aRt Cottage

Bill Richards and Sandra Artru

The aRt Cottage is pleased to announce the opening of our next show, featuring the work of Bill Richards. Bill is a self-taught artist. He has never had a professional art class in his life. His paintings consist of life-like portraits and figures, both nude and draped. He also is very proficient in painting animals and landscapes. Every hair and every wrinkle can be seen in his amazing realistic portraits. His medium of choice is oil and he paints on birch. His work is on exhibit from coast to coast, and now at the aRt Cottage as well.

The opening reception will be next Saturday, September 7th, from 2 to 7 pm. Food and beverage will be provided. We will also have live music.

We will also be featuring the work of Sandra Artru, in the Red Room Gallery. Sandra Artru has been painting since 1997. She firsts learned techniques in a portrait class in a pivate setting in Brentwood. There wer 13 women present for an 8 hr session for 5 days. After that experience, other classes and workshops were more of the same - private and in a small setting. Her first school experience with paint was in high school. Her paintings consist of oil, acrylic, watercolor and ink line drawings.For the last three years she has been working on painting famous people with using the palette knife and acrylic paint. Several of these will be on display for the month of September.

Everyone is welcome. See you on Saturday!
FRO

STUDENT WORKS

This month's show is an exhibit of Student Works. While the majority of the exhibited works are from our younger artists, students of all ages were invited to submit their artwork. And submit they did! This is one of our largest shows to date. the variety and originality are breathtaking.

Arian Mojaddidi

Katie Dowell & Adeline Lizarraga

Our opening reception was last Thursday evening and the event was a blowout. It was a wonderful crowd of children and adults. All seemed anxious to search for their work and show it off to relatives and friends. The children were enthusiastic to explain their recycled art material sculptures and demonstrate how they worked. Several pieces were sold within the first hour. Work ranged in age from Sr. citizens to preschoolers. Ceramic pinch pots, oil paintings, pencil drawings, photographs, watercolors, pastels, clay masks were only some of the mediums enjoyed by viewers. Live music was provided by the Delta Breeze. Their acoustic style country and rock 12 string guitar played by Tony Benedetti and vocals by Pauline Kilian added to the evening. If you did not get a chance to check out the art at the reception - come visit aRt Cottage before August is over and enjoy the variety on display. This is the month to make some purchases. All the proceeds go directly to the artists. aRt Cottage is here to help promote the beginning artists as well as the continuing "learning" student artists no matter what their age or experience is.

FRO

Meiling Liu

WATER

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

July begins with a bang (literally) and ushers in a new show here at the aRt Cottage - Water. How it is that a substance that is so simple can be so complex is mystifying. We drink water, we bathe in water, we fight wars over water... As you tour the galleries this month think about the themes behind the artwork. Water is portrayed in all of it's many forms. You will observe great power and placid lakes. Ships that ply the oceans and lakes for commerce and pleasure. And of course contemplation. Water is always good for contemplation.

Our reception this month is Thursday, July 11 from 6 to 9 pm. Please come, enjoy the art, artists and perhaps join us for a glass of water.

All About Abstract...

All About Abstract...is our latest show here at the aRt Cottage and promises to be the biggest and most intriguing yet. We have a strong turn out of a dozen or more artists including painters, sculptors, photographers, pen and pencil artists and more. The variety is breathtaking.

The show officially kicks off on June 5th and runs through the 29th. We are having our opening Reception on Thursday evening, June 6th from 6 to 9 pm. This should be a great opening reception as it corresponds with the Opening of the Thursday night Farmer's Market down in Todos Santos Plaza.

If you haven't visited the Cottage in a while this is a great opportunity to come celebrate the Arts in Concord. Refreshments will be serve and there is always plenty of comradarie.

-FRO

More About Abstract...Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ... (it) indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be only slight, or it can be partial, or it can be complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum.

-From Wikipedia

Print Making and More!

The aRt Cottage is proud to announce our newest show, "Print Making and More". Print making is an art form that we are all intimately familiar with since the dollar bills in our wallets and purses are produced by an Intaglio printing process. This show will focus primarily on silk screening and monotypes but will include multiple other creative print types as well.

Drop by and visit the show any time we are open or come to our Opening Reception this Saturday, May 11 from 2 to 5 pm.

Prints by Aileen Natasha Nichols and FROgard

aRt Cottage Participates in AAUW Wine Walk

On May 11th from 1-4 pm the aRt Cottage will participate, along with many of Concord's Todos Santos merchants, in the 2013 Art and Wine Walk. This is a fundraiser for the American Association of University Women. Buy an ticket, join the stroll and find out a bit more about the artistic side of Concord while supporting a good cause.

EGGstravaganza Opens to a Large Turnout

The show was great - loved your mom's eggs and all your pics - love the whimsy. You guys are so talented. It's an honor to see the world through your eyes.
-Julie L

Saturday was the opening reception for our new show, EGGstravaganza. Photographers Mark and Cathy Pemberton have been working for the past year to put together this unique show. Their photographs of eggs were just exquisite examples of abstract figure study and balance between light and shadow. The use of the term light is appropriate especially since several of the eggs were shown to be levitating. A repeated comment by many of our guests was “how did you ever come up with so many unique ways to photograph eggs.”

Using a high degree of imagination and a demented sense of humor, Mark and Cathy managed to create on full room's worth of Whimsical egg photographs that provoked laughs from all who went through this room. "Embryo Wars" is not to be missed.

Photo by Mark Pemberton

Another highlight of the show was the egg art of Mark’s mother Shirley. She has created the most stunning works from raw eggs. They run the gamut from eggs that are simply (but elegantly) carved to elaborate mechanical marvels that rival the famed Faberge eggs of the 19 ^th century. Numerous people took the time to read the short book about her work and to watch the YouTube video of her creations that was shot in the 1990s.

Photo by Gladys Warr

The turnout was good with about 75 people stopping by. We saw lots of new faces amongst many of our long-time supporters. We were also delighted that residents of the nearby Concord House stopped by to enjoy the show and some of the delicious refreshments with us.

EGGstravaganza will continue showing through April 27. This is truly one of the most unique shows that we have hosted. Don’t miss it!