Home
Gualala Arts
Promoting public interest and participation in the arts since 1961.
Archive of past events: 2004 through 2014
The Dolphin Gallery concludes the 2012 guest artist shows with an exhibit of the pastels of Ann Kessler and the concrete garden sculptures of Diane Cochran from the opening reception on Saturday, October 6, 2012 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. to the show's conclusion on Sunday, November 11, 2012. Ann Kessler
After a fling with watercolors, Kessler picked up her palette and began painting impressionist landscapes of Sonoma and Mendocino in vivid pastels, whose saturated colors and use of light perfectly capture the forests, hills and vineyards that comprise Kessler's subject matter. Anne is an American impressionist in the tradition of Frieseke with a little Monet thrown in. But she takes it one step further and calls her work "Mendocino Impressionism." The reference is clear to anyone visiting her website - annekesslerpastels.com.
Kessler's work has received much attention. One of her paintings was presented as a wedding present to the Crown Prince of Japan and his bride in 1993 and now is part of their private collection. Her painting "Monte Rio Light" is featured on Fetzer Vineyards Earth Day commemorative chardonnay release. She has shown works in galleries in San Francisco, Scottsdale, New York City, Paris, and Zurich. She is devoted to this part of the Coast. This is her fifth show at the Dolphin Gallery.
Her journey from the kindergarten class in her hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to a rustic studio on the banks of the Garcia River has been long and sometimes difficult, but visitors to this show will affirm that the results are captivating.
Diane Cochran
She calls her work 'concrete garden sculpture,' and the pieces do enhance a garden, as evidenced by those included in the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, but they are equally at home in a gallery or a living room. She has participated in the annual Studio Discovery Tour, shows at CityArts in Point Arena, Edgewater Gallery in Fort Bragg, Gualala Arts Center, Mendocino Art Center and at other galleries throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Her sculptures have been sold both nationally and internationally.
Cochran finds inspiration in shapes from nature, especially those she encounters in the wind- and water-worn rock formations that distinguish the Mendonoma coast. Her finished pieces possess a serene, contemplative quality that suggests more than the individual subject, and evokes a sense of the universal with the serenity found in depictions of the Buddha. Born on the East Coast, Cochran was influenced by her grandmother, a landscape painter, and majored in art at Westminster College in Pennsylvania. Since 1994 Cochran has shared her expertise in working with cast stone in both beginning and advanced classes in both Northern California and on the East Coast.
The Dolphin Gallery is located at
39225 Highway One in downtown Gualala, CA |
For Kessler, color acts as a bridge to the soul. She says what she is actually painting is energy and many of her collectors, including Kaiser Permanente, purchase her work for its healing quality. Her studio is in the forest on the banks of the Garcia River, where she daily observes flowing water, towering trees and the delicate detail of wild things.
Although no stranger to the local art scene, Diane Cochran makes her debut at the Dolphin Gallery with this show. She has lived on the Mendocino coast since 1972 and has been working in cast stone in its soft stage for over 20 years.
She explored various media, but began her love affair with three-dimensional art in 1988 when she discovered the pottery studio of Kaye Like. Her chosen medium, concrete sculpture, is particularly suited for her expression of inner feelings drawn from the richness of life. She enjoys the versatility and earthy quality of the material.