DATES: August 31 – September 27, 2026
RECEPTION: SATURDAY, September 5 – 3 -6 pm Join Donna Schaffer and Tosya Shore to celebrate the show and learn about their artistic inspirations. Refreshments will be served.
Featured Artist Donna Schaffer Celebrates Wine Country Beauty in “The Days of Vines and Roses”
Sonoma County artist Donna Schaffer unveils her latest collection of oil paintings, “The Days of Vines and Roses,” celebrating some of her favorite views of roses blooming among the vineyards, hills, and woodlands of Sonoma County. At the heart of the collection is Vines and Trellis of Roses, where glorious pink roses spill across an entrance trellis, set against the orderly rows of a vineyard. In Mini Red Roses Along Vineyard, delicate red roses punctuate the landscape, creating a lively interplay between vineyard rows, stands of trees, and the hills beyond. “Living here in Sonoma County for three decades, I never tire of its glorious natural beauty. It is an enduring inspiration and truly a painter’s dream,” says Schaffer.
Art has been a focus throughout Schaffer’s life. She has been painting full time in Dry Creek since the mid-1990s and is particularly known for her paintings of Sonoma County’s wine country. Her work are popular with both locals and visitors who want to bring a bit of Sonoma’s beauty and magic into their own homes. Schaffer has been a member of the Upstairs Art Gallery for more than 25 years and has exhibited regionally, including eight years as an Art Trails artist.
Meet the artist: Schaffer will be hosting the Gallery on September 3 and 27 from 11-6 pm.
Stairway Showcase: Tosya Shore — “It’s Black and White with a Splash of Color”
The Stairway Showcase presents artist Tosya Shore’s “It’s Black and White with a Splash of Color,” a collection of watercolors that begins with the fundamentals of composition: reducing an image to its two most essential elements—black and white. Working with ink, a stick, and a scraper, Shore roughens the edges of her subjects and strips away unnecessary detail, allowing light itself—not form or precision—to take center stage. Her paintings invite the viewer to experience the essence of a scene through contrast, gesture, and the expressive qualities of the medium.
In addition to her watercolor works, Shore presents paintings inspired by a recent trip to Carmel, where she picked up oil paint for the first time and explored painting the ocean using nothing but a palette knife. The resulting works introduce a vibrant splash of color and texture into a practice grounded in restraint—new pigment, new surface, yet the same enduring fascination with light over likeness.