pm
Judges Critique & Awards at 6:15 pm
Entertainment by Four Shillings Short
$10 at the door, exhibiting artists free
Thank you to our 2018 Art in the Redwoods Festival Sponsors!
We could not do the things we do without YOU!
Festival Grand Sponsor
Platinum Sponsor
Mary Sue Ittner and Bob Rutemoeller
Gold Sponsors
Bedrock
Gualala Supermarket
Vacasa Vacation Rentals
Whale Watch Inn
Woodenhead
Silver Sponsors
Andrea A. Lunsford
Black Point Grill at Sea Ranch Lodge
Community Foundation Sonoma County
Sharon & Len Hiles
Lagunitas Brewing Co.
Miriam & Buzz Owens
Ranch Cafe
Sea Ranch-Gualala Real Estate Co.
In Loving Memory of Lew Chapman
In Loving Memory of Tom Warnock
Bronze Sponsors
All Coast Mobile Lock & Key
Anchor Bay Thai Kitchen
Kathryn & George Anderson
Lee Rye & Diane Boeke
Cristalen
Gualala Country Inn
Gualala Lions Club
Gualala Redwoods, Inc.
Jesus & Carole Garcia
Independent Coast Observer
Mendocino Automotive & Towing
Bob & Sophia Mitchell
Oz Farm
Chris Mengarelli & Dale Elliott
Dorothy J. Porter
Rams Head Realty
Rotary Club of Gualala
Solid Waste of Willits
Westamerica Bank
What began among the redwoods on Gualala ridge in 1961 has grown to a weekend attraction for thousands. This popular four-day event features one of the largest fine arts exhibits in Northern California with hundreds of works entered, vendors and artisans from near and far, and free entertainment on stages throughout the Arts Center grounds and on stage in Coleman Hall. This Festival would not be possible without the the generosity of our Art in the Redwoods community sponsors and donors, to whom we give a HUGE Thank You! If you would like to be a 2018 festival sponsor, contact Gualala Arts at 707-884-1138.
Each year, Art in the Redwoods gets better and better with more artists, new music and entertainment, and more food menu options! If you haven’t attended the preview events in the past, put them on your calendar for 2018. This is four days of entertainment and art you don’t want to miss!
Go Local
Entertain Local
2018 Art in the Redwoods Entertainment
Aodh Og O’Tuama from Cork, Ireland and Christy Martin from California, the husband and wife duo known as “Four Shillings Short,” will perform traditional and original Celtic, medieval, Indian and American folk music on their fantastic array of more than 30 instruments while patrons of the Hats Off Dinner enjoy their culinary delights on Thursday, Aug. 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Coleman Hall.
If you miss Martin and O’Tuama there, find them the following evening at the Champagne Preview from 4:30 to 6 p.m. And festival goers can enjoy this entertaining couple on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. as they eat al fresco in the Redwood Grove picnic area.
Touring in the U.S. and Ireland since 1997, “Four Shillings Short” are independent folk-artists who perform 130 concerts a year. They have released 12 recordings and live as full-time troubadours, traveling from town to town performing at music festivals, theatres and performing arts centers, folk societies, libraries, house concerts and schools.
O’Tuama grew up in a family of poets, musicians and writers. He received his degree in Music from University College Cork, Ireland and received a Fellowship from Stanford University in California in Medieval and Renaissance performance. Martin grew up in a family of musicians and dancers. From the age of 15, she studied North Indian Sitar for 10 years, studying with Tony Karasek (a student of master Sitarist Ravi Shankar) and Rahul Sariputra (a student of Allaudin Khan). She began playing the hammered dulcimer in her 20’s and has studied with Maggie Sansone, Dan Duggan, Cliff Moses, Robin Petrie, Tony Elman and Glen Morgan.
The ever-popular Ernest Bloch Bell Ringers will play Saturday at 1:15 p.m. and Sunday at noon in Coleman Hall. Joining the bell ringers will be vocalists Sita Milchev, Remi Alexander and Rachel Kritz. Musicians Karl Young, Mary Visher, Dan Laux, and Eric Kritz will also play with the ringers.
The bell ringers will present ensemble bell ringing on pieces such as their signature arrangement of “Andante in F Minor.” A fun rendition of the theme from “The Pink Panther” brings a surprise for the audience, says Bells Director Jeanne Jackson.
