Ruth Andre is February's Featured Artist at Gallery 10

Ruth became inspired by the Western lifestyle growing up in a beautiful valley in Southern California. She studied art and design at California State University, Long Beach, and printmaking at Otis Art Institute of Parson’s School of Design in Los Angeles. Ruth became an independent artist’s representative, representing painters and photographers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

In 1992, Ruth took her first painting workshop with Maurice Larioux, an artist in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and she became enamored with painting.

“Painting has been a lifelong dream of mine. It is glorious to enter my studio each day, take a brush in hand, and create!" Ruth said. "My desire is for the viewer to feel as if he was just a step away and could reach out and be part of the world I paint.”

She has participated in numerous western art shows across the country, including the Yellowstone Art Museum annual art auction, the Cowboy Classics in Phoenix, the American Quarter Horse Museum show in Amarillo, Texas, the Cattlemen’s Western Art Show in Paso Robles, California, and the Dog and Pony Show in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has also proudly shown her work for nine years with the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.

Ruth will be the featured artist for February at Gallery 10, 15 Eureka St. in Sutter Creek. A reception in her honor will be held on Saturday, February 4, 2-5 P.M. at the gallery during the Amador Arts Art Trek. Ruth's show will hang all month at the gallery.  Gallery hours for February are Thursday-Monday, 11-4.

Glass Artist Helen Wilkinson is Sutter Creek Gallery's February Artist of the Month

Her medium is glass and Helen Wilkinson turns this colorful and adaptable substance into art. Wilkinson, who has worked with glass for 37 years, will be the featured artist in February at Sutter Creek Gallery.

The artist began with stained glass, getting “my inspiration from Nature and envisioning what people might like.” Today she teaches the craft in addition to designing sun catchers and window panels. One of her specialties is designing cars and trucks as either wall art or sun catchers made in the likeness of various vehicles. These and other stained glass pieces can be custom designed to fit specific windows in a home or office.

Many of Wilkinson’s functional pieces are fashioned from fused glass, a technique that involves heating thin layers of glass until they fuse together. Additional heating can result in slumping which changes the shape of the glass into bowls, plates and other forms. She also offers an extensive line of jewelry, including fused glass pendants, earrings and pins. Bracelets, wine stoppers and pens are decorated with her own lamp-work beads, made from glass rods heated with a torch.

Come meet this versatile artist at the reception opening her show on Saturday, February 4, from 2 to 5 p.m., as part of the region’s Art Trek. Besides the items mentioned above, Wilkinson has many more unique creations on display. Sutter Creek Gallery is a cooperative of local artists located in the heart of Sutter Creek at 35 MainStreet. During the winter, the gallery will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except Tuesday. For additional information, call 209-267- 0228, email suttercreekgallery@gmail.com, or visit www.suttercreekgallery.com

Fused glass bowl

Lazy Susan

Glass jewelry

Stained glass car

Sutter Creek Gallery presents Fiddletown artist Wendy Rogers in January

Fiddletown artist Wendy Rogers will be featured in January at Sutter Creek Gallery. Rogers will be displaying her landscape work in watercolor and acrylic. Many of the newest pieces are acrylic.

“It has been fun using what I have learned through the years painting almost exclusively in watercolors to explore a ‘new’ medium," Rogers says. "I love the textures and colors. The hardest part has been getting used to new brushes!"

Rogers is now working from a studio space under the Sutter Creek Gallery. "It is a nice-sized space, next to Sutter Creek. When the windows are open, you can hear the creek, the birds and wildlife that call it home. It a peace-filled place to paint." Creekside Studio is also used for art classes and workshops. More information is available at Sutter Creek Gallery.

The artist is exploring new ways to express her love for the beauty of Nature. "I want to share art that is soul-filling.  I want people to feel the goodness and light of it—to feel the joy I felt while creating it!"  What is next for her in 2017? "Larger landscapes. I have wanted to paint some very large pieces, and some large abstract watercolors. 2017 is going to be FUN!"

More of Rogers' work can be viewed on her webpage www.fiddlesongstudio.com.

Come and meet the artist at the reception on January 7 from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. Wine and delicious refreshments will be served. Sutter Creek Gallery is a cooperative of local artists located in the heart of Sutter Creek at 35 Main Street. With the change in the season, the gallery will have new hours and be open daily, except Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  For additional information, call 209-267-0228, email suttercreekgallery@gmail.com, or visit www.suttercreekgallery.com.

"Jackson Ridge I"

"Jackson Ridge II"

"Lake Tahoe Sunset"

"Silent Moment"

Sutter Creek Gallery Themed Show for December

The weather is changing and winter is almost upon us.  To celebrate this season of holidays and cold weather, Sutter Creek Gallery offers a themed show for December. You can almost hear the sleigh bells ringing.  A reception will be held on Saturday, December 3, from 3 to 5 p.m., in conjunction with the region’s First Saturday Art Trek.

Artwork in a variety of media will be on display featuring seasonal images. Christmas trees, snowy vistas, poinsettias, and other winter scenes will be shown. Many of the artists have added holiday cards and affordable art ideal for gifts. On display are painted wine glasses, functional and decorative pottery, mini-collages, animal sculptures, stained glass and gourds, scarves and shawls, jewelry, and small works of art for that hard-to-shop-for person.

