The Irvine Museum Serves Up
Inner Visions:
Women Artists of California

Tall Ships Lady Washington & the
Hawaiian Chieftain visit Bodega Bay, April 3-9

In 1812 the United States was busy battling the British on the East Coast. But in Spanish California, the Russians came to establish a colony to support Russian settlements in Alaska and to create a southern foothold meant to limit Spanish expansion from the south.

They landed in what is today Bodega Bay and called their settlement Port Rumiantsev. Remnants of their presence are still with us today with Fort Ross State Park, the Russian River and the town of Sebasopol. To help commemorate their arrival, replicas of two tall ships of that era will be visiting Bodega Bay. The Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain will arrive in Bodega Bay April 3.

Both ships will will be docked at the Spud Point Marina from April 3 to April 9. Walk-on tours, public sailings, and educational programs for area K-12 students are scheduled.

April 3 - 6, 4:00 - 5:00 PM
WALK ON TOURS, $3.00, no reservations.
April 7 & 8, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
WALK ON TOURS, $3.00, no reservations.
April 7 & 8, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain Battle Sail, $40.00 - $60.00.
April 8, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Hawaiian Chieftain Adventure Sale, $35.00

A number of historic boats of the type used in early European explorations of Bodega Bay will also be on display nearby. Interpreters in period clothing will accompany the boats. The celebration will continue as area residents will be marking the founding of Fort Ross in 1812 with events and educational programs throughout the year.

Launched in 1989, The brig Lady Washington is a replica of one of the first U.S. flagged vessels to visit the west coast of North America in the late 18th century. Although the original Lady Washington never visited Bodega Bay, she did explore the coasts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia in search of furs, just as Russian fur traders sought the product in California. The modern replicas of the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain, her steel-hulled companion ship, visit more than 40 ports a year on the west coast educating young people and the public about the lives of 18th century mariners.

The The Irvine Museum's current exhibition features some of California's most intriguing women painters born in the late nineteeth and active during the early and middle years of the twentieth century. Their work includes the Tonalist style of the 1800's, the Impressionist period of the early twentieth century, and the Regionalist styles popularized during the 1930's and 40's.

The star of this exhibition is a 7 x 26 foot mural by Jessie Arms Botke (1883-1971). Jessie was a Chicago artist known for her Art Deco style, mostly painting exotic birds, plants and flowering blossoms, often adding gold and silver leaf to her backgrounds.

This mural is typical of her style, and Jessie created it in 1953 with the assistance of her husband, desert artist Cornelis Botke (1887-1954). It was the stunning centerpiece of Ojai's Oaks Hotel's elegant ballroom for nearly forty years. It pictures the variety of bird life found in the Florida Everglades with gold leafed background,. As the years passed, plans were made for hotel renovation, and the wall which was the home of the mural was slated to be removed. Mindful that the painting was an historical treasure, the Oaks Hotel offered it as a gift to the Irvine Museum.

An exceptional painting on exhibit is the Thrifty Drug Store by ELSIE PAYNE (1884-1971) in 1945.

We wonder if this work is Elsie's answer to Edward Hopper's Night Hawks done three years earlier. Both paintings feature a lunch counter, but at at very different times and circumstances. Hopper's counter is pictured late at night, clean and nearly empty, the scene of a late night cup of coffee with a lone man and a late night couple the only customers served by a night shift counterperson.

In contrast, Elsie Payne's lunch counter is at the height of a chaotic lunch hour, customers lined up like livestock at a tough. Two attentive waitresses labor here with more than they can handle. But in a brief moment, Elsie's painting captures in the foreground one of the waitresses, as if she's staring into the lens of a camera, caught in a brief isolated moment.

It's as if Elsie is answering Hopper's Nighthawks saying from a woman's point of view, solitude can only be experienced as a stolen moment, a sharp syncopated counterpoint to the throbbing percussion of daily life.

Other women artists in the exhibition include Henrietta Shore, Donna N. Schuster, Meta Cressey, Marion Kavanagh Wachtel and Anna Althea Hills,.

Born in Canada, HENRIETTA SHORE (1880-1963) studied at the Art Students League in New York, and at the Heatherly Art School in London. There she met and was befriended by John Singer Sargent.  Today she is known as a major figure among women Modernists. 

In 1913, she helped found the Society of Modern Artists in Los Angeles, where she exhibited until approximately 1920, when she left for New York and Europe. She achieved international acclaim in her lifetime for her modernist still lifes, portraits, and especially her floral paintings, which were compared to Georgia O’Keeffe’s work.  She resided in Carmel when she died in 1963.

DONNA N. SCHUSTER (1883-1953) was born in Milwaukee. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago where she graduated with honors. She then studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) in 1912. In 1913, she moved to Los Angeles. She spent her summers at a second studio-home in Laguna Beach. In 1928 she began to study with Stanton MacDonald-Wright (1890-1973), and thereafter her work reflected the influence of Cubism and Expressionism.

META CRESSEY (1882-1964) was one of the earliest modernist artists in Los Angeles. She came to LA in 1917 with her husband, artist Bert Cressey (1883-1944). Together, they were among a small group of modernist artists who founded the Los Angeles Modern Art Society which included Helena Dunlap (1876-1955), Edgar Keller (1868-1932), Henrietta Shore (1880-1963), and Karl Yens (1868-1945). The society held non-juried shows, featuring modern works by local and foreign artists.

ANNA HILLS (1882-1930) attended Olivet College in Michigan. the the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Cooper Union Art School in New York City. She moved to LA around 1912, and soon relocated to Laguna Beach in 1913. Originally a figure painter, Hills turned to the landscapes after her move to California. She became a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918. She proved herself to be a tireless leader of that group; she served as president from 1922 to 1925. A highly respected teacher, Hills promoted the visual arts through lectures and the organization of special exhibits, which circulated among Orange County public schools. She died at the young age of 48.

