Artist Virtual Tours

Tanya Kovaleski plays with space – a balancing act of ideas, imagery, excitement, plans and mistakes, control vs. spontaneity, with gravity ever present. She makes sculptures and paintings that are exhilarating. Immediacy, color, and transparency and scale are important elements in her work. Tanya Kovaleski earned her MFA in Sculpture at Yale University, and her MA and BA at UC Berkeley. She currently lives and works in Ojai, CA. www.tanyakovaleski.com

Leslie Clark, painter and designer of NomadGal Jewelry and founder of the Nomad Foundation, is an artist whose career has always included travel. After obtaining her master of fine arts degree from George Washington University she traveled to France for her first exhibition. Since then she has traveled and painted searching for new perspective and old wisdom. She was formerly on the Studio Tour, but left when she opened NOMAD gallery in 1996. The gallery was in business for 23 years and recently closed in June 2019. leslie@nomadgal.com

Sandy Treadwell has been New York Secretary of State and, years before, a reporter for Sports Illustrated. He and his wife Libby moved to Ojai from Upstate New York to be near their Los Angeles-based family. In 2014 he fulfilled a lifelong interest in portraiture by joining a group class taught by Ojai artist Dan Schultz. Thanks to a great teacher, Treadwell discovered an ability to draw and to capture a subject. His portraits of people and animals are done in charcoal on paper mounted on board. He has had solo shows, and his work has been bought by collectors in Arizona, California and New York. The beauty and unusual light of Ojai’s rare east-west valley has always attracted and inspired artists. But it is the landscape of the living, captured in dramatic black and white, that Treadwell endeavors to depict.​ Commissions available upon request. www.sandytreadwell.com

Pamela Grau would describe herself as a materials-based artist. She deftly moves between found objects and techniques to converse about being part of a unified field, the underlying message of most of her current work. She is delighted and mystified by the oneness of all creation. Attracted to inner micro and macro vistas, her materials are the instruments that help her manifest her thoughts into physical form. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Theodore (Ted) Gall began his career in the arts in the mid-sixties as an animator for teaching films. He has been working in metal since his early days as an artist. Although his work has not been limited to the human form it has been his primary focus throughout his career. Gall’s work is lost wax cast into bronze, aluminum or stainless steel or welded Cor-ten steel. Most of his sculptures are comprised of many separate components that are assembled in either the wax or metal stage. www.theodoregall.com Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

i think that my work is very much influenced by the zen energy of this special valley, i have been using wood as a means of expressing my creative side for the last 35 years, but love to use glass, metal, canvas, and paint as well…and it all shows up in my work. i hope you choose to come and see my work in person since so much of it could never be captured in a photograph. eilambyle@yahoo.com Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Richard now a retired tenured professor of fine art and continues to explore a myriad of creative design applications in everything from ceramics and unique glaze chemistry to sculpture and abstract two dimensional compositions in his studio/residence in Ojai. Ceramist9@gmail.com Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

My recent sculptures in glass, wood and metal investigate place, material, color and light. We live in a world of forms and colors. Just stop and look. The crack in the pavement, the morning light and a glass of water all contain little miracles of color and light. I try to animate materials through the color and light that we see every day. A particular color can remind you of a place you have been or the way you feel. Glass conveys the feeling of fragility. Light and color give life to the work. I seek a perfection that does not exist so the path is long and very interesting.Website: stephendedwards.comEmail: sdeeedwards@gmail.com Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Inspired by the ancient art of rockstacking, Martha brings a fresh take to a tradition as old as human history. She works with stones she finds inherently sculptural — mixing semi-precious stones with found rocks, boulders as well as copper. A filmmaker as well as an artist, Martha worked in children’s TV for many years and has degrees from the College of Creative Studies at UCSB and UCLA Film School. After a 2013 house fire, Martha created her first “Art Shower,” launching her into a new line of stonework. OjaiRockstacker.com Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Brian Berman has been sculpting fine art sculptures for over 3 decades using the mediums of cast glass, metals, stone, and 3D printing with themes of inner and outer peace. Each sculpture delivers a healing presence as well as a peace message that will last for many future generations. He is the founder of Ojai International City of Peace. Berman's home has a peace sculpture garden and gallery. His “Art for Peace” sculptures are in private and corporate collections throughout the USA, Canada, and Europe. In 2008, he was selected by the Societe Nationale Des Beaux-Arts representing the United States for an exhibition in the Louvre, Paris. where he exhibited his Genesis Glass as a symbol for peace and reconciliation.

