Gualala Arts Promoting public interest and participation in the arts since 1961
“Nature’s Miracles” is a new exhibit scheduled for the Burnett Gallery and Coleman Hall at Gualala Arts, featuring three artists: Violet Arana, Lynda Nugent and Danielle Warner. The exhibit opens Friday, February 11, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
San Francisco-native Violet Arana traveled north, moving to Gualala in 1998. A self-taught artist who has been drawing and painting most of her life, Arana finds inspiration from studying the Masters. She’s assembled a collection of art books which she refers to and uses for ideas and instruction, but her motivation is simple. She paints simply for the love of painting. Although Arana’s talent becomes obvious when one explores her paintings, she was never really interested in showing her work until moving to the Mendonoma Coast. Since then she’s entered her work in the annual Art in The Redwoods and other exhibits, and the public has responded by purchasing her work.
As an artist, Violet Arana does not limit herself to any one subject, and having no formal training she feels she is always learning. She paints in all mediums, draws in pencil, charcoal and pastels and goes wherever the process takes her, at almost any hour. She often paints late in the night or early in the morning, whenever the mood strikes. In this collection she’s created thirteen pieces, all oil-on-canvas. Arana adds, “All these flowers were in bloom in my garden and painted large.”
Lynda Nugent is a Sonoma County-based artist who clearly loves to draw. “A perfect day is one I spend drawing, working in the garden, drawing, working in the garden, and so it goes.” Nugent has a BA in Studio Art and an MA in Anthropology. Having retired from teaching she now, happily, spends her days working in the garden and drawing in the studio. She added, “I have always been inspired by the natural world. I care about this planet, I love to travel.”
“During this pandemic my natural world surroundings have grown ever smaller. I have become intimate with the one and a half miles surrounding my house. Starting every day with my morning walk, I observe everything from sunrise colors and birds’ chatter to wind scents and rain puddles. I search for native plants and often collect seeds or feathers or relocate a caterpillar. On a sunny day I can be found working in my garden—weeding, propagating, studying.”
Nugent is currently working on Mylar or Yupo paper with watercolor. In working with this fluid medium she acknowledges that, “I can predict some of what happens based on observation and experience. But I fully enjoy the opportunity to play with chance—it’s not all planned but rather a give and take—push and pull.”
Danielle Warner, has also embraced multiple creative ways to express her art. “I told my parents at the age of five, living in an old mill cabin in Annapolis (California), ‘I am going to be an artist!’ At that time I was taking ballet lessons and was constantly drawing and painting, as kids do at that age. I have been working towards being an artist in some form or another ever since. I danced for 20+ years recreationally in various styles, mostly Ballet, but always found my way back to art, using acrylics, charcoal, pastels, photography, colored pencils and illustration markers. I love trying new media and experimenting with things in nature; showing people what isn’t always obvious, changing the way they view the world around them.”
Warner has a Bachelors of Science in Interior Design, and opened her design business in 2008, and enjoyed finding ways for people to feel comfortable in their own space. “I have been with/married to my high school sweetheart for 22 years, who is the Fire Chief at South Coast Fire in Gualala. We also have a smart, kind and beautiful little girl who is also a budding artist!” Her website is: https://mendonoma.wixsite.com/dwarnerart.
All three artists’ works will be on display through Sunday, March 6. Gualala Arts is open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day at 46501 Old State Highway, Gualala, CAA 95445.