Marin Arts Scene has Zing!

"Unveiling: Twelve Artists to Watch in 2011" will be presented by the Marin Arts Council at its downtown gallery through August 28, featuring the works of five painters, six photographers and one sculptor.

Artists featured in the exhibit are: Doraallen Davis, The Artist Hines, Julie Nunes, Rose Steiner, Francis Snyder, Mary Macey Butler, Rob Badger, Nita Winter, Mark Rollins, Janice Hughes, Robert Ankrum and Phyllis Thelen.

On Friday night, the gallery hosted a reception to promote the artists.

Argo Thompson, a multi-media artist, who is moving to San Rafael, is executive director of Marin Arts Council. He said that Marin Arts Gallery only  opened in March, and "Unveiling" is already its third exhibit. Because his name tag read "The Top Dog," when asked what exactly Thompson does as executive edirector, he answered, "I am really a community builder." 

Marin Arts Council promotes active and creative lives through engagement in the arts. Through its gallery, Marin Arts provides artists and art lovers one easy place to meet, experience and learn about Marin's cultural treasures.  Marin Arts Council believes that where the arts thrive, communities flourish and lives are filled with discovery. The council also features countywide exhibits, events, classes and an online calendar.

The Artist Hines  

Originally from New York, The Artist Hines now lives in Sausalito, his studio is in the Industrial Center Building. Self taught, The Artist Hines says "I have been involved with art all my life. My work used to be figurative, but somewhere along the line I fell in love with the freedom of abstraction.  I love the intuitive process of letting go. The pleasure of painting. The pleasure of playing with the paint." The Artist Hines holds two-day workshops at Rileyart Supply in San Rafael, often for as many as 10 students, teaching and painting in the main area of the store.

Mark Rollins

Mark Rollins, who taught at New York University  for 17 years, says he carries a camera with him wherever he goes. For this exhibition, he shows photographic work taken at Antelope Canyon, on a Navajo Reservation in Page, Arizona. Guests at the exhibit described his work as "powerful."  Rollins says that his colors "come from the minerals in the rocks." He tries to capture what he calls "luminescenses" and, in this group of photographs, also the Sspirits of the Navajo Nation. At Antelope Canyon, Rollins photographed tourists at slow shutter speed to create ghostly apparitions as "spirits."

 Mary Macey Butler

Mary Macey Butler, a native of Marin now living in San Rafael, says she is inspired by the beauty she sees in nature.  Butler uses impressionist techniques in her digital photography, to convey the intense beauty of nature.  Her work has been described as evocative, compelling and memorable. She has photographed a broad range of environments that have included the huge sand dunes of Africa's Namib Desert, the rolling hills of the Palouse in eastern Washington state, scenes in Mexican towns and villages, and northern California's wine country. Her exhibit at the gallery features a gorgeous and perfect orange poppy shot at Point Reyes, our California state flower of course, and also a beckoning vista of a Carneros vineyard.

Francis Snyder

Francis Snyder says that "creating art is a value statement."

"Out of all the venues I see, I do what I love the most about life in art." From San Anselmo, Snyder says he started painting "a long time ago." During the day, Snyder is a painting contractor so he knows about color and texture.  But he promises that he never uses house paint on his canvases.

Rob Badger

Wearing a flamboyant shirt, dark with bright flowers, Badger says that beauty inspires him. Badger has been creating photographic images for 30 years. At the gallery he is showing a series of nature photographs.

 "All that is is beautiful and that amazes and always inspires me," Badger says. One of his large black and white photographs is titled "Dock and Moonlight at Tomales Bay" ($2,900), and shows a dock jutting out over the water from the right side of the photograph, silhouetted in full moonlight, with the still water below. Another striking piece, "Sculptured Rocks" ($1,200), Badger says, he shot from a raft on California's Eel River. It is an interesting study showing how the water shapes the white rocks at the river's edge, with back eddies constantly creating sharp edges and carving unique curved shapes into the hard rock surfaces.

Nita Winter

Nita Winter, Badger's partner of 23 years, is working on a book with Badger. She had a mock up of the book they hope will be published next year which is titled "Impressions of Spring" and will show glorious photos of flowers and nature.   Known as a "people photographer" for many years, Winter has been commissioned by many local communities to do large banners with as many as 50 photographs, including "The Faces of the Canal" and "The Faces of Marin City." Recently however, with her degree in biology, Winter has changed direction and has gravitated toward photographing flowers. Winter uses all natural lighting and said that many of her photos take as much as two hours for the set up. The couple lives in Marin City and has a gallery in their home.  

Janice Hughes

Janice Hughes of San Rafael works full time and says photography is her hobby. She is most attracted to architecture, buildings, and landmarks. She likes to shoot in early morning or at sunset. "This procedure brings out a lot of color,"  Hughes says. Most of the photographs at the gallery sell for $250. Hughes was showing a black and white "Eiffel Tower," which she shot from an unusual angle, just the base of the tower. Her photographs also include "Columbus Avenue" in San Francisco, and  the "Palace of Fine Arts," which highlights close-up details of the majestic columns, as well as a more whimsical but bold "Underwood Typewriter," which is a close up of typewriter keys.

Doralleen Davis

Novato resident, Doralleen Davis, was the first person to swim from Sausalito to San Francisco in 1961. She says she paints in plain air or "a la prima," in the moment. She is co-owner of Marin Art School. For her art, she says she is a slave to the sun.  Davis was a portrait painter at the World's Fair in New York in 1964and also at Disneyland.

