Gallery Tours: Sonoma County 1994

GALLERY TOUR ’94 Maureen Hurley

It goes without saying bucolic Sonoma County is good for artists, but do galleries support good art and local artists? Who buys art, what sells? With a list of 40+ galleries (excluding cafes, bars and banks), I needlessly braced myself for what often gives art a bad name. Galleries ranged from the exclusive to the down-home; most were sophistocated, with prices to match any budget and taste—from traditional wildlife to abstract expressionism. Wine country landscapes and plein air pieces were solidly represented—but I didn’t expect to find such a wide range of artistic visions.

Some excellent new places have opened including The Photography Gallery, and the Coop; some doors have closed—the Anasazi, Bronson Tufts, and the J. Noblett galleries. Nature abhors a vacuum: three new galleries opened in the town of Sonoma.

In two short blocks from 5th to 4th Street in Santa Rosa, are three fine galleries comparable to those in San Francisco, Amsterdam, or London. Two galleries in one, The Fine Frame & Art has pastels and oils on display in the back room where the frame shop is located. Owners Maureen Baumgartner and Kevin Berry, also a fine painter, made this gallery a pleasant space. A weathered brick wall sets off art nicely.

In general, I was delighted to see the work of the numerous artists whose work I’ve reviewed over the years. A most auspicious beginning: Polaroid transfer photography by Kathleen Carr, an assemblage piece by Raymond Barnhart.

The second business, West Coast Editions, has an inventory of limited edition contemporary fine art prints. Owner David Perez, a former printmaker, has a superb collection from around the world. Goya fitfully snoozes in a drawer above eclectic California artists, Diebenkorn, and Curtis. In 1989, I brought some of Jim Curtis’s etchings to sister city, Cherkassy, Ukraine, which were snatched up by the official and underground artists alike.

Perez focuses on contemporary artists of California, and the Bay Area. Prices are affordable; $50 for lovely little pieces by Michael David Richie. There are some real art bargains under $500. Perez explains most sales are in this price range, and many customers are local. Other gallery owners voiced the same opinion.

Limited edition prints are the art of choice for prospective buyers. (Purchase prints with a print run of 300 or less.) For those who balk at multiple copies, monotypes or monoprints offer original art in print format.

The current show is abstract monoprints from the Smith Anderson Editions of Palo Alto, celebrating 25 years of printmaking. Featured with internationally renowned printmakers, are two local artists, my art professor from Sonoma State University, Inez Storer of Inverness, and College of Marin classmate, David Best. David is best known for his outrageously encrusted cars, replete with stuffed rhino and water buffalo head hood ornaments; it was a pleasure to see his skill displayed in the print medium. Figure studies of La Lune, and another untitled piece evoked images of Doré’s engravings. Storer’s monotype, Elizabeth of Hungary, with a nesting bird on her head, was whimsical. The show runs to the end of the month.

Open since November, The Photography Gallery, a few doors down from Fine Frame & Art, offers fine black and white, and archival quality color prints of local photographers. Bob Hasenick’s poppy was featured on the cover of the 1994 Audobon desk calendar. Owner Jack Haley has some stunning large format work on display. Haley was out on a shoot in Nevada, but a photographer friend said Haley has an innovative marketing approach, renting wall space to artists, thus taking a much smaller commission than the standard 40%, and one can purchase prints framed or unframed.

To make ends meet, most galleries are also frame shops, Soundscapes on Mendocino Avenue sells audio equipment and home entertainment systems. Mark Silver, in audio retail 26 years, was ready for something new. In L.A. he decorated his stereo stores with art, now he’s switched focus. Partner Sarjan Ebaen manages the art end of business. In 11 months, he’s exhibited 25 artists. In addition to featured artist of the month, watercolorist Ray Jacobson’s work is on permanent display. Gerald Huth’s 72 construction/ paintings, On the Human Condition, figures rendered in many mediums, are punctuated by text from T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland . Ebaen says 75% of the work priced under $1000 is what moves. Though large ticket items do sell, those priced from $250 to $500 are equally important. Future trends include art furniture, and artist-designed entertainment centers.