Karl Young will solo on his shakuhachi on the ethereal “For the Beauty of the Earth” and Mary Visher joins the bells with her recorder on “Unity and Harmony.” Dan Laux plays hammered dulcimer on “Simple Gifts.” Eric Kritz brings his saxophone styling to “Heaven Bound,” a medley which includes “When the Saints Come Marching Home.”
Singing is always an important part for every bell ringing concert and locals and visitors alike will delight in the voice of Sita Milchev singing “Looking Through the Eyes of Love.” Remi Alexander performs “The Rose” and Rachel Kritz leads an audience sing along on the folksong “Shenandoah.”
“The Ernest Bloch Bell Ringers enjoy presenting a varied and exciting program for all ages,” Jackson says. For more information about the Ernest Bloch Bell Ringers contact Jackson at 707-884-1761.
Back after a break during last year’s festival is the Tess Howard Dance Group with a varied and magical dance performance on Sunday from 1:15 to 1:45 p.m. on the Coleman Hall stage.
Finally, closing out the festival is BAKU, an improvisational ensemble comprised of musicians dedicated to the art of spontaneous composition. BAKU will begin playing Sunday at 2 p.m. The band’s music combines contemplative ambient structures and melodies with a strong yet relaxing rhythmic pulse. BAKU will be playing unique and totally improvised Jambient Soundscapes: a synthesis of jazz, Afro beat, Middle Eastern, and other World influences and rhythms. Members of BAKU are Harrison Goldberg, saxophones and percussion; Chris Doering, 7-string guitar and guitar synthesizer; Tim Mueller, 6-string guitar and guitar synthesizer; David French, upright bass and percussion; and Nancy Feehan, cajon and percussion.
Sprinkled between all the music are some activities for the youngsters to enjoy. Story time with Joel Crockett of Four-Eyed Frog Books will be Saturday and Sunday in the Fairy Ring (meditation grove) behind the Arts Center from 11:30 a.m. to noon.
Kashia elder Eric Wilder will share Native American stories in the Meditation Grove on Saturday, 2:15 to 2:45 pm and Sunday, 2:30 to 1 p.m. Also on Saturday, Tatiana of the Russian House will lead puzzle play in the JAMI amphitheater from 2 to 4 p.m.
And don’t forget to make a little time to play with clay in the downstairs Clay Studio. Volunteers will be on hand to teach youngsters and adults about creating with clay from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days of the festival.
A special feature this year is a presentation in Coleman Hall on Sunday at 10 a.m. by historian and preservation advocate Adam Arenson. Arenson is the author of the award-winning book “Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California,” documenting the art and architecture of Millard Sheets. The book won the 2018 Modernism advocacy award. (See article below).
2018 Entertainment Schedule
Thursday, August 16, 2018
6 – 8 pm Hats Off Dinner Four Shillings Short
Friday, August 17, 2018
4 pm Vendor Preview
4- 6 pm Champagne Served
4:30 – 6 pm Champagne Preview Four Shillings Short
Saturday, August 18, 2018
11 am – 3 pm Clay Studio Doric Jemison Ball II
11:30 am – 12 noon Meditation Grove 4-Eyed Frog Story Time with Joel Crockett
Noon – 3 pm Picnic Area Four Shillings Short
1:15 – 2 pm Coleman Hall Stage Ernest Bloch Bell Ringers
2:15 – 2:45 pm Meditation Grove Eric Wilder
2 – 4 pm JAMI Amphitheater Russian House Puzzles/Tatiana
Sunday, August 19, 2018
10 – 10:45 am Auditorium Stage Adam Arenson: “Banking on Beauty” Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California”
11 – 11:45 am Mezzanine John Micka
11 am – 3 pm Clay Studio Doric Jemison Ball II
11:30 am – 12 noon Meditation Grove 4-Eyed Frog Story Time with Joel Crockett
Noon – 12:45 pm Coleman Hall Stage Ernest Bloch Bell Ringers
12:30 – 1 pm JAMI Meditation Grove Eric Wilder
Noon – 3 pm Picnic Area Four Shillings Short
1:15 – 1:45 pm Coleman Hall Stage Tess Howard Dance
2 – 4 pm JAMI Amphitheater Baku
Special Feature
Adam Arenson, historian and preservation advocate
“Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California”
Historian and preservation advocate Adam Arenson will share his experience researching and writing about the extraordinary partnership of financier Howard Ahmanson and artist Millard Sheets who produced outstanding Midcentury Modern architecture and art for Home Savings and Loan and other commercial clients.
