FOLLOW those BLUE Art Trails signs, NEW DATES October 21-22 & 28-29!

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artists, California, community, conversations, Environment, gallery, home, inspiration, journeys, joy, life, love, meditation, nature, originals, spirit, support, weekends

 

Art Trails Open Studios rescheduled:

October 21-22 and October 28-29

In the spirit of an offering, a gift to our community, about 130 Art Trails artists throughout Sonoma County, will open studios and hearts to the public, sharing beauty and hope. My studio, #24 on Art Trails map, 2180 Beverly Way, Santa Rosa, will be open both weekends, 10am – 5pm.

Just as music can be inspiring and soothing, light and dark, taking us on emotional journeys without words, seeing wonderful art can be uplifting, inspirational, moody and joyful, bringing comfort, solace, contemplation, refuge, and pleasure. I invite you to visit, and have a hug, share a story, tea and cookies, and travel through my plein air paintings to healing landscapes, places of memory, dreams and renewal.

Our hearts are breaking for those who have been devastated by fire. Several Art Trails artists have lost homes, studios and/or their entire art inventory. The Art Trails Artist Relief Fund has been established. Donations can be made directly at many Art Trails studios and exhibits, and on-line at www.SonomaCountyArtTrails.org or www.SebArts.org. Make checks payable to SCA, with a notation indicating Art Trails Artists Relief Fund; checks may also be mailed to Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

I will be donating a percentage of painting sales, and will also be offering my contemplative Dream Vessels collages and some hand held carved clay sculptures.

An updated list of artists and maps showing participating studios will be posted by the weekend on the www.SonomaCountyArtTrails.org home page. We encourage visitors to stay up to date on road conditions.

Thank you for supporting the arts!
Marsha Connell, Chair Art Trails Steering Committee

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3 Art Receptions for 3 Great Events

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artists, California, community, Environment, flowers, gallery, garden, inspiration, joy, nature, originals, reflections, spirit, weekends

Sunday, October 23, 2-5 pm, La Crema Estate at Saralee’s Vineyard

La Crema Estate at Saralee’s Vineyard, 3575 Slusser Road, Windsor, CA, is hosting an Artists’ Reception, welcoming collectors, aficionados and friends to view the Estate’s permanent collection of artwork, and a revolving exhibit changing seasonally, through our partnership with Healdsburg Center for the Arts. We are currently featuring fourteen large expressive landscape drawings and paintings by Marsha Connell. (Exhibit dates August 15-January 15) View and purchase the art online.

Our permanent collection highlights a diverse selection of local artists, including James Armstrong, Elaine Greenwood, Chris Henry, Cari Hernandez, Dusanka Kralj, Benjamin Owen, and Paula Strother.

We invite you to enjoy these fabulous artworks, and light hors d’oeuvres expertly paired with La Crema’s acclaimed wines, including selections only available at the Estate, in a panoramic vineyard setting.  

              RSVP appreciated: marsha@marshaconnell.com

Friday, October 21, 6-7:30 pm,  Sebastopol Center for the Arts

A Cabin Above a Lake began as a demo for AWS (Art Workshop of Western Sonoma County), just last month, inspired by small plein air paintings from our recent East Coast annual summer sojourn. As Helen Frankenthaler once said, ” I had the landscape in my arms when I painted it. I had the landscape in my mind and shoulder and wrist.” After revisiting it in my studio, I entered the painting in this juried exhibit, and am pleased that juror Sukey Bryan selected it, (along with about 56 other works from a pool of almost 700 entries).  Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 High Street. Exhibit dates: Oct 21 – Nov 27, 2016. I’d be pleased if you joined me at the Artists’ reception for YOUR LANDSCAPE.  

Saturday, October 22,  6 pm – 8 pm, History Museum of Sonoma County

Reception for  Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Altars. This exhibition brings together altars created by community members, festive artwork and three-dimensional sculpture associated with the Day of the Dead celebration. I am honored that Peter Perez requested that my painting, Thinking About Bonnard, from my Murder of Crows series, be included in his altar against violence.