I took a quick peek at Louisa Fraser’s work located on the balcony of Whistlestop Antiques, wandered over to a storefront window of the Karl Walburg gallery where $85 would buy me “anything in the window.” The Karl Walburg gallery and frame shop in the former “Sweet Potato” store on Railroad Square is enormous, the largest in the north bay. Though the gallery is only a year old, Karl, son of sculptor Gerald Walberg, and partner Christine George have produced 12 shows and three fundraisers, exhibiting the work of hundreds of artists. “We sell art by keeping prices low, but art is not about price tags,” said George. Prices range from $5 to $60,000. On exhibit is Mexican painter, Conrado Dominguez, with local artists Dwight Eberly and Nancy Tieken. Eberly needed no introduction: I recognized his Salt Point pieces. Land Images, California Landscapes by Five North Bay Artists will be on display July.

On 4th street, the reputable Lawrence Gallery with an international clientele, is the oldest and most established of the Santa Rosa contemporary art galleries. Three glowing Wendy Weldon abstracts immediately caught my attention as did watercolors by Portuguese artist, Chacorro. Not overtly fond of appraisable investment art, I squeezed past canvases, wishing the posh room was a bit wider, to find refuge in Israeli artist Itzchak Tarkay’s lovely watercolors. Lawrence Gallery exclusively represents the work of Chicana artist Sonya Fe who recently moved from Sonoma County. Fe’s canvases, with a price tag of $30,000, may be out of the average buyer’s range, but prints begin at $150. John Lennon’s limited edition serigraphs (silkscreen) are also on sale.

I asked arts consultant Darth Elledge who was buying art. Though most of his customers are from the East Coast, Elledge doesn’t neglect local customers, “Developing a clientele may take months. If they buy a painting, they deserve individualized treatment. I will go to their house to install a painting, and rearrange the furniture if necessary.” I would feel comfortable purchasing art from the knowledgeable Elledge, and most gallery representatives I met.

In order to stay in business, galleries must diversify with both commercial investment art, and art for serious collectors. Arts consultant for the Petaluma Ah! Some Art, Eolah Bates said, “When I first came here we exclusively sold ‘limited editions.’ We have many first-time buyers. The clientele is more sophisticated, preferring original art to lithographs.” Ah! Some has traditional oil paintings by local artists Henry White and Ralph Bayer. Upcoming artist include Betty Burns and Terry Behrens.

Purist at heart, I have a knee-jerk response to “limited editions” of 10,000 or more. “Those Bev Doolittles are in demand by the corporate investor,” Bates reminded me. “We still sell limited edition posters.” A commodity, stock certificate in poster format. “Collectors have to start somewhere, and Greenwich artists hold their value,” said Bates.

Michael Richie has an artist in residency and show of pastels and etchings at the Press House Gallery at the historic Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma. Sonoma County pastel artists Marsha Connell (who had a previous show at BV), Mary Silverwood, and Richie typically push the inside of the envelope out; a new word for “pastel” is needed. Richie’s vibrant pastels of Latin America are anything but pastel. The Press House Gallery, a balcony over the gift shop/tasting room, is an interesting display space where one can sip a civilized glass of Zinfandel. Richie will be working on location from June 10 to July 17.

Mary Silverwood’s pastels and limited edition prints are available through Diane Shulkin of My Daughter the Framer in Santa Rosa. Framed pastels range from $1600 to $2200. Mary will have a dozen new pieces for Matanzas Creek Winery’s annual Wine Barrel Gala June 25, where her work has been continuously exhibited since 1989.

A glorious day, I headed for the coast. Though it’s June, many west county galleries are closed mid-week. Norman Gaddini’s hand-tinted scratchboard pieces at the tiny Occidental Art Gallery resembled lithographs. The hard to find Jessica Framer/Coop gallery is worth tracking down—Occidental needs a decent fine arts gallery.

Two galleries opened on April first in Freestone; what’s this, an Arts destination? The King-Heller Gallery at the Paint Store (formerly Anasazi gallery) featured one of the Sonoma 4 plein air painters, Bill Wheeler. Currently on display are rare figure drawings by the late William Morehouse, also of the Sonoma 4. The three-room gallery defies plumb lines, but has great knotty pine floors; to prove it really was a paint store—a bucket of “Rural Outdoor Paint” is on the potbelly stove. Lively and energetic, Morehouse’s coffee-wash nudes from ’87 to ’91 have cryptic numbers and letters, a code known only to Bill. . . A deer trotted up to the back door as if to pay homage to Morehouse. Stuart Buehler’s paintings and assemblages will be on display July 2.

