Artists' Blog
Julie Grist: Women Life Freedom
"Women - Life - Freedom" - the slogan chanted in Iran in September 2022 over the killing of 22 year old Masha Amini by Iran's military police for improperly wearing her head covering - has not only charged the Iranian public to challenge their government but has...
Joe Sohm: Up Close and Personal
Joe Sohm joins host Ivor Davis for a discussion of his work as one of the nation’s preeminent political photographers at the Museum of Ventura County, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. Sohm’s award-winning photographs have been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street...
Leslie Plimpton: Upcoming Show
I am a member of a wonderful art group that specializes in printmaking called the inkspots.
Christine Beirne: How to you paint plein air without an easel?
Forgot my easel, palette knives and palette but still managed to paint!
Special items at the Amend Art Compound
Preview of works at Amend Art Compound for OSA Tour 2022/East End Ojai
Lindsay Thomson: Good year for awards
It’s a good year for photography awards!
Brian Berman: New Beginnings – Leaving Ojai
I had a vision for a new body of artwork on paper, back in the spring.
Hallie Katz: Sneak Peek!
Here’s a sneak peek of my new collection
Elaine Unzicker: Tour – This Weekend!
Mentor & Student Exhibition and the Ojai Studio Tour
Patrish Kuebler: New Encaustic!
I’m not sure what a post excerpt is??
Stephen Edwards: Wild Ride
It’s been a wild ride making new work for the tour! The studio is all set up and ready to go. I hope to see you on Saturday.
Ray Harding: Portrait of Fellow Ojai Studio Artist
I always wanted to do a portrait of someone in a straw hat with the sun shinning through onto their face.
Leslie Clark: Exploring California
Travel from the redwood groves to the sands of the Sahara without even getting on a plane.
Julie Grist: Three Studies of Young Women
I had three young women, all recent high school graduates, visit me one weekend just after the Supreme Court ruled on the Dobbs case - effectively reducing womens' rights in many states across the nation. All three were heading to different parts of our country to...
Martha Moran: Strawberry Fields Forever! (and Citrus too!)
I’ve always liked “altars” and many of my sculptures are altars to one thing or another.
Sherry Loehr: You just never know…
You just NEVER know…..
Lindsay Thomson: First Place at Ventura Fair
My photograph “Antique Car at Strasburg Railway Station” won first place
Ray Harding: Painting won Best in Show 2018 Santa Paula
Painting of Amgen Race
Lisa Skyheart Marshall: Morning Glories
I love to get out in the world and travel
Mary Neville: Filling the well called Inspiration
What is inspiration? Where is it? How is it harnessed from a swirl of subtle awareness, funneled into the narrow channel of conscious thought and pushed out as something tangible.
Mariana Peirano: Drawing during the Heat
New work on graphite on wood honoring indigenous women activists.
Julie Grist: Pedaling Provence
Provence on bicycle. What a way to start traveling again - and luckily scheduled during Ojai’s heat wave of September. No paints or easel, but a sketchbook was packed along with cycling gloves and sunglasses for a six day road tour on bike through one of France’s...
Fragility and Friction: Stephen Edwards
Macular Degeneration, Glicee print on Arches paper 30×40 inches
Carlos Grasso – COLORSPACE Show at the Studio Channel Islands Gallery (Camarillo) Sat. Oct 1 from 4 to 7 pm
COLORSPACE exhibit opens at Studio Channel Islands Oct. 1, 2022
Spirit of place: by Christopher Noxon
I paint landscapes mostly, pictures of mountains and valleys, rocks and trees and big drippy skies. I use a lot of color – I’m inspired by African textiles and Hockney landscapes and Huichol yarn paintings and Colorform toy sets. All of which is a big surprise to me – I never meant to be a colorful landscape painter.
Gayel Childress #2 of 12 in series -Newest Paintings of the Disappearing Butterflies
I’m trying to create a series of 12 paintings calling attention to the decline of the Butterfly..
New Techniques, New Work: Leslie Plimpton
I recently attended a workshop given by my wonderful OSA colleague, Linda Taylor, who is an amazing printmaker.