Like the seasons my artistic inspiration changes. I look forward to the California spring when my chickens supply me with an abundance of eggs that I carefully gather from their nesting box to decorate. Using a tiny egg pump I carefully remove the contents and apply melted wax with a fine tool and liquid dye to creating patterns that have a message. I am thankful to my relatives for teaching me this heartfelt tradition at a young age. During the heat of the summer I create collages from flyers, magazines, and old books. As a veracious collector my eyes are always on the lookout for images, colors, textures and shapes that I combine to tell a story. The fascination with paper and collage offers me the opportunity to deconstruct and reconstruct in a playful way. Spreading out all my bits and pieces I have collected for years fill my soul during the fall of the year. It is then that I create assemblages by combining odd fragments to build works of art. It was the artist Joseph Cornell’s intricate, ornate boxes that lead me on this exciting and stimulating journey. You will find me traveling the world on a small ship in winter with Silversea cruise line teaching Creative Arts to their passengers. Throughout my travels I keep an eye out for laundry lines as I wander the back streets of foreign countries. In 1958 I won my first lime green, plastic camera and began photographing my mother hanging the wash of our large, extended Italian family. I still love looking through that small opening and creating visual arrangements. It is my picture that I paint against the sky-an instinctive, moving sculpture inspired by mother. bernadettedipietro@gmail.com Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

—My Alchemy of Earth’s Elements fired into Molten Streams of Creation— It is an honor to be sharing my ceramics, jewellery, & one-of-a-kind pieces with you. Always working to be in sync with nature and earth’s majestic harmony, resulting in many surprises!! Enjoy! I am currently playing with earth’s mineral elements, adding plants, seed parts into small ceramic lustered bouquets, or painting lusters on large wall plates. The visual color & alchemical thrill upon opening the kiln is my creative medicine; triggering evermore ideas & explorations. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

In 2015 I began to use my love of color and artistic expression to create on canvas. My current work is focused on people. This work invites the viewer to ask the question: who am I and who are you? We all make up stories about who we think we are AND who we think others are. All of the people depicted in my paintings have stories, but that’s not who they really are. I believe the ultimate responsibility we have as human beings is to discover who we are. And so the question, Who am I and who are you? Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

In the US since 1974, Raz left Montevideo in 1963 to live for 11 years in Jerusalem. She studied art at Betzalel Institute and UCLA. Her work evolves around the figure and human passion, striving to capture the sublime and pathetic aspects of life. Clay, stone, assemblage using found objects, knitting, bronze, it all comes together to imply an intimate relationship with life and a feminist point of view, compatible with the humor and lightness of heart she wants to express. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

I love arranging things, isolating them for study. My inspiration comes from nature: fruit, flowers, leaves, birds. I enjoy simplicity, the spareness of a few objects, carefully observed. When painting, the most fun is doing the backgrounds. They are freely improvised, a result of "playing" with paint: lots of layers, surprises, no rules, boundaries, or preconceptions. I follow what seems intriguing, maybe a color note, a texture, the suggestion of a mood. The freedom of the background balances the exactness of the realist subject. I explore the blending of two worlds, the objective reality that we all experience and that of my own, personal improvisations. There is magic in the contemplation of where reality ends and imagination begins. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Former New York City Photojournalist Cindy Pitou Burton talks about how Ojai influences her new photographic style. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Fabric artist, dress designer Greta Lovina talks about how her dislike of colorful clothing in Soviet Armenia grew to a passion for color in Ojai. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Skyscapes reflect the nuances of our lives. Wrona Gall chooses colors and textures to explore individual personalities within our shared universe. When Wrona moved to Ojai five years ago from an 8000 sq. ft. studio loft in Chicago, her, new smaller footprint refocused her painting from abstraction to the beauty of California skies. She avoids brushes and palette knives to paint directly with her fingers and hands, energizing her surfaces with an emotional impact. Her art has been exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago, the Spertus Museum of Art in Chicago, and the San Diego Art Museum. Gallery exhibits include Lydon Contemporary, Chicago; Jayne Baum, New York and Elaine Baker, Boca Raton. She has been published in Best in Acrylic Painting and New American Paintings. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Linda Taylor has a MFA in printmaking from University of California at Santa Barbara. She operates the Spotted Dog Studio, an open-access print studio, at her home in Ojai, surrounded by beautiful gardens. Linda works in a variety of printmaking media including woodcuts, stone lithography, monotypes, collagraphs and etchings. Spotted Dog Studio hosts visiting artists several times each year. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

A visit in artist Mary Neville's work where she discusses her process and her thoughts while she creates contemporary abstract paintings. Video Producer: Pamela Grau Director: Mary Neville Cinematographer: Zack Haskell Editor: James Ian Gilbert Thank you to the Ojai Arts Commission and The Ojai Studio Artists for their support

Linda Taylor has a MFA in printmaking from University of California at Santa Barbara. She operates the Spotted Dog Studio, an open-access print studio, at her home in Ojai, surrounded by beautiful gardens. Linda works in a variety of printmaking media including woodcuts, stone lithography, monotypes, collagraphs and etchings. Spotted Dog Studio hosts visiting artists several times each year.