On a caffeine contact high from Bill’s drawings, I pulled into the Freestone House Gallery at the Wishing Well. New owner Jim Longacre has transformed the space—bare wood walls adorned with meticulous watercolors by Freestone artist Pamela Glasscock, and work by 6 other artists. So tranquil. Said Longacre, “It was natural for the nursery to bring in art. Sacramento tourists, fed-up with what passes for art at coastal galleries, exclaim, ‘Now, this is a breath of fresh air!’” The 1st Annual Botanical Art Exhibit opens June 18, and runs through mid-September. On the road, life began to imitate art: hedgerows of roses, irises, Indian paintbrush framed by my truck window.

The Bodega Landmark Gallery—half a shed crammed to the gills with eclectic paintings stacked five deep next to a smashing exhibit by Philip Buller? Oh well, the salt tang enticed me down the road.

With the exception of Guerneville printmaker Gail Packer’s intaglio prints, most art in the three storied Branscomb Gallery is banal—renderings of the usual suspects: otters, whales, and bunnies. Packer’s prints of rural Sonoma County are the only thing happening. Hildy Henry’s hand-painted folk art frames do real justice to Gail’s pieces. Other notable exceptions are El Meyers’ watercolors upstairs, and tapestries from southern India. There’s an excellent display of intaglio printing with three of Gail’s copper plates; she rarely prints more than 200 copies of any piece. Framed—from $500 to $750.

You can see more of Gail’s work, along with Lorraine Cooke’s pastels at the Curtis Chase Gallery in Guerneville. Once I dragged a print of Coleman Valley Road, that Gail donated to sister-city, Cherkassy—through airports and customs, onto trains, trolleys and busses across Russia to deliver it to the Cherkassy Arts Guild.

The Ren Brown Collection is a tranquil space with small Japanese gardens and running water; an environment that’s seamless, a haven in any storm. Lovely wooden tables adorned with exquisite raku bowls; I wanted sink into the tatami mats and have someone serve me green tea ice cream. Elegant etchings from Ritsuwo Kanno’s first American exhibition are absolutely breathtaking. The show run through July 11. I could’ve lingered for hours, but the coastline was a movable feast, and I had miles to go, and deadlines to keep.

Duncan's Mills has five galleries! Quercia gallery (once home of the Christopher Queen gallery) has an excellent collection of contemporary art hung from floor to ceiling. My only complaint: it’s hard to read the faded, hand-written tags. What a selection: Frank Gannon’s California Impressionism, Bev Rowe’s vibrant pieces, Ray Jacobson’s seascapes, Jennifer Hoover’s paintings (I originally saw at the Framework gallery of Forestville). It was hard to tear myself away but Christopher Queen gallery across the courtyard beckoned. The 18-year-old gallery has a flower exhibit of contemporary watercolors and oils by Morten Solberg, serigraphs by Henri Plisson and others. As co-founder Nancy Ferreria gave me a tour, my eyes feasted everywhere, wonderful paintings, excellent Middle Eastern rugs, and objet d’art. In the next room, wildlife including Solberg’s polar bear with abstract background—a style that made the Forestville artist famous. Upstairs is her father Swede Wallen’s superb collection of early California art. William Keith, Deakin Edwin, Thomas Hill—reasonably priced. In July, artists of the Bohemian Club including Keith and Hill will be shown.

Quicksilver Mine Co. hangs 7 lively shows a year, the gallery is attached to the store, shows spill out into the storefront windows and throughout the store. Art bins extend the current repertoire, offer bargains on non-featured artists. Micah Schwaberow’s woodblock, Russian River Moon, a steal at $75. John Curry’s assemblage was pricy at $24,000. Curator of the current Man to Man exhibit, Rob Higgins said, “I was tired of the usual T & A and wanted to see something else.” Carl Hedberg’s resin sculpture “View from a Urinal” to Jesse Helms, is decidedly upfront. Higgins explained, “The male figure is not well represented in art.” Has he hit upon a future trend? The California Museum of Art has an upcoming show on male images. Traditionally, publication and presentation of art (and poetry) disproportionately features male artists. Sonoma County is one of those rare places that exhibits the work of many women artists, I hope to see male images by women artists too. Man to Man runs to July 17, followed by Karina Nishi Marcus’s exhibit entitled, Confluences: Abstractions of Water and Space.

guessing May 1994?