She says she is "chasing Monet" and calls herself an "impressionist colorist." She paints from life.  Some of the work exhibited at the gallery includes scenes of China Camp, Sausalito and Alameda, and there are several paintings of her grandchildren playing at the beach and frolicking in the water.  Though an obvious statement of fact, Davis points out that she is a water person.

Rose Steiner

 German born Rose Steiner, who lives in Fairfax, loves the surreal of the carnival.  "It is endless to me," she says.  She feels that she can create carnival images forever in her mind. In her travels, Steiner seeks out real carnivals, large and small, but she also creates entire carnivals, with all of their characters - sometimes flamboyant, sometimes poignant - in her mind. Her works are all monoprints and go through an etching press.

Phyllis Thelen

Phyllis Thelen, from San Rafael, is a well respected sculptor who works in mixed media using natural fiber materials. She says the materials speak to her. "People often bring me things," she says. "Sometimes they have sharp edges.  Recently, I threw some objects in a corner and they were arranged in such a way that the pieces looked like a swan.  And so I made a swan.  The process of responding to the materials turns me on."

Formerly a painter and printer, after Sept. 11, 2001 she launched into three-dimensional work. In seeking escape from the disturbing world situation, Thelen builds imaginary retreats and vessels constructed from recycled art and natural fibers

Board member Jane Wagner, who is also a local theater director, says what she appreciates about art is that, "art is finished, directing never is."

Wagner admires the movement she sees in Thelen's work, including on piece in the exhibit, titled "Legendary," which is suspended from the ceiling. Thelen described how it evolved.

"There is an ancient sacred image, a legend, from Asian culture which I have been researching." Thelen says. " I started with a large bamboo shield, which I had picked up in Hawaii. It is the outside part of very tall bamboo, which falls off after it protects the growth of the bamboo. It is like a hard shell. I often use this shield as sails or tails in my sculpture. At first, I thought it might be a tail. I also had a long coconut pod that was splitting. Most of the coconut pods I use become boats in my art, but in this case the particular curve and shape reminded me of the image I've seen. And so the coconut pod became a fish instead of a boat."   

Another piece of Thelen's, "The Party Boat," was inspired by the canopied boats she has seen on her travels to India. 

 Thompson says that Thelen was honored at the Marin Art Festival as "master artist." She helped found most of the arts organizations in Marin. She was also on the board of directors for the Marin Arts Council and helped found Art Works Downtown.

Elizabeth Ridley, president of the board of directors of the Marin Arts Council, says the board is excited about the evolving downtown San Rafael art scene. "We want to have San Rafael be the center of arts for all of Marin," Ridley says. "We hope to create a sense of momentum for the arts in downtown San Rafael and we already have Art Works Downtown, Donna Seager Gallery, California Film Institute and many others. We are the only Marin-wide arts organization and we have recently re-engaged with the California Arts Council."  

Enthusiastic gallery guest Evelyn Schaefer, of Sausalito says, "I love living in Marin. There's such zing here. The artists never cease to amaze me.  We should all just drive around like we have never been here before and pretend it's all new.  Take a look and you will have a fabulous appreciation of where we live.  

 "For those of us here at this gallery tonight without our own art hanging on the walls, we have a lot of art within us," Schaefer says. "To view our environment, as an outsider would view it, exhibits our own individual talent."

Married Argentine tango dancers, Debbie Goodwin and John Cambell, maneuvered  gracefully between Thelen's sculptures and the art on the walls. "We met dancing tango about 15 years ago," Debbie says.  "We go to Buenos Aires to study tango several times a year. My education is in dance. I teach at College of Marin and also I teach tango in San Anselmo." 

They live in San Anselmo, and Campbell, who is an eye surgeon, also owns Marin Eyes in San Rafael.     

Another guest, Bob Reynolds, who is a retired ship captain, now a marine consultant, said that his wife Sylvie is a new member of the board and she is also on the San Anselmo Arts Commission.  Reynolds is happy to see that new artists can get exposure through venues such as this one because they are highlighted as up and coming artists.

Sylvie Reynolds was thrilled to be part of this gallery event. She has met most of the artists in Marin and feels that the county  has a very vibrant art scene.  Originally from Paris, Sylvie says, "I am extremely impressed by the quality, intelligence, and level of achievement of the art in our small community."

Marin Arts Gallery

Exhibit runs  through Aug. 28

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6  p.m. Wednesday  through  Sunday

906 Fourth Street, San Rafael

Phone:  459-4440 and  666-2442

www.marinarts.org

Video: http://animoto.com/play/mApCRmdQiG6Hip1gJA24YA

Artists:

Doraallen Davis (www.dorallendavis.com),

The Artist Hines (www.theartisthines.com),

Julie Nunes (www.julienunesart.com)

Rose Steiner (www.rosesteiner.com)

Francis Synder (www.francissnyderart.com

Mary Macey Butler (www.marymaceybutler.com)

Rob Badger (www.robbadger.com)

Nita Winters (www.robbadger.com)

Mark Rollins (www.markrollins.com)

Janice Hughes (www.janicehughesphotography.com

Robert Ankrum (www.robertankrum.com )

Phyllis Thelen (http://www.thelenart.com/Site/Welcome.html)

Dancers: Debbie & John, Argentine Tango (www.AlmaDelTango.com)

www.artworksdowntown.org