Happy Halloween

Here’s an oversized cutout drawing I did for a haunted house back when I was teaching.  These days Halloween is just about the least scary thing happening.  Happy Halloween.

Sachi Tsutsumi Hayward

October 30, 1926 - August 23, 2023

Sachi has passed. She was in my life for over 60 years as a gentle guiding light of kindness. She impressed me with her indomitable spirit, her impish ways when she was determined to get her way, and her loving heart. I will miss our visits. She was so very dear to me.

Sachi and me circa 1964-65

As a 5 to 7 year old Sachi babysat me in her wonderful home on Rhode Island St. on Potereo Hill in San Francisco. You would walk through a tall dark gate into a magical lush green garden with a beautiful fish pond filled with Koi. The house was built as a single story that jutted out over the side of the hill. I remember the tile floors and the way it was open all the way to the back so you could enjoy the view. As you stepped into the house  from the garden you came to a metal sprial staircase, and down this staircase was Sachi's world. As a child I didn't realize that she rented this space from others. I just knew that the home fit her personality. The house felt very serene and peaceful which was how Sachi was to me.  She was very patient with me which endeared her to me mightly. It is only recently that I learned her patience with me was due to her lack of English and not her gentle manner. OR so she says.  She taught me Oragami and painting, and I always felt a quiet sense of being when I was with her.

Sachi and me early August 2023

Sachi came to California from Japan to go to The San Francisco Art Institute to study Printmaking in the early 1960's.  Here are several of Sachi's incredible aquatint etchings courtesy of her niece Lynn, and some from my archives.

"Blue Vase"

Blue Vase 2

 

"Dry Vase"

 

Tan & Blue Vase

Dry Flowers C

Yellow with Leaf

Sachi with her siblings in Japan

As her niece Lynn says, they are all together now.

Sachi has been preparing for her departure for a long time now, I hope her trip is beautiful. The day she died I saw a group of beautiful egrets fly over the delta and I believe this was Sachi joining her family.

A New Exhibit by Guy Colwell

More info on Guy Colwell
 

The Box Show 2023

Yes, we’re back with the Box Show.

The annual show is a fundraiser for Gallery Route One in Pt. Reyes Station, Marin county.

The deal is simple: The gallery provides plain pine boxes to as many as 150 artists. You can pretty much do anything to it as long as elements of the original the box remains in the piece (In the past, people have taken them apart, burned them, shredded them and so on).

This year Molly and I wound up with an unassembled box to start with.

I started with sketches:

I originally had a notion that I would draw various fantasy-animal-headed creatures, but it mutated into extraterrestrial types instead.

Molly started painting the backgrounds without my drawings. 

They began to take on the appearance of some sort of apocalyptic alter pieces.

My drawing were attached and ultimately painted and sealed in gel medium.

We linked the pieces together with metal brackets.

               The show began on August 5th and continues until September 9th

                Final bidding and auction closing is Saturday, September 9, 3-4pm

                        You can see the entire show online at: The Box Show

Molly’s Beginning Acrylic Painting Class at Riley Street Art Supply has returned !

After a long hiatus brought to us by a pandemic and shutdown Molly’s portrait class is returning to Riley Street Art Supply ! 

She will be teaching Beginning Acrylic Painting: Portraits & Animals at Riley Street Art Supply in San Rafael, Marin County on Thursdays from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, starting on August 3^rd.  The class is ongoing and you are welcome to join in at any time.

Here’s her class description:

Acrylic painting is an exciting medium, full of possibilities. Come join us as we learn traditional workshop approaches of the past for today’s beginning artist. Molly rea will demonstrate, step by step, the techniques as she employs to create her dynamic blend surrealism and traditional portraiture of people and animals. Molly’s goal is to provide students with the knowledge of the materials and techniques to feel confident in exercising their vision on canvas.

 

Molly has been working with acrylics for over 30 years. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991. 

For more information, or to register for the class, please contact: Molly Rea at rippeerea@att.net or

https://www.rileystreet.com/pages/events

My Spring Art Show drawing: Ancient Sketch of Conceptualization of A.I. (Artificial Intuition)

 

Ancient Sketch of Conceptualization of A.I. (Artificial Intuition)  pen and ink

Here's a little post-Spring Art Show addendum. I didn't include my drawing in the previous post.

It is in fact an old (if not ancient) sketch but felt so appropriate to the current times that I decided to include it in the show.

copyright 2023 RL Rippee

Oh Boy, it’s the 33rd Annual Spring Art Show

The 33rd annual Spring Art Show at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center has come and gone.