Teaching Stones to Speak 5/10/91

"The Stone Series"

Paintings of William Morehouse

William Morehouse in his Bodega studio. On the left is "Broadgar Energy," one of the works in "The Stone Series" on view at the California Museum of Art.

BY MAUREEN HURLEY

RECENTLY A BULGARIAN POET handed me a conundrum: a hollow river stone with a smaller stone trapped inside—a talking stone. This reminded me of my Irish grandmother, who told me stones could speak even on this side of the world. Steeped in the Celtic mysteries, she relied on the megalithic limestone outcropping at the crest of a nearby hill to note the solstices. I was encouraged to spend time listening to the rock, and to measure the speed of shadows, but I gathered inconclusive evidence as to the shape of time, and the translation of the mute attestation of stones.

I was faced with a similar conundrum upon viewing William Morehouse's "The Stone Series" at the California Museum of Art at the Luther Burbank Center. I found myself seeking a decoding process to solve the riddle, but what was the mystery?

A resident of Bodega, Morehouse is a mature, established artist with an impressive track record; his works are represented in over 20 public and private collections, including the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution 'in Washington, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

His artistic career spans 42 years and hundreds of exhibitions. The 62-year-old San Francisco native studied at the California School of Fine Arts, the California College of Arts and Crafts, and the San Francisco Art Institute; he received his master's degree from San Francisco State University. He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1958 to 1967, and since 1967, he's been at Sonoma State University, where he is a full professor.

The CMA exhibit—25 painted ceramic sculptures, oil paintings, and pastels—were thematically inspired by "the mystery of Celtic monuments" Morehouse visited during a 1985 trip to over 80 megalithic sites of Wales, northern Scotland, the Hebrides and the Orkney Isands, Morehouse says his journey to the megalithic stones began in Soho, New York, one hot August night in 1985 when the loft where he was staying was too hot to sleep and so, within 24 hours, he was headed for the London fog to cool his heels.

Morehouse made the obligatory pilgrimage to Stonehenge, but the thundering hordes and the fence surrounding the ancient monument were discouraging; the magic was gone. He stumbled upon more sites in Wales and Scotland, which he describes as a "delicious adventure" enhanced by "two bottles of single-malt whiskey in the boot of the car," and these burial cairns, cromlechs and dolmens seemed to speak more succinctly to Morehouse than did the incarcerated Stonehenge.

Morehouse says his "Stone Series" pieces, executed after returning to New York and California, are not based on precise visual presences of the stones as much as they are recollections of those experiences, both visual and sentient. He describes the central theme of the series as "the mysterious and unknown nature of these monuments . . . meditations on, and subjective responses to, the kind of energy, spirit, and evocative qualities I experienced while visiting the sites."

ONE OF THE MORE interesting elements of the CMA exhibit is to see Morehouse's stone theme executed in three difterent mediums: ceramic, oil, and pastel. At first glance, many of the raw, opaque paintings have an inaccessible quality similar to that of the megalithic stones they represent, while the three pastels retain a lyrical depth and quality that enhance the sense of mystery.

"Spirit and Sentinels—Caallanish" contains a wonderful spiraling energy. And the green ropes of "Spirit Dance and Stone" float in a darker mystery. The "Witches' Stone, Callanish: Study for Paintings" is phallic, but that shouldn't come as a surprise because that's what the stone represents to begin with." The diminutive megalithic sculptures in the center of the room are strangely comforting.

One of the largest paintings in the exhibit, the spermetic "Dark Cairn Metamorphosis," retains some of the fertile mystery of the pastel pieces. "Callanish: Isle of Lewis, Hebrides" has a nice juxtaposition of organic line and shape, as does. "Cairn—Wales: Spirals in the Burial Chamber." The contemporary painted red line becomes a rich punctuation mark against the magic ancient calligraphic spirals.

