Tehama County Arts Event

Jan. 24, 2008 - PRLog -- (RED BLUFF) – Excitement and growth are the keywords these days in the Red Bluff Arts community. A triple-opening Artists’ Reception will take place at the Red Bluff Art Gallery on Friday, February 1st from 5-9 p.m. The three shows opening simultaneously feature more than 40 Red Bluff artists in one of the largest art openings ever held in Red Bluff under one roof.

Judi Forney leads in the Solo Gallery with her romantic and spiritual paintings in a show entitled “Love’s Journey”. The Group Gallery has a unique collection of paintings by a variety of Red Bluff area artists, entitled “Love is All You Need”, as a prelude to Valentine’s Day. Finally, “Jackpot” is a show featuring over 25 artists in the Miniature Gallery.

“Judi Forney’s exhibition in the Solo Gallery is very moving, full of intent and depth,” Dynan says, “You can immediately see that her work is not “decorative”, but has conviction and meaning. It fits the true definition of the word “art”.”

Forney reaches into her soul to paint it seems.  Describing how she feels about death in the painting “Dancing in the Wind” she follows up by writing out her feelings, in addition to painting them.

“If someday you discover silence when my voice used to be, look up, I’ve ascended into the sky. I’ve followed an updraft over a vortex of energy and have joined the sunset between this day and the next. I’m held in the warm embrace of God’s beauty. My spirit soars as the sound of celestial music floats on the wind. The rhythm of the music stirs a response in me and I begin dancing. Dancing to music only I can hear, in a space only I can see.”

Truly she is an artist, and her written and painterly expressions clearly express things in a beautiful manner – in a way we would all like to be able to express ourselves, but that only artists seem to be able to.

Anastasia Nelson and Phil Dynan, co-directors of the Red Bluff Art Gallery, organized the three shows, but also have participated by including a few pieces of their own art in the Group Gallery show. Their contributions are two prints entitled “Love Letters”. Originally silk-screened, the two pieces depict a man and a woman writing letters from their respective beds. One figure has a white cat, one has black cats. The viewer can only guess if the letters are being exchanged between the two figures they see. But Dynan and Nelson, who are also married, admit that the prints are based on their own courtship, when she was a student in Davis and he lived in Auburn.
In the Miniature Gallery, the “Jackpot” exhibit will be interactive with the public, with visitors asked to vote on their favorite five art works.  At the conclusion of the show, the top five art pieces will receive cash prizes that are taken from the show entry fees. All entry fees go into the winnings “jackpot”. Each of the nearly 100 entries measures 5 x 7 inches.

“We hope that this level of interactivity will entice some people to spend more time in the Miniature Gallery, examining the wide range of intricate and interesting small pieces,” says Gallery Director Ana Nelson.

A huge group of artists are participating in the other two exhibitions opening the same evening as Forney’s “Loves Journey”.  The range of subject and methods of painting are so varied that there is, literally, something for any taste, from cowboys to angels!

The Red Bluff Art Gallery is at 516 Walnut (kitty corner to the Post Office). More information is available by phoning 529-1332, or by visiting the website at www.RedBluffArtGallery.com.  The Red Bluff Art Gallery, sponsored by Blue Oaks Arts, is open weekdays from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

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The only Art Gallery in Tehama County - three exhibitions a month featuring over 40 artists.

Since 2007, the sole Art Gallery in Tehama County features art in four galleries filled with light and space: The Solo Gallery, featuring one-person shows; the Group Gallery featuring group shows; the Miniature Gallery, featuring small works; and the Cooperative Gallery, featuring a group of local artists.

Website: redbluffartgallery.com