New Work for Studio Tour by Gayel Childress
More info
wwwojaistudioartists.org
This year’s Ojai Day Poster by Gayel Childress, Ojai Studio Artist Member
Original painting in the collection of Rene Briggs
Julie Grist: The Personalities of Old Phones
Where have all the landlines gone? Really, it's only been about fifteen years that cell phones have become ubiquitous - and how quickly we've lost all the character and personalities of the telephone. I started a painting series on old phones (oil on board or...
Kristen Clawson: Studio Visitors are Welcome
Most of my visitors come in on two legs and I’ll be darned if some have feathers!
Mariana Peirano: New online solo exhibit and Art Talk
Online solo exhibit and Art Talk
Ray Harding: 2022 Adah Callahan Memorial Award Professional Arts
Adah Callahan Memorial Award for this piece at the 2022 Ventura County Fair
Elaine Unzicker: Getting Plastered!
Have a headache? Well, you might after looking at these photos. What am I doing? I am poking a sharp instrument into the paper head. It’s true!
James Robie: GEO NATURE
I started collecting palm fronds and sycamore branches long before they found a place in my artwork.
Brian Berman: The End is Just the Beginning of Something Else
After 11 years living here is Ojai, Lisa and I will be leaving for our new life and work in Poland.
Lisa Skyheart Marshall: Feeling attachments to nature
feelings about certain flowers
Gayel Childress: Newest Paintings on Why are the Butterflies Disappearing??
Painting this series I might call attention to the Butterfly’s plight
Christine Beirne: Plein Air Painting is Not for the Fainthearted!
I recently went on a painting trip to the high Sierra’s. I planned to paint plein air as well as explore other techniques in my motorhome. Before I left, some well-meaning friends said things like: have fun! Enjoy! How I envy you!
Joce Aucoin: Learning Through Doing
Through the process of creativity, of doing, of playing, we can turn our disappointments, wounds and burdens into gold.
Martha Moran: In Memoriam at Ojai Valley Museum
In Memoriam pays tribute to women who died getting illegal abortions before Roe v Wade. I added tags with names of women who died, dating back to 1870.
Leslie Clark: Memories and a paintbrush
Memories have provoked new images from past inspirations.
Leslie Plimpton: Winner of the Judge’s Award
I am excited to report that my Dry Point Etching, “The Face of Fashion (Anna Winter) took the Judge’s Award at this year’s Ventura County Fair in the Professional Artist’s category.
Emily Brown: Glaze Techniques
The uniqueness of my pottery is due in part to my glaze techniques.
Leslie Clark: On the crest of a dune
Alal on the crest of a dune at Erg Chegaga, Morocco
Bruce Grabin: Pre Dawn and Dusk Plein Air Paintings
Plein air – pre dawn, and dusk oil painting from the Ojai area.
Spark Taylor: Why Plein Air?
I am a plein air painter—an observer of nature's beauty all around us. I describe my work as contemporary impressionism—modern, but reaching back to the inspiration of the pioneer impressionists of the late 19th and early 20th century—the folks who rode a horse or a...
Hallie Katz: Reinventing Myself
What have I been doing lately? Re-inventing myself! I ran a gallery with my husband in downtown Ojai for many years. When we closed HumanArts exactly two years ago to retire from the retail biz, we were ready to change course. Immediately we started renovating and...
Mariana Peirano: Interview with Shoutout LA
I was recently interviewed for the online magazine Shoutout LA. Shoutout is designed to help get the word out about great local businesses, artists and creatives. They featured my studio and Norman took the opportunity to pose. To view the interview please visit:...
Leslie Plimpton: Painting with Mixed Media
Have you ever noticed how much packaging comes with our on-line purchases? I purchase all my clothing on-line and notice there is an overabundance of tissue paper, tags, and sometimes even a personal note from the seller thanking me for my purchase. It can be...
Patrish Kuebler: 3D Encaustics
The Last of the Second Saturday Open Studio visits in 2022 is in the Oak View / West End areas of Ojai - on Saturday, August 13! I invite you to visit my studio to see new and older works - pastel and encaustic. My newest endeavor is putting a 3-D twist to my...
Stephen Edwards: Fragility and Friction
I have been a working sculptor and educator for 50 years. I have always made work about what is around me. In the past, my pieces were about the beauty of nature and our interaction with it. Then my life took a dramatic change. I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease...
