"ART APPASSIONATA" at the Moraga Art Gallery

The show runs to March 24.

Gunn, a classical pianist and teacher, fuses musical and artistic principles - texture, tone, and color - in her oil paintings. Tarzier, renowned for both bronze sculptures and painting, teaches at the Academy of Art University and at Oakland’s Studio One Art Center.

In her paintings, Lisa Gunn concentrates on capturing qualities of light. She strives to create a bond between herself and the viewer. “I pick my subjects with great care - and paint only what I find expressive or wonderful.” Adding the final touches, she thinks of the expressiveness of music. Soft edges and broken colors echo the impressionistic sounds of Debussy. Big, bold brushstrokes call to mind the chords of Beethoven’s later piano sonatas. “Over time," she says, "I have discovered that music and art, although executed differently, rest upon the same platforms.” Moving a composition forward in music uses the same principles as creating a painting - movement, balance, value and structure.

Carol Tarzier’s focus is figurative work in bronze and painting in oil, with ventures into abstract sculpture and pastel drawings on black Arches paper. Her work has been shown in numerous national exhibitions and has earned numerous national awards. “I love both figurative and abstract work,” she says, “and feel returned to my first love - oil painting, and specifically plein air and working directly from the still life or model. This is intoxicating, perhaps because I’ve worked indoors on sculpture for many years. I love the immediacy of working en plein air; over the last year I’ve put together shows of small oil paintings or pochades, in which my goal is to capture fleeting light and color outdoors.” These are the paintings that will be showcased at the Moraga Art Gallery.

Fifteen member artists of the gallery also have paintings, photographs, ceramics, jewelry and finely crafted wood ware on display. The gallery’s hours are Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The gallery is located at 522 Center Street in Moraga. For more information, go to www.moragaartgallery.com,