Arenson’s award-winning book “Banking on Beauty: Millard Sheets and Midcentury Commercial Architecture in California”, documenting the art and architecture of Millard Sheets, won the 2018 Modernism advocacy award.
While Millard Sheets first came to national renown through his plein-air watercolor painting, Sheets’s influence was multiplied through his roles with the New Deal’s Public Art program, stewardship of the Scripps and Otis art departments, and numerous commercial commissions for his studio, where Millard Sheets oversaw the creation of architecture, sculpture, murals, mosaics, and stained-glass windows. Beginning in 1958, Millard Sheets spent part of every year in Gualala, moving to Barking Rocks, his home and painting studio north of Anchor Bay, full-time in 1977.
Millard Sheets Designs, which employed a working staff of licensed architects and engineers, draftsmen, and artists, completed more than one hundred Home Savings and Loan buildings throughout the United States. His works include the national American Fire Insurance Company offices for Ahmanson, Ahmanson Bank and Trust Company in Beverly Hills, forty-two Home Savings and Loan Association buildings, private residences, and the Scottish Rite Memorial Temples in Los Angeles and San Francisco, among many others. Sheets died on March 31, 1989, in Gualala, California.
Arenson is an associate professor of history and director of the urban studies program at Manhattan College and Gualala Arts is honored to have him featured as part of our 2018 Art in the Redwoods Festival.
He holds degrees from Harvard and Yale, and he previously taught at the University of Texas at El Paso. He researches, writes, and teaches the history and memory of North America, concentrating on the cultural and political history of slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction, as well as the development of cities–from California to the Yukon Territory, from the province of Ontario to St. Louis to El Paso.
He writes accessible history including on the pages of The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and he coordinates the Writing History Seminar in New York City, where he lives.
Read more about Arenson, his books, and his current projects here.
2018 Art in the Redwoods Fine Arts Exhibit Judges
The judges for the 57th Annual Art in the Redwoods Fine Arts Exhibit, the largest exhibit of its kind in Northern California, will be husband and wife team Bruce Mitchell and Nancy Hemmingway.
Bruce Mitchell has been working with wood for over four decades in northern California and is widely known for his lathe-turned vessels, sculptural tables, benches and abstract forms. In addition to books and catalogs, his work can be found in numerous museums and private collections throughout the United States. As Bruce’s early lathe work evolved from the austere, classic shapes of Asian ceramics into more spontaneous, one-of-a-kind sculptural vessels, he began to expand upon the carving techniques he learned from his mentor J.B. Blunk in developing pure abstract forms. Among Bruce’s latest works is a series of wall-mounted, wood kimonos that represent his homage to that iconic textile form.
Bruce states, “Making art is something I absolutely have to do because it fills my life with a delight like nothing else. What makes that experience so fulfilling for me is exploring the connection between my feelings for the material and the sense of discovery that happens in the making of an object. My primary focus is to use my experience, instinct and intuition to visualize an intrinsic shape within the raw material that relates to its own unique personality, responding to the changing rhythms of positive and negative shapes and spaces that emerge as a form develops. My intent as an artist is to draw upon nature, journeys into dream worlds and the unknown, and then bring life to those excursions through the language of sculpture.”
Nancy Hemmingway was the librarian for the Inverness library for 42 years, retiring in 2014. A former substitute teacher in Oakland and Petaluma, Hemmingway came to the Point Reyes/Inverness area in 1971 and co-founded the Dance Palace, a non-profit community center providing a wide variety of educational, recreational, cultural and community services for youth and adults in western Marin County. The Dance Palace still serves as the central community facility for the small, semi-rural coastal villages of West Marin including Point Reyes Station, Inverness, Olema, Nicasio, Marshall, Bolinas and Stinson Beach. Originally founded as a studio for dance, in an historical building referred to locally as the “Old Palace,” the Dance Palace has developed into one of the most active community facilities in the Bay Area. The Palace Players presented exciting productions including Threepenny Opera and Tango, and the Hot Tomales Theatre Company was formed and showcased works including The Rose Tattoo and A Streetcar Named Desire. According to Nancy Hemmingway, they were “seven idealistic dreamers who found we were capable of doing wonderful crazy things and getting people in cahoots with us.”