Another marking, or "thought gesture," most notably on "Energy Form Gesture II," looks almost Sanskrit in origin—recalling our Indo-European origins. However, the unsettling green palette of "Stenness" and the orange flame of "High Ambition" literally drove me from the room to seek escape from this two-dimensional reality of pyrotechnics. I cautiously reentered, shielding my eyes from these Plutonic wonders in order to spend some quality time with the more contemplative pieces.

My first reaction to the "Stone Series" was that Morehouse, while apparently trying to get closer to the mystery, had made it more opaque. This is a painter who is capable of throwing light into the meeting of mountains, but can he clear the stone place for a rough magic to form? Magic is a finicky muse. By naming it, one can destroy it. Since first impressions come too easy, after much deliberation, I came back to my primary conclusion: these paintings are filled with a mysterious raw kinetic energy—more Plutonic than Celtic.

But they feel new and unfinished; the composition is good, but for the most part, the palette is unsettling. Morehouse's thoughts rush toward full-blown combustion; there is little for the viewer to absorb and contemplate. I wish his works contained more of the sublime magic of the megalithic stones. Morehouse's paintings are filled with thought, perhaps too much so. And I think the art itself suffers for it, because the paintings, though bright, don't necessarily shed light.

A child's first marking—which may represent the beginnings of thought processes—are akin to Morehouse's symbolism, but a child's markings are transparent and tenative, there's the feel of paper (or the wall) beneath the mark, while Moorehouse's remain shrouded. Ironically, Morehouse says that in the "Stone Series" he was seeking a more lyrical, spiritual quality, moving towards less deliberate image-making, less control. He was seeking a sense of energy, calling his works essays of the spiritual language, subliminal thoughts, forms intuitively arrived at, symbols of power in a land steeped in legend.

During an artist's lecture at CMA, Morehouse presented slides of the paintings juxtaposed against the megalithic sites he documented, which was a real visual treat. Some of the pieces not in the show made more sense than the selected canvasses. Perhaps the show should have been expanded to include more paintings and pastels.

TECHNICALLY, THE DRYNESS of the painted surfaces in the "Stone Series"—akin to the creechy feeling of fingernails on chalkboard—had my skin crawling. Morehouse is an excellent draftsman and painter, and by comparison, his plein air paintings recently on view at the J. Noblett Gallery in Boyes Hot Springs, were juicy and luscious. (That exhibit, "Open Air Paintings," features, in addition to the recent work of Morehouse, and four other West County painters—Tony King, Wilder Bentley, William Wheeler, and John Stuppin—the "must see" exhibit recently moved to Dominican College in San Rafael.)

During my visit to the J. Noblett Gallery, two Morehouse paintings in particular stood out: "West from Poff Ranch" with its post-impressionistic cypress writhing in the wind, and his fluidly juicy "North from Armstrong Woods," an edible landscape redolent wiih succulent color. My faith in Morehouse's painterly ability restored, I was again faced with the dilemma of making sense of his "Stone Series."

Morehouse's palette makes sense out-of-doors. In this context. I thought fleetingly of Mark Rothhko's work, and wished the room, the paintings, or both, were much, much larger. As it turns out, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko and abstract expressionism generally have had a major influence on Morehouse's work, but Rothko's paintings are sophisticated 20th century civilized interiors, sheets of colors that float above the surface of the canvas, while Morehouse has taken on the primitive pagan landscape. He's tried to contain it, and caged it like Stonehenge itself.

The Scottish "Stone Series" can be seen at the California Museum of Art at Luther Burbank Center through May 26. Regular museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, caII 527-0297.
Concurrent with the Morehouse exhibit, the CMA is featuring another show, "Guardians of Myths and Legends," comprised of 29 raku-fired ceramic helmets, shields and breastplates by Torrance artist Max Fuller. A great double barrel treat.

The Western Sonoma County Paper, ca. 5/10/1991

William Paul Morehouse
1929 - 1993

Note Bene: Bill Morehouse was one of my painting teachers at Sonoma State University, but at that time (late 1970s) there was no art department, not like today. The entire art department was crammed in the basement of Darwin Hall. We were literally below ground level. Our transom windows framed the ankles of passers-by. I had a ceramics class and a painting class in Darwin Hall—with no facilities, no potter's wheels, no kilns, no place to paint, no storage lockers—nothing. It was strictly whatever you could carry on your back. Needless to say, we got very little art done that year. It was a real bummer all the way around.