Carlos Grasso: Contemporary Art
I usually greet collectors, curators and visitors to my studio with a “welcome to my playground!” My art requires the essential element of play, whether designing my own colorful modern mandalas on paper and canvas, cutting and shredding painted the canvas by hand, or...
Amy Lynn Stevenson: Songbird
Songbird In her gaze, time stands motionless. In her eyes, I see the eyes of someone long ago. The creative muse is frantic when I sleep. She thinks I am giving away her secrets, In songs, in sighs, in painted smiles. But I know these are my dreams waiting for me...
Leslie Clark: Traveling Closer to Home
My work has always been based on travel. Covid has shrunk it to a smaller scope. I just finished three weeks exploring California’s Parks; Sequoia, Yosemite, Shasta, Tahoe, Redwoods, Pinnacles. What a glorious state we live in. The mighty Sequoias were my first...
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Karen Lewis: Once Upon a Time in Mykolayiv
My daughter-in law, Olga, took this photo of her parents on the streets of Mykolayiv in 2017. Whether in the Spring or the Fall I can’t be sure, but, I promised her I’d paint their portrait using this photo. This promise was made 5 years ago. - Both of Olga’s parents...
Sylvia Raz: Pondering
Please visit me on Saturday the 9th of July. As usual, I'm pondering about our lives and what we do with them. I'm a heavy one, hopefully not too heavy, because I'm fun. hope to see you! Sylvia Raz
Wyatt Amend: Symmetry
My work revolves around symmetry. In my sculptural works and functional pottery I use the pottery wheel to create fine forms consisting of sharp lines and smooth curves. I use many layers of glaze to create ‘weavings’ of color while using the raw clay texture as a way...
Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend: Fused Glass
The Ojai Studio Artists’ Tours offer visitors, folks who are curious about art, the opportunity to see what Ojai artists are up to in their studios. Most often, the artists are working on series and small works that are made available on these special weekends. I have...
Katie Van Horne: A Mystery and a Gift
“Any creative idea is vulnerable to being shot down. But my friend breaks the circuit.” Hrishi Hirway What are we really here for? What are we focusing on? What are we learning and cultivating? How is what we’re about drawing us nearer to what is reality, intimate and...
Richard Amend: Drawn from Taft Gardens
Recently, I participated in the Taft Gardens’ En Plein Air program. Observational Sharpie drawings quickly executed in a small Moleskin sketchbook, and then large-scale black pastel drawings, completed enough to finish later in the studio. Although abstraction is...
Lucinda Yates: When You Come to my Studio
I hope I see you at my studio July 9, 2022 for the OSA Second Saturday tour. If I met you at a bar, I would probably ignore you. Does that sound harsh? Well, that is how I met my husband. It’s not that I am or am not interested in you, The thing is, that I figure...
Duane Dammeyer: Twists and Turns
The world is full of twists and turns. My recent sculptures are also full of twists and turns. I recently completed the largest ever of my “ribbon” sculptures, Ribbon III. I have also been working on one of my favorite shapes, the mobius. I have nearly completed a...
July 9th Mini-Tour Features 11 Artists
Mariana Peirano: Connecting People to the Planet Through Art
I'm honored to have been selected as one of the Women of the Ojai Valley 2022. The article, by Pamela Zero, appeared in the Ojai Valley News insert in May and it was titled Connecting People to the Planet Through Art. It gives a bit of background and it highlights my...
Vera Long: The Spontaneity of Color
"MoTown art trip...where the elite meet" So thrilled to get to converse and share with you wonderful art travelers again. During the Second Saturday tour, I will be showing some new six foot spontaneous paintings created at live events, mixed media...
Eilam Byle: New Work
This Second Saturday tour i aim on showing projects and ideas that i have been recently working on: different approaches to coffee tables, stained glass "one step removed", cutting boards, wood turnings and paintings.
Theodore Gall: New Series
This spring I went for a walk to the river bottom. Found some great driftwood. Tripped and fell into the water and got really wet. It started a new series. Please visit my studio June 11th and see the results. Ted Gall Studio #10.
Martha Moran: Herons
My herons were so popular at the OSA/OVLC "Art in Nature's Wonderland" event, I am making more! They're fabricated out of beach wood -- the "bodies" from wood that washed down from the Montecito mudslide after the Thomas Fire, as well as driftwood from north of...