Art in the Redwoods Artists and Artisans
Enjoy more than 30 vendors at this year’s festival! Artists and artisans come from throughout northern California to share their wares with YOU! Art in the Redwoods is a shopper’s delight with artists and crafters from throughout Northern California setting up shop beneath the canopies of the magical redwood grove and sprinkled all around the Art Center grounds. For the 57th year, enjoy the works of more than 30 artists and artisans, many known locals on the coast and some from as far away as Grass Valley, San Francisco, Vallejo, and Berkeley. All are happy to take a moment to help you find just what you’re looking for and to explain their craft and the joy they find in making their art. It’s a fun, friendly atmosphere for buying and selling art on the coast!
Judy Abbott Feather Tales, mixed media
Andrea Allen Brushstrokes by Andrea Allen, Chinese brush art
Peter Bailey Peter Bailey Designs, jewelry
Carol Bernau Adornable, jewelry
Laurie Beverage Newport Loft Surf Art, paintings
Jan Maria Chiappa Which Craft Workshop, mixed media
Scott Cilmia Cilmiart, paintings
Michael Ecton Natural Impressions Photography, photography
Carol Frechette 2NFrom, hats and accessories
Jay Gordin Jay Bear Knives, knives
Holly Haiman Holly DeFount & Joshua Forge and Fountain, jewelry
Jerry & Fran Harr Jewelry
Ling Yen Jones Ling Yen Designs, jewelry
Elliot Little Elliot Little Photography, photography
Erwin Ludwig J and E Crafts. knives and woodwork
Nancy Morgan The Three Dog Pottery, ceramics
Harald Eric Nordvold Viking Pottery, ceramics
Roné Prinz Jewelry
Stuart Ratcliff Ratcliff Designs, drawings
Robert Rhoades Creekwood Studios, mixed media
Cathy Sue Rhiem Glassworks
Charles Ross Benzvi Woodwork, inlaid tables & woodwork
Walt Rush Rush Studio, jewelry
Hillary Schneider Pearls of Wisdom Design, jewelry
Fritzie Seidler Bird houses
Adrianne Smelko Anderlonis Art & Adornment Jewelry, jewelry
Johnson von Rotz Marieke, ceramics
Felicity Waterman Kinara Fiber Arts
Patti Wells Wells Designs Clothing and Jewelry
Eric Wilder Wilder Graphics, drawings
Violet Wilder NATIVEGIRL40 Bags and Pouches
Katie Wolff Paintings
Gualala Arts Bead Group, Pacific Piecemakers Quilt Guild, and North Coast Artists’ Guild
This year’s PPQG Art in the Redwoods Quilt Raffle!
Cranes decorate and empower this year’s Art in Redwoods raffle quilt with their well-known abilities to bring happiness, eternal youth, good fortune and longevity. All of which we wish for the winner of this year’s AIR quilt raffle, says quilter Iris Lorenz-Fife.
Each year, members of Pacific Piecemakers Quilt Guild (PPQG) create a full-size quilt for the festival raffle, proceeds of which help to fund the Gualala Arts Young Artist Scholarship.
Melissa Finley (far left) celebrated her first year’s membership in PPQG by providing the sparkling Asian fabrics, the rich pieced fabrics and the beautiful concept for this year’s AIR quilt. Melissa also did most of the sewing, assisted by Kalynn Oleson and cheered on by some of the members of the Wednesday Afternoon Quilt Group.
The quilt is on display at Gualala Arts Center through August 19, the last day of the festival, at which time it will be raffled off to a lucky winner! Raffle tickets are $5 each, 3 for $10, or 7 for $20 at the Arts Center. Winner need not be present to win. Tickets can be purchased from now until 3 pm on August 19.
Silent Auction Item
1978 450 SL Convertible Mercedes
The Art of Giving: A Gualala Arts Silent Auction Item with Blue Book value between $13,000 and $40,000!
The winner will be announced on the closing day of the 57th Annual Art in the Redwoods! This beautiful 1978 450 SL Mercedes donated by Elizabeth Lane has an all leather interior and is in top condition (it was housed in a garage for the past 20 years). The car is on display and open for bidding at Gualala Arts Center. Bids are being accepted in $1,000 increments.
