Vivid, colorful landscapes—once destined to adorn the walls of Gallery Los Olivos—are now available for viewers to observe any time, anywhere, as long as there’s an internet connection. While the gallery produced an online coloring book during the course of the COVID-19 crisis, this new duo show marks the venue’s first foray into digital exhibiting.
“During this pandemic, we are searching for new ways to deliver visual art to the public,” featured artist Carol Talley told the Sun. “This online exhibit is a first for Gallery Los Olivos.”
Talley’s paintings will remain on display, alongside fellow featured artist Terri Taber’s, at Gallery Los Olivos’ new website (gallerylosolivosonline.faso.com) through Monday, Aug. 31. Every painting—more than 20 pieces from each artist—is also available for sale.
“While our gallery is not currently open to the public, we think that this online show is the next best thing,” Talley said. “Art is increasingly being marketed online, even before the pandemic. A positive result of the quarantine is that I’ve also found an online community of artists that I might not have searched for otherwise.”
A virtual tour through Talley’s paintings in Gallery Los Olivos’ new exhibit is a whirlpool of weather and location, bouncing viewers between landscapes of Happy Canyon, Hendry’s Beach, and other county locales during varying times of year. As an artist, Talley described her greatest joy as “creating paintings that express the ineffable and transcendent.”
While Talley hopes to retain a sense of both mystery and familiarity in her impressionistic works, Taber’s scenic paintings are more representational. The show is appropriately described as a combination of exquisite realism and expressive abstraction.
“I love the composition and colors in Terri’s After the Rain,” Talley said, commenting on her favorite of Taber’s countryside landscapes in the exhibit.
The two local artists also paired their works during Luminous Landscapes, their previous duo show at Gallery Los Olivos in 2019.
“I can’t say I have one favorite of my own pieces, I like them all for different reasons,” Taber told the Sun. “But I must say that Carol’s Golden Light is a favorite of mine from her collection.”
Although Taber is no stranger to painting en plein air, venturing outdoors for artistic endeavors has been especially valuable to her during recent times, she explained.
“I must say the pandemic is making me paint more. I’m painting more outside than I have in previous years,” Taber said. “Painting outside is one of the few things one can do alone or with friends and social distance at the same time.”
After graduating from UCSB with a bachelor’s degree in fine art, Taber committed to a career in nursing over the following two decades, but she reignited her passion for painting—specifically pastels—in the 1990s. She later became a member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, the Santa Barbara Art Association, the Goleta Art Association, and other regional groups.
During the past few months of voluntary quarantine, Taber said her drive to paint has shifted from day to day, like mood swings.
“Though I have down days and good days, I think the pandemic is making me search deeper into my own creativity,” Taber said.
Taber, Talley, and a circle of their artist friends usually meet to paint somewhere outdoors—with ample room to social distance—once a week, and they also hold monthly Zoom meetings to critique each other’s works. Talley described these discussions as extremely beneficial and integral to her most recent abstract paintings.
“The feedback of my painting buddies has been critical in my experimenting with new ways to interpret the landscape,” Talley said. “During the pandemic, I’ve really appreciated my family and friends and realized how lucky I am to be able to share my passion for painting with them.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is also feeling lucky at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2020.