Exhibit runs October 18 – November 27.

The reception in the History Museum of Sonoma County is concurrent with a reception in the adjacent Art Museum of Sonoma County, for Faith Ringgold: An American Artist featuring storyquilts, works on paper, tankas, soft sculpture, and original illustrations.

Exhibit runs October 23 – January 29.

Art Trails Open Studios – My Plein Air Suitcase

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artists, California, conversations, Environment, flowers, gallery, garden, home, inspiration, journeys, large works, map, mountain, nature, ocean, originals, small works, Sonoma county, studio, suitcase, weekends

It will be as easy as 1-2-3 to find my studio the next 2 weekends. It’s #123 on the Art Trails map. 10am-5pm. Come see what came out of my suitcase from my recent plein air painting journeys, West Coast to East, ocean to mountain, and back home in Sonoma county, and how it inspires studio work. Drawings, pastels, oils, watercolors. Small works to large. Hope to see you!

Here’s a great map of most of the artists in the Northeast Santa Rosa area participating in Art Trails. #123 is just about in the middle.

Landscape Painting at Pepperwood Preserve. May 15

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abstract sensibility, art, brushstrokes, California, colorist, demonstrate, en plein air, Expressionism, Impressionism, joy, landscapes, Marsha Connell, nature, observation, oils, painterly, painters, paintings, Pepperwood Preserve, Realism, Sonoma county, voice, watercolor, weekends, wildflowers, workshop

There are just a few spots left. Sign up by Thursday May 12 noon!
Landscape Painting: Observation and Expression. Sunday, May 15, 9am – 3pm
Only $45 per participant ($40 for members)!
Ages 13+
Explore plein air painting with me! Deepen your observational skills and express your responses to Pepperwood’s verdant and blossoming spring landscape. The continuing rains have gifted us with wildflower joy this year!
Beginning painters: learn basics of working in the field. Experienced painters: expand your repertoire with elements of realism, impressionism, expressionism, with support for finding your own voice. Demonstrations in oil but you may use any media.

It looked like stamp collecting. . .Artist Reception Sunday January 24, 1-3 PM, Coast And Countryside: Plein Air Landscapes of Sonoma, Marin & Mendocino

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abstract sensibility, art, California, colorist, conversations, Dutton-Goldfield Winery, gallery, landscapes, life, love, Marsha Connell, nature, oils, paintings, Sally Baker, tasting room, Valentines, weekends, wine tasting

It looked like stamp collecting. . .but this is the strategy I used to map my new exhibit, Marsha Connell Paintings, Coast And Countryside: Plein Air Landscapes of Sonoma, Marin & Mendocino, at Dutton-Goldfield Winery. Join us at the reception Jan 24, this Sunday 1-3 pm or stop in over the next two months. Enjoy the art and wine, and compare how the plan and the final outcome matched up and changed!
Artist Reception with Marsha Connell at DG
RSVP https://www.facebook.com/events/521546531342508/

We invite you to a wine and cheese reception so you can meet and talk art with Marsha in style. RSVP melody@duttongoldfield.com
* * Present this invitation at the tasting bar during the artist’s reception for a complimentary taste of two of our small-lot single-vineyard wines.

Open daily 10am to 4:30pm, January 19 – March 15.

Dutton-Goldfield Winery
3100 Gravenstein Highway North (Map)
Corner of Hwy 116 and Graton Road
Sebastopol CA 95472
http://www.duttongoldfield.com/

Nearby and Worth a Visit!
Sally Baker’s watercolors and new kimono paintings, Graton Gallery
California & National Watercolor Exhibits, Sebastopol Center for the Arts

Reds & Romance Weekend

I will also be in the tasting room on February 14 from 12-4 pm,  showing both large and small works (perhaps painting Valentines?) and available for conversations about art, life, and love.

