Jan Fogel, Glassine Paintings & Jackie Gardener, Collage Sculptures Opening Reception: Saturday, March 5, 2011, 5:00 p.m. Exhibit remains through March 30 Dolphin Gallery

On March 5, 2011, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., the Dolphin Gallery will present the opening of "Paper & Paint Two Ways," featuring local artists and friends, Jan Fogel and Jackie Gardener.

Jan and Jackie crossed paths many times, always admiring each other's work, but it wasn't until a dear mutual friend, artist Sarah Waldron, moved away did they connect and develop their own friendship. From that came a desire to collaborate and show together.

For those who track North Coast art exhibits, the paintings of Jan Fogel have been regarded as consistently high quality and numerous awards attest to high praise for her work. A life in the arts began at age seven when she learned to sew, leading naturally to clothing design and ultimately to a design-based business. Three years of painting in a highly stylized folk art manner developed Jan's thorough knowledge of color, design and brush technique.

After four years of working on wood and canvas, Jan is returning to glassine, her signature medium. She builds layer upon layer of paint onto this thin, acid free material, and then builds layers of glassine onto one another creating hypnotic marks of painterly texture. An abiding attraction to color is her primary road map through her process, much as it is for Jackie Gardener, and neither artist ever knows in advance where that map will lead.

Jackie Gardener creates many of her own papers with paint and solvent applied with techniques from bookmaking and metal arts. She coaxes and coerces them into tight collages that tell her stories through color and embellishment, often incorporating wordplay into the design.

Her schooling brought her degrees in art as well as interior design, which gave her a long and varied career before moving to the coast. Here, Jackie's focus has been on manipulating paper through origami, handmade bookmaking, weaving and mostly gluing - to walls, floors and even doors (including refrigerators) bread boxes and tables, but primarily now focusing on wooden blocks.

Jackie's current work explores house forms, which have been a recurring image of inspiration and investigation for her. She wraps and glues the shaped redwood blocks with a family of her painted paste papers, hand marbled specimens and manipulated magazine photos as well as commercial papers from the far reaches of the world like Nepal and Japan.

Jackie's houses combine beautifully with Jan's new floral pieces inspired by our coastal gardens, and make a lovely neighborhood together. Stop by for a stroll through house and garden at the Dolphin Gallery from March 5 through 30, 2011.

The Dolphin Gallery is located at 39225 Highway One in downtown Gualala, CA
(behind the post office on the south side). Open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-3896 for more information.