May at Sutter Creek Gallery: Multimedia, collage artist Annie Hughes

For 20 years, Annie Hughes was a stitcher and quilter. She later switched from fabrics and yarns to paper, canvas and paints. The images that were originally stitched began to appear using paper and brush—houses, flowers, trees and people.  At this point, Hughes has been a painter for as long as she was a quilter.  This versatile artist will be featured in May at Sutter Creek Gallery.

Hughes is now a studio artist working with such materials as paper, fiber, watermedia and oil pastels.  She wears another hat as the Executive Director of a nonprofit located in Lodi working with underserved youth in the arts.  Through music, dance, theater and visual arts, participants build leadership skills, develop life skills, and find their passion and possibly their future. Working with these young people ties in with Hughes’s personal art.

As she explains: “All of this informs my abstract, expressionistic works which are a mixture of fantasy and imagination, spontaneity and creativity.”  As she paints, Hughes feels the quilter/fiber artist is still there but is now working in collage and multimedia.  “Fabric, fiber, paper or paint, I love it all; and the common thread through 40 years is color and joy.”

Sutter Creek Gallery invites you to meet Annie Hughes at her reception on Saturday, May 5, starting at 2 p.m., and to view her unique artwork.  Twenty-five artists exhibit at the cooperative located in the heart of Sutter Creek at 35 Main Street.  Besides original paintings, the gallery offers photographs, fiber and glass art, gourds, ceramics, prints and cards.  Framing is also available.

The gallery is open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  For additional information, call 209-267-0228, email suttercreekgallery@gmail.com, or visit www.suttercreekgallery.com.