The front room of Gallery Los Olivos is possessed with an almost eerie calmness, a sense of beautiful stillness blanketed by the familiar comfort of art.
The stoic and oddly refreshing mood is the result of the newest exhibit at the gallery, titled Tranquility. The show, which runs through Feb. 19, featured Santa Ynez Valley area artists depicting their take on the theme, working in a variety of media and styles. The eclectic nature of the show provides a pleasing range.
As a visitor quietly walks into the small yet compactly filled gallery, artist Carrie Givens is there to politely greet them. Givens, a pastel artist with more than 15 years of experience who helped curate and hang the exhibit, is bursting with nervous joy, excited to share stories about the exhibit, yet pointedly shy about giving interviews.
“When I was in the seventh grade, I had an art teacher who realized I was able to do a balanced design,” Givens said. “I was able to do art, and she encouraged me. That made me realize I was good at it and wanted to do it more.”
Givens is passionate about pastels, her medium of choice. Pastels are pure pigment in a powder form, held together with a binder.
“They go on just like paint,” she explained. “It’s not chalk … you just lay it on to a sanded paper or a pastel paper.”
Givens has a few paintings featured in the show, landscapes of areas surrounding her home in Goleta where she goes to quietly paint. She said while she avoids figurative drawing she does like to explore a range when it comes to her subject matter.
One of her favorite subjects is an organic farm where she finds fruits and vegetables to paint. But Givens said the theme of the show was less about visual subject matter and more about isolating a feeling within the viewer.
“You look at [a] piece and it just brings out the feeling of tranquility,” she said. “Every piece in here gives you that feeling.”
Givens said the art show is not just about presenting community art to the public for sale or scrutiny, but it’s also an invaluable tool for artists themselves. Artists need a place to show their work, she explained.
“You can just keep painting and painting,” she said. “But boy, isn’t it nice to get it out so people can see them and enjoy them? The way I look at it, if I sell a piece, I figure it found a home. You cultured it, you made it grow up into something, and you send it off into a home.”
Givens said shows like Tranquility help individuals connect with art, even though they may find it unapproachable at times.
“They can find something in a painting that does touch them,” she said. “Is it the colors, is it the texture, is it the subject matter? That is not that hard. There must be something that would touch a person, whether it be an abstract or sculpure … they may not like a realistic landscape, but there must be something that would touch you or bring out a feeling.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose keeps it very chill. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2018.