Falling for Fine Art

September 2023

Save The Date For My Open Studio

This year I will hold it a bit earlier, on November 4 and 5, from 12 to 5 pm for the general public to drop-in, and 10 to 12 by appointment for anyone immunocompromised or neurodiverse who needs less people around them. Come see my new work and spend a little time talking about art! This year I am lucky to be opening my studio together with several other Richmond artists. We will have a map and postcards available for those of you who want to hit more than one place.

My Portrait Made The De Young Open!

You are all invited to the de Young Open 2023, where Shots From Richmond, my portrait of Robin D. López, will be shown starting on September 30 all the way to January 7. This portrait is part of a series on Richmond activists I am painting rather slowly.

While the exhibition is free on opening day and every Saturday, it is best to plan your visit here. The Sept 30 all-day, free event will take place from 11-4 pm and includes live performances by local musicians, food trucks, pop-ups, and film screenings. Take pictures in their photo booth and participate in their family art-making activities. McCalls Catering & Events will be offering a grab-and-go pop-up station in the Café Terrace.

The de Young Open 2023, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s second triennial juried community art exhibition, features work by artists from the nine Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. Artworks are hung salon-style and installed nearly edge to edge and floor to ceiling in the de Young museum’s Herbst Exhibition Galleries, maximizing the number of works on view. Over seven thousand entries were submitted but only 11% made it to the show. I know many talented and successful artists whose work was not chosen.

Murals For As Far As The Eye Can See

Soon my life will be consumed by a large mural project in which I will be involved along with Richmond artists John Wehrle and Jerarde Gutierrez. The project has two stages.

First, we will be repairing two of John’s murals painted in the 1990s, Revisionist History of San Pablo Avenue and Past Perfect. Each is located at the overpasses on San Pablo and McDonald avenues and today, each needs repair and repainting. Some parts have been spray painted.

The second stage of this project is the painting of two brand-new murals. Design work has begun but will take a few months given that each of the murals is approximately 162 feet long by 16 feet high. Something I can say is that they will complement John’s original murals. As these murals will be painted under an overpass, this is a Cal Trans project that the City of Richmond is overseeing. I can expect to be busy until the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.

Hygge Remote Drawing Class

If hygge means "creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people" Then this drawing class is hygge and will cheer you up on those long, rainy winter nights. It is four sessions long (December 7, 14, 21, 28), via Zoom. The focus will be on improving our skill in rendering objects in light and shadow, whether they are observed, imaginary or from references. You will be able to use the B & W media of your choice, work on your own projects, or complete assignments if you prefer. Thursdays 6-8 pm,

Gel Prints Into Journals:
A Workshop at the
Richmond Art Center

Whether you're a seasoned artist or just looking for a fun and creative way to express yourself, here’s a perfect opportunity to explore your creative side and learn a new technique. Learn how to make gel prints and your own gorgeous sketchbooks and journals!
Our 10-1 pm weekend workshop has two parts: on the first morning, create multi-hued prints using block-printing ink and a long-lasting gel plate made with a special recipe. On the 2nd morning, you will take your beautiful prints and transform them into a hand-bound book that includes an accordion pocket and elastic to keep your things neat.

The fee for this six-hour workshop is $250 and an additional $25 includes all materials (textural objects, paper, inks, rollers, gel plates, needles, thread, boards, glue and all tools). Take home a treasure trove of resources so you can make these at home. Bring a friend, and register early for this popular workshop! The date for this workshop is being decided as we speak, so check the RAC’s catalogue over the next couple of weeks.

Postponed: Point Molate Exhibit

I know a few of you have asked about this show, because I was promoting it on social media. This is the show that commissioned all the larger paintings I’ve done this year. But the curator is unable to hang it during the fall, so the Richmond Art Center has postponed it until January.

Visual Artists of Richmond

As if I was not busy enough , this year I co-founded an organization with four other artists. The Visual Artists of Richmond (VAR) is a very new, fiscally-sponsored project bringing together about 52 visual artists living in or working in Richmond, California. Our fiscal sponsor is Intersection for The Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to have “a well-known, diverse, inclusive community of artists supporting each other by organizing opportunities to celebrate and promote our work, share resources, and support each other's art practices.” We have been holding monthly artist gatherings and recently launched a Richmond Visual Artist Directory. VAR is supporting us in organizing our own Open Studios on Nov 4-5 and we have other collaborations in progress.

If you know artists who live or have a studio in Richmond, please let them know about us, send them to our site so they can create a free profile, and please consider donating. While there are many good things happening in our city, West Contra Costa is not like San Francisco or even Oakland. Our non-profits have taken a hit in this economy, and funders are tightening their requirements. I’ve written a few grants over the last few months, hoping we can get funded to continue supporting Richmond visual artists.

Are you following me on social media? Here’s my artist page on FB
My IG handle is rebecathepainter, and I also post as rebecasartclasses. I do not post on TikTok.