A habitat restoration and trail improvement project will benefit from an upcoming art fundraiser, featuring local participants who hail from Santa Ynez and surrounding areas.
With an aim to support the UCSB North Campus Open Space, the Oak Group—a collective of more than a dozen artists dedicated to raising awareness for threatened open spaces and other causes—will hold its next show at Faulkner Gallery in downtown Santa Barbara from Oct. 2 to 31.
An Oak Group member since 1996, local artist Chris Chapman has six pieces in the show, including Bird’s Beak & Bumblebee Natives, which depicts a unique endangered plant found at the open space.
Chapman based the piece on some reference photographs, as she’s never seen the Bird’s Beak plant up close. The segment of the preserve where it grows is barred from the public.
“It’s so protected right now that only staff can visit the spot,” Chapman told the Sun over email. “I was entranced by its complexity and the sparkles created by salt crystals on the flowers and leaves.”
The Santa Ynez Valley resident also submitted a vista titled Ellwood Mesa Morning. For Chapman, the piece harkens back to “when I taught landscape painting” as part of a plein air program at the preserve through Santa Barbara Community College Adult Education.
Chapman’s husband, John Iwerks, is another of the show’s featured artists and one of the Oak Group’s seven original members. The collective was formed in 1986, and to date, the Oak Group’s art sales have raised about $3 million for open space preservation projects, according to the nonprofit’s website.
“Since many of our favorite painting locations were being developed or threatened to be developed, our first show was called ‘Endangered Landscapes,’” recalled Iwerks, who said the nonprofit began as “a group of painter friends” whose mission took shape when they decided to donate sales proceeds to local environmental organizations.
“Those who purchased paintings became aware that they were making a positive difference toward preservation,” Iwerks said over email, “while obtaining a painting for their home and collection.”
Iwerks has three pieces in the October showcase, including Morning Calm, inspired by an early morning visit to the North Campus Open Space.
“I was there alone, watching the birds come and go,” Iwerks said.
Fellow artist Rob Robinson based one of the show’s featured oil paintings on a photograph taken during an afternoon hike at the preserve.
“It had just rained, was cold, and the preserve was lush, wild, and alive. It was thrilling as I hiked all the way out to the ocean and back, composing and taking photos as I went,” Robinson said over email about the hike that inspired After the Rain. “I’ve always loved being out in nature during extreme weather, always reminding us that it’s the boss.”
Robinson has been a member of the Oak Group for about seven years and believes the nonprofit’s approach in raising awareness and funding for threatened open spaces through art “has been an effective way for the public … to make a contribution to those efforts and take home a piece of art that reflects that shared value.”
Send comments, whether they’re composed indoors or en plein air, to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 12-22, 2024.