Sutter Creek Gallery is a cooperative of local artists located in the heart of Sutter Creek at 35 Main Street. With the change in the season, the gallery will have new hours and be open daily, except Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  For additional information, call 209-267-0228, email suttercreekgallery@gmail.com, or visit www.suttercreekgallery.com.

"First Snow" - Cynthia Dunn-Selph

"Half Dome from Tunnel View" - George Lambert

"Candles & Holly" - Helen Wilkinson

Art by Melissa Doyle

"O Christmas Tree"

Gallery 10 features William Porteous and Anne Marie Fielding in December

Gallery 10 is delighted to be showcasing longtime gallery members, Bill Porteous and Anne Marie Fielding as Featured Artists for December.  The gallery will host a reception for this wonderful couple at the gallery, 15 Eureka St., Sutter Creek, on Saturday, December 3, 2-5 P.M. The show will hang all month.  You are encouraged to visit the gallery Thursday-Monday, 11-5, to see the artwork.

Bill Porteous is known best for his bronze sculptures.  He began learning how to cast bronze  figures when he was asked by the 11th Airborne, 511 Parachute Infantry division to make a monument to honor the service given by so many young men during WW II.  Bill had no experience casting bronze, so he spent three years learning the process at a foundry in Napa, CA, commuting from Amador County almost daily.  Bill had an image in his mind of a young soldier, his arm raised in victory, from a photo taken for Yank Magazine.  This young man was immortalized in bronze by Bill, after his years of training, and set on a monument that stands at Fort Benning, GA, the “Home of the Infantry.”

Bill continued to cast figures of soldiers in bronze for many years, many of his pieces now in a collection at a museum in Fort Campbell, KY.  Others may be seen at Gallery 10, and at Bill and Anne Marie’s home in rural Jackson.  His collection is impressive!

Bill is also a fine oil painter, having studied with Howard Rees when he first moved to Amador County.  His oil paintings are often outsized images, featuring Native Americans in beautiful landscape settings. Bill admits he paints “for his own amazement,” enjoying the process of creation, the feel of pushing the oil paint around on a canvas.  Gallery 10 will feature at least one of these outsized, magnificent oil paintings during December.

Anne Marie Fielding, Bill’s wife, is also skilled at bronze casting.  Several of her bronze animals are shown at Gallery 10.  She enjoys painting also, and has a large collection of oils, watercolors and pastels.  One of her lovely pastels, of sheep in a meadow among autumn foliage, won Best of Show at the Amador County Fair Art Show a few years ago.  Anne Marie, originally from Switzerland, was living in Australia with her first husband, managing a business as a massage therapist, when she first began to paint.  But it was when she came to Amador County, to visit her sister, who was living in Jackson, that she met Bill and learned how to cast bronze figures.  

Today both Bill and Anne Marie continue to paint.  Anne Marie is exploring abstract design for this new show at Gallery 10.  

Please come meet this fascinating couple at the gallery, Dec. 5, 2-5 P.M. and enjoy the variety of artwork they have created during their years together!

"The Forces of Nature" - Bill Porteous

"Monument Valley" - Bill Porteous 

"Soldier" - Bill Porteous

"Down a Country Road" - Anne Marie Fielding

"Autumn Colors" - Anne Marie Fielding

Landscape artist Ted Smith is November's featured artist at Gallery 10

Ted Smith is a member artist at Gallery 10, 15 Eureka St., Sutter Creek, and he will be the featured artist for November at the gallery. Ted’s show will hang the whole month.  There is a reception honoring Ted on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2-5 P.M.  Ted will be delighted to see everyone and to talk about his love of painting.

Ted paints on large canvases in bold colors, using oil paints or watercolor depending on his mood.  For years he has been painting local and distant landscapes. Recently Ted poured his energy into more abstract images.  Collage and mixed media have snuck into his colorful, energetic results! Vivid colors, acrylic, oil, watercolor, collage, mixed media will all be on display during Ted’s November show!

Fiber and goard artist Laura Carpender is Sutter Creek Gallery's Featured Artist for November

Laura Carpender’s philosophy is that art should be a part of everyday life. "We should each use our creativity to find joy, beauty and happiness each minute of our lives." Carpender will be featured at Sutter Creek Gallery during the month of November, exhibiting her fiber and gourd art.

Carpender began her creative career sewing doll clothes. Her teachers included her two grandmothers. One taught the rules for sewing and following patterns; the other taught her how to break those rules so she could make her own designs.  She eventually took up quilting, earning awards for innovation at many quilt shows.  From there, she branched out into crochet and knitting. The next leap was to spinning her own yarns and weaving her own fabric.

After a 30-year career as a social worker/counselor, Carpender retired and began looking for other ways to express her visions of color and form. A friend offered her a dried gourd with the suggestion that she try her hand at making art with it. She began to produce unique gourd art often combining her love of fiber with her new love for gourds. "The contrast between the toughness of the gourds and the soft touch of the fiber never ceases to amaze and inspire me.”  Whether spinning yarn, painting gourds, weaving fabric or sewing quilts, Carpender is happiest when creating one-of-a-kind art.

Sutter Creek Gallery invites you to meet Laura Carpender at the November 5 reception in her honor and view the imaginative artworks in her various media.  The reception, from 3 to 6 p.m., is part of the region’s First Saturday Art Trek.  She is one of the local artists exhibiting at the cooperative located in the heart of Sutter Creek at 35 Main Street.

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