Setting up that tasty pastel palette, some technical details

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art, California, cards, Coastal, demonstrate, discussing, drawing, en plein air, Mendocino Art Center, October, open studios, paintings, pastel, Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, techniques, watercolor, weekends, workshop

There will be color hors d’oeuvres and tasty demos of pastel and watercolor at noon each day of my open studio (click for catalog page), Oct 10, 11, 17, 18. Click for map.

I’ve always loved an essay by Henry Miller in “Paint as You Like and Die Happy” about hungry painters discussing the juicy names of colors like hors d’oeuvres!

Here’s the container for my tasty new pastel palette. Good enough to eat?!
I researched many pastel boxes and easels ’til settling on this Heilman backpacking box. I might like a larger box, but not a heavier one. Then I made a switch from my trusty but weighty French easel to an old camera tripod, attaching a “quick release” gadget from the photo store (Glad I brought my filled pastel box and tripod along to work it out.), inserting the Heilman metal easel into the two pre-drilled holes in the opened pastel box. This, theoretically, lightened the potential load by 6 pounds. I attach my Bestbrella to the tripod legs. I can carry all into a deep backpack.

My new plein air pastel set up is a work in progress. It was a dramatic move to peel and break off chunks from my collections of many years, stored in several kinds of boxes, mostly Unison, Rembrandt, Nupastel, Sennelier, with additional samples from Terry Ludwig, Diane Townsend, Schmincke, and more. Sometimes I’ve bought pastels in sets, when they come in their own box, sometimes by the stick. Creating and recreating order after making each painting, light to dark, warm to cool, more or less, and cleaning the pastels to let their color shine through and speak with each other, is an intellectual, meditative and time-taking experience.

  I had my misgivings about the stability of this set-up. So far it held up well painting during Mendocino Open Plein Air, which was a week of extraordinarily calm and sunny coastal weather. http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/pleinair.

The blue flag was for viewers to find the “celebrity artists”. I was the pastel specialist, a good motivation for setting a deadline to reorganize. And two weeks before I taught a Mendocino Art Center workshop “Lively Pastels”. I’ll teach this again April 16-17, 2016.

It’s harder to detach the box than to set up. Inside, I use a table and/or a studio easel and keep carrying pastel paintings outside to knock off the extra dust between layers.

• 

  Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino Open Paint Out – September 7-12, 2015

  mendocinoartcenter.org

  You might enjoy seeing more examples of pastel set-ups and conversation among artists here: Pastel Society of America
  Adrian Frankel Giuliani
  Yesterday at 1:22pm
  that would be Oct 3, 2015
   

A Tasty Palette: Sample My New Pastels and Oils at My Open Studio

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art, California, Coastal, Corrick's, drawing, gallery, landscapes, Mendocino Art Center, nature, October, oils, open studios, painterly, pastel, Sonoma county, watercolor, weekends

Come sample the dishes that are emerging from my tasty new pastel palette!

MARSHA CONNELL
OPEN STUDIO and SALE #47
October 10-11, 17-18 10am-5pm

Sonoma County Art Trails

New plein air paintings in oil, pastel and watercolor from Northern CA and the Adirondacks

Also art from my collections will be available, some at special prices for my friends and collectors, as I make space for new work, as well as reduce inventory for a potential move. . . . no, we haven’t found just the right place yet and are still looking, especially in west Sonoma County.

This pastel, “Illumination”, painted last month while I was a “celebrity artist” at the Mendocino Open Paintout, can be seen when you visit  my studio.

This pastel, “Headlands West, 3”, can be seen when you visit the Art Trails exhibit at Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Notice the warm feelings of perfect summer days on the Pacific coast, compared with the cooler Adirondack oils below.

SONOMA COUNTY ART TRAILS PREVIEW EXHIBITION

at THE ART TRAILS GALLERY AT CORRICK’S
and MY DAUGHTER THE FRAMER
637 Fourth Street, Downtown Santa Rosa
Reception: Friday, October 2, 5-7pm
Presented by Corrick’s / My Daughter the Framer / Sebastopol Center for the Arts

Enjoy a celebration of creativity with the work of over 80 artists!
Preview here, then select your favorite studios to visit during
the Art Trails weekends, October 10, 11, 17, 18.