This year we had nearly 90 artists from the San Geronimo Valley area for the May showing (You can take a quick video peak in the previous posting thanks to Michel Kotski).

Here are  few highlights:

“Beachcomber Weekend"

Martha Cederstrom

This is a personal favorite by Beth Marx, “Yakkers"

Beth Marx

This lovely acrylic piece by Anne Pennypacker is hardly any larger than posted here.”Gardner’s Trusty Tools"

Here’s Sonny Smith’s ceramic “End Times Dogs"

Judy North’s “There Was a Young Man”, Fluid acrylic and collage

Justin Thomas’ piece titled “Ripple"

Liz Lauter with her ceramic “The First Time Adam Had to Wait His Turn"

Geoff Bernstein’s Acrylic painting “Five Villages of Cinque Terre, Italy”

Sam Harris’ Acrylic and mixed media,  “Bee’s Purple”

Colorful Andy Giddings with equally colorful watercolor, “Shadow of the Shark”

 Bill Stoesser's fine wood sculpture “Volucris"

Priscilla Patey’s oil, “Out to Pasture"

Madeleine Pearce’s wood sculpture “Jumbo one"

Judith Selby Lang’s  “Peanut Gnomes"

Richard lang’s Collage and watercolor, “Bodhi Tree”

Dan Breaux’s Table, steel, stone and glass

Danielle Fogel’s amazing mixed media "Nesting"

John Beck’s first appearance in the Spring Art Show with his oil, “Cataract Falls”

Cornelia Nevit’s remarkable ceramic portrait of President Zelenskyy

Marty Meade’s watercolor “Guard Dog of My Holy Spirit”

Gisela Alvarado’s lovely photo, “Moment of Love"

Barbara Libby Steinmann with her “Pink Peonies"

Elaine Nehm’s “Study of Dreams of Quan Yi”, pigment powder on paper

Abby Cunnigham’s photography

Bud Meade’s “Vessel, Awaiting the Sacred”

Louis Nuyen’s oil painting, “Nautilus Dusk”

Judy Arndt’s “Valley Morning”

Tim Arnoux’s amazing woodworking on “Lingerie Cabinet"

Laura Marinelli’s dark and mysterious ceramic work,“Fear Comes to Tea"

Maria Gomez and her mixed media “I Am"

Janice Baldwin with “Growing Tulips”

Mallory Geitheim’s photo”Hangin’"

Gaetano De Felice’s fine “Going Home”

Carole Williams with “Harris Beach 2021”

Michel Kotski’s “Bouquet Macro"

Sandy White’s “Sierra Redwoods"

Reid Marple’s oil "Mt. Tam from the Petaluma Gap"

Richard D. James and his photo, “Greece"

Carole Alter “Fragments Reconfigured in Light"

Karlon Kepcke with “Dream Time”

Marie Eisen with her ceramic “Ms. Calico Cat"

Sherry Petrini with her oil painting titled “Interior”

Parra O’Siochain’s “Jazz in Sea 3.23"

Lars Johnson’s Oil painting “Synapse” 

Janet Hughes’ fabric art

Tim Cain’s “Wooden Path"

Soda-fired Stoneware by Kathryn Rile

Meztli Sanchez with her jewelry

Aside from traditional materials, Meztli works with animal bone

 Amin Al-Jamal’s remarkable Polymer Sculpture

Paul Valente’s “Woodacre Buckeye Burl"

Kristin Jakob’s “California Poppy"

Karen Koenig’s watercolor “Canyon De Chelly, Navajo Nation”

Laura Kradjan-Cronin’s triptych: “Astoria ’73"

My photo doesn’t do justice to Anne Faught’s “Heavenly Bodies”.

It employs cyanotype treated paper with white pencil

Another really fine piece by Tom Tabakin, titled “Tuxedo Junction”. The medium is cold wax.

And another beauty by Justine ’Tot’ Tatarsky. “Golden Summer”, glazes on ceramic tile.

Molly’s in the show, too, with her latest portrait, “The Man WHo Loves His Cat"

Special thanks to JeanA Warner who did the floral arrangements

And Donn DeAngelo who did the photos of the artists.                                                                            (Seen here with his piece,”Sunset at Chimney Rock”)

This post is a partial glimpse of this year's Spring Art Show. My apologies to all the artists who I don’t have photos of.