Figurative artist, ceramist, instructor, and Architect; throughout his Architectural career, Richard Franklin always made time to study, explore, and practice the fine arts. He has had a life-long love of drawing, as well as making three-dimensional work in ceramics and sculpture. Extensive travel stimulates his imagination. He was associated with the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia from 1980 to 1998 and showed regularly in their galleries.

JOSEPH SOHM is an American history teacher turned photo-historian. Over 30 years, he has photographed the 50 states and published his images more than 50,000 times in such publications as National Geographic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.. Sohm’s images are featured in Frederick J. Ryan’s portrait of Ronald Reagan, The Great Communicator; and in Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth.

The director of The Ojai Valley Museum, Michelle Ellis Pracy, curated this exhibit.

A visit with ceramist Larry Carnes.

In the US since 1974, Raz left Montevideo in 1963 to live for 11 years in Jerusalem. She studied art at Betzalel Institute and UCLA. Her work evolves around the figure and human passion, striving to capture the sublime and pathetic aspects of life. Clay, stone, assemblage using found objects, knitting, bronze, it all comes together to imply an intimate relationship with life and a feminist point of view, compatible with the humor and lightness of heart she wants to express.

A studio visit with Carolyn Fox.

Richard now a retired tenured professor of fine art continues to explore a myriad of creative design applications in everything from ceramics and unique glaze chemistry to sculpture and abstract two dimensional compositions in his studio/residence in Ojai.

Inspired by life and her world travels, Valerie Freeman has an organic expressive approach to creating her artworks in ceramics and painting. She has developed her own lustre glazes for her one fire ceramic works. Freeman earned her BFA from Pratt Institute and is a recipient of prestigious awards and commissions including the Municipal Arts Society of NYC and the Ford Foundation. She also curates exhibitions and teaches workshops. Her works are collected and exhibited internationally.

Elizabeth White grew up in Northern Illinois, and lived on the East Coast for twenty years before moving to Ojai in 1993. She received a degree in Studio Art from Stanford University and studied at the Art Institute in Chicago. White works primarily with pastels, focusing on the interplay among landscape, light, and water.

Nancy Whitman paints in an exuberant style, combining broad brush strokes and unexpected use of color. With her oil, acrylic and watercolor creations, she acknowledges the influence of Matisse, Jawlensky and the Fauves. The vigor and joie de vivre bursting from her canvases reflect her love affair with nature. Enormously versatile and varied in her expressions, Nancy attempts to work toward the feeling of the magic and freedom of a child.

Mark Thompson is a Southern California painter who has studied with various teachers in the area. He has attended a variety of schools, including The Art Center of Pasadena. His work has been inspired by studying impressionism through the Old Masters. Smooth rhythms of color create a poetic balance in Mark’s paintings. Most of his work centers on and around people. His ability to capture the spirit of the subject brings the viewer to a quiet place of reflection.

Manipulating metal into chain mail came naturally to Elaine. Inspiration comes from seeing the body as an armature. How does the piece lay and move on the body? These questions inform her designs. Color patterns of anodized aluminum chain mail interlocked one ring at a time overlay the stainless surface. Or, she may embellish the chain mail with castings from nature in bronze or gold-plated brass. Alternately, pearls are used to soften the metal.

Soni concentrates on texture and composition, generally monochromatic. Building with cement, wood, gravel, found objects makes her work unique.

Linda Taylor has a MFA in printmaking from University of California at Santa Barbara. She operates the Spotted Dog Studio, an open-access print studio, at her home in Ojai, surrounded by beautiful gardens. Linda works in a variety of printmaking media including woodcuts, stone lithography, monotypes, collagraphs and etchings. Spotted Dog Studio hosts visiting artists several times each year.

Painter Iris Williams talks about her work.

Katie Van Horne is a celebrated painter of both her native California landscape and the human form. Katie is most known, however, for painting portraits. Her commissions range from drawings of infants and children, to doing formal sittings of heads of institutions. She has also done a number of personal, informal and reflective compositions of her clients and their children. Her talent in capturing character extends to animals as well; Katie has done a number of portraits of beloved family dogs and horses.

During the 2nd weekend in October, tour goers arrive in Ojai, California for the annual Ojai Studio Artists Tour. This video has a small sampling of our artists. We hope you join us!