Think about the word “motion.” Does it bring forth memories of driving in a car? Throwing a ball? Watching the waves crash on the beach? Dancing?
The question was posed to a group of Central Coast artists for a recent juried show. The Santa Ynez Valley Arts Association currently features an exhibit based on the theme of motion, which runs through Sept. 6 in the Guild Room in Gallery Los Olivos. Artists were challenged to interpret the work as they saw fit, either abstractly or literally.
Esther Jacobsen Bates, the current executive director of the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art in Solvang, served as juror for the show. Six works in total earned awards and all six reflect a unique take on the theme.
Mary Taylor Jones won first place for a watercolor titled “Remembered Rhythms.” Third place went to Belinda Hart for “Sunlight on Water,” a textile/mixed media piece. Honorable mentions went to Randee Ward for “On the Rocks,” and Jean Quintana for “Joyful Light,” both mixed media works.
Allen Koehn, a retired professor of psychology and a practicing psychotherapist, won second place for his photograph “Baja Waters.” He started taking pictures in the 1960s, putting together his own darkroom and pursuing the hobby off and on as his career progressed. Koehn, who moved to Los Olivos in the late 1990s, said he doesn’t see himself as an artist but rather as a photographer.
“I think I like photography because it’s not about words,” he said. “I spend a lot of time with words—written words, spoken words—but there’s something about photography that goes beyond or is separate from language.”
As a photographer, Koehn said he’s inspired by the traditional Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which emphasizes the art of imperfection. Wabi-sabi embraces disproportion, damage, asymmetry, and most importantly, the grace of the natural process such as aging or weathering.
“I think I look for the unusual,” Koehn explained. “I see beauty in things like a rust pattern on a horse stall, things that you wouldn’t traditionally see.”
For the show, Koehn selected an image he shot while on a cruise in Baja. He leaned over the rails and shot the waves churning in the wake of the ship. The dichotomy of fiercely gnarled and crashing waves frozen in an icy blue portrait is what makes it so compelling, especially when considered as a statement on motion.
“The contrast of light and dark in this photograph immediately drew me in,” Bates wrote in her juror’s comments. “A sense of mystery seems to permeate and create tension. I’m intrigued by the seemingly contradictory water flows.”
Koehn said part of the allure of being in the juried show was having the opportunity to have people such as Bates discuss his work. He said he appreciated hers and previous judges’ comments, such as Connie Rohde of the C Gallery in Los Alamos.
Michelle Ellis won a special Juror’s Award for her abstract acrylic/mixed media painting “Ocean Waves.” Bates praised Ellis’ work for her strong use of color and texture.
“As a viewer, I enjoy the challenge of abstract art and how the take-away can be highly subjective,” Bates wrote. “I was captivated by the physical movement of paint across the canvas and the artistic manipulation of the media. … The overall feeling of the piece spoke to me of motion, of the artist at work and in the subject matter.”
Ellis was raised by a mother who was a realist painter herself. Her mother worked in acrylics, painting landscapes and similar subjects. But Ellis, who has lived in Nipomo for the past four years, said it was abstract painting that captivated her as an artist.
“I had tried my hand at realism, and while I enjoyed it, it didn’t give me any satisfaction,” she said. “About four years ago I started painting abstracts. I have never looked back.”
Ellis said the misperceptions in the public at large often create a misunderstanding of what it takes to create abstract art. She said she often hears people say abstract art has “no rules,” which isn’t necessarily accurate.
“A lot of it is intuitive,” she said. “It’s also understanding depth, light, movement. I’m really drawn to nature and natural elements. I’m drawn to texture. You’ll see that in the work I create.”
Ellis recently participated in a national juried show in Morro Bay where she had two paintings accepted out of a crowd of 200 national applicants. She said juried shows with themes such as the one in Los Olivos present a unique challenge to artists.
“It really allows the artist to put their best foot forward,” she said. “It’s nice when there’s a theme; it gives continuity to the room of artists.”
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose spends all her time on cruises at the bar. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 17-24, 2017.