Exhibition Dates: Friday, October 2 – Saturday, November 14, 2015

These Adirondack oils, painted this June, sometimes under umbrellas in the rain (imagine that, my drought stricken West Coast friends) at the Publisher’s Invitational Paintout at Paul Smith’s College, can be seen at the Art Trails Gallery at Corricks.

 “Clearing”

“Vivid Darkening” “Rainy River”

En plein air and in the studio: Mendocino pastel workshop and more plein air news

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#PACE15, California, Coastal, en plein air, Mendocino Art Center, Monterey, pastel, weekends, workshop

I’ve just returned from 5 days in Monterey at “the Woodstock of plein air painting” with 700+ painters at #PACE15, the 4th Annual Plein Air Convention and Expo. I attended lectures, demos and critiques by many accomplished artists in oil, pastel and watercolor, and painted every afternoon on the beautiful, and windy, central coast of California. I’m refreshed and re-inspired to share the joys of the plein air painting experience with others!

My Spring Retreat at Pepperwood Preserve: Landscape Painting “En Plein Air” is filled! but happily there is still space in my summer Mendocino pastel workshop, en plein air and in the studio. LIVELY PASTELS: BRIDGE BETWEEN DRAWINGS AND PAINTING. July 31–August 2, 2015 (Friday–Sunday, 9:30am–4:30pm) SU15FA513 • For all levels. You can register online @ http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Summer15/Connell.html
Or call 707 937-5818, ext. 10. Toll-free 800 653-3328, ext. 10

I’ll be there again for the Mendocino Art Center’s “Mendocino Open Paint Out”, September 7-12. I’m honored to have been invited as one of eight “celebrity artists”. In addition to painting every day on location, in public view with many other painters, I’ll be demonstrating pastel painting and serving as a juror to award prizes to participants. Mendocino boasts a spectacular coastal location and a charming and walkable New England style small town. It would be lovely if you could join us! http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/pleinair

Spring Retreat at Pepperwood Preserve: Landscape Painting “En Plein Air”

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art, California, demonstrate, drawing, exploration, inspiration, landscapes, nature, observation, oils, Pepperwood Preserve, Sonoma county, techniques, weekends, workshop

Expressing the Spirit of Place Spend an exciting weekend painting on location in iconic Sonoma County landscapes with Santa Rosa Junior College instructor Marsha Connell. Engage your senses and the body to awaken an energetic connection with the land. Plein air painters share a commitment with scientists to deep observation, to documenting and protecting our open spaces for future generations, and to sharing the joys and solace of nature. Beginning painters: learn basics of working in the field. Experienced painters: practice and expand your repertoire. Explore aspects of realism, impressionism, expressionism, or abstraction. Enjoy support for finding your own painting voice to express the spirit of this special place. Use any painting or drawing media. Demonstrations will be given in oils, drawing, and pastel. You are invited to stay overnight at the Bechtel House or camp under the stars. The retreat includes moderate hikes of less than a mile at a slow pace with long stops. A catered dinner Saturday night and continental breakfast on Sunday are included. Saturday’s schedule includes evening sunset painting. A materials list and instructions will be sent to participants in advance. Saturday, May 30, 9am-3pm & 6:30pm-8:30pm AND Sunday, May 31, 2015, 9am-3pm with optional overnight FEES: $170 per participant ($150 for members) Ages 13 and up welcome More info> http://app.pepperwoodpreserve.org/pls/apex/f?p=514:2:7453991560835 Reserve here> http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/898371

LIVELY PASTELS: BRIDGE BETWEEN DRAWINGS & PAINTING at Mendocino Art Center, July 31-August 2

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August, California, Coastal, demonstrate, interior landscape, Marsha Connell, Mendocino Art Center, nature, painterly, September, tabletop, weekends

LIVELY PASTELS: BRIDGE BETWEEN DRAWINGS & PAINTING at Mendocino Art Center, July 31-August 2.