MARION KAVANAGH WACHTEL (1870-1954) studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and in New York with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). For several years she taught at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1903, she won a commission from the Santa Fe Railroad to paint murals in their San Francisco ticket office.

There, she met and studied with William Keith (1838-1911). Keith recommended that she go to Los Angeles to see artist Elmer Wachtel. Elmer and Marion fell in love and were married the following year in Chicago.

In 1921, the couple moved to the Arroyo Seco area of Pasadena. As inseparable painting companions, they traveled throughout Southern California and the Southwest. During their marriage, Marion worked mostly in watercolor so not to compete with her husband's works in oil. She received high praise for her watercolor work, which are delicate, lyrical interpretations of the landscape, exhibiting her masterful control of tone and color. When her husband died in 1929, Marion temporarily lost interest in painting, but resumed working around 1931. During this period, she painting landscapes around her home on the Arroyo Seco and the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, mostly in oil.

The Los Angeles Museum of Art's "Levitated Mass," has proven to be a wonderful piece of performance art. From Riverside to its LACMA home, the rolling 340 ton granite curiosity has been a moving block party for thousands of Angelinos.

The job took some huge imagination and engineering. The rig itself is something to behold. First, a massive steel bridge-like structure had to be built, strong enough and and yet low enough to suspend the two story hunk of granite with less than two feet of clearance from the streets it would traverse. The rig rested on 196 tires, designed to evenly distribute the weight and able to turn corners. The rock was suspended by heavy cables, attached to the top of the rig, and was powered by one diesel tractor pulling and two more pushing.

When it comes to moving large rocks, LACMA's Levitated Mass certainly does not detract from the accomplishments of the ancients. The Egyptians precisely cut and moved huge stones for their pyramids, the Druids quarried and moved massive pieces to construct Stonehenge, and the residents of Easter Island sculpted and transported their famed stone faces, all done without modern wheels or diesel power.

Yet, the moving of Levitated Mass was an engineering marvel and perhaps even a piece of artistic magic. Surrounded by an army of traffic control officers, electricians, engineers, news crews, crowd vendors, and precautionary emergency vehicles, this crawling caravan snailed its

In its new home, Levitated Mass will rest over a 456 foot long concrete crevice providing a walkway through which LACMA museum visitors will stroll, looking upward at the "Levitated Mass."

But it really won't be standing in mid air. It will be resting upon a foundation well designed to support its weight for a long long time to come. Perhaps in some future age, another artist will move it back from whence it came, or in four thousand years, people will marvel at how an ancient people of the 21st century accomplished this feat.

What is so special going on here? Many people are questioning, "IS THIS ART? Widely varying thoughts are being expressed. Some stop to consider the accomplishments of the ancients and the weighty rocks they moved and why they moved them.

It was a period when Van Gogh produced some of the most original works of his career, works which changed the course of modern painting. This exhibition features over forty paintings drawn from collections around the world. This is the first exhibition to explore why Van Gogh was exploring unusual changes to his previously established style.

Below is a link for a most fascinating and enjoyable Charlie Rose interview with Rishel and Jennifer A. Thompson of the Philadelphia Musuem of Art.

• GALLERY HOURS are 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. However, we are always happy to be called to the gallery during different times on appointment or if you are early or late for our regular hours. Cell phone 510-414-9821, which is posted in the gallery window.

is a replica. The original ship traded in the Pacific waters in the late 1700's. She is a replica of the Chirikov, which arrived here March 15, 1812, when Bodega Bay was known as Port Rumiantsev.  The Lady Washington is out of Gray’s Harbor, Washington, an historical seaport.  She will visit Bodega Bay April 3-9, 2012, as part of her winter transit, returning north from San Francisco. More info at http://www.BodegaBay1812.org

SFMOMA has acquired Edward Hopper’s Intermission (1963). Edward Hopper's wife Josephine arranged for him to work on the painting in an empty theater. After working on concept drawings in the theater, Hopper completed Intermission at his New York home and studio. The final composition depicts a solitary woman in a theater, sitting alone in the first row of a side aisle. Seemingly waiting for others to return from intermission, she appears lost in thought, staring off into the distance as she sits contentedly in a comfortable-looking dark green theater seat with her ankles crossed.
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Every Thursday in April at 2:00 p.m., enjoy special docent led tours of the incredible artwork at Silverado Vineyards. In addition to their collection of original Belle Époche Posters, (1880-1920), including four original posters by Leonetto Cappiello, the winery also boasts some of the most spectacular plein air paintings found anywhere. Artists and pieces include Thomas Hill - “Lands End” (1886), William Keith - “Headwaters of the Owens River” (1878), and Leonetto Cappiello -“Glimpses of Nymphs” (1920), among many others. Valid Through: May 21, 2012, 6121 Silverado Trail, Napa, CA 94558 , Phone: (707) 259-6653  http://www.silveradovineyards.com/

Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's
Watercolorist Jean Warren
is offering a series of classes

The Creative Process in Watercolor
with Jean Warren

 Six Wednesdays,  April 4 – May 9,  9:30-12:30
Fee: non-member $135; member $130
Demos and individual instruction. All levels welcome
Exploring design, color theory, pigment/water ratio & developing our content

Jean is a signature member of NWS with 30 years of painting/teaching experience.Sign-up at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 707-829-4797, www.sebarts.org
Questions: Jean at 707-875-9240, jean@jeanwarren.com

Also look for Jean at the Marine Mammals Center booth at the Fish Fest at the end of April.