The ceramics of Kathryn Devlin have been described as whimsical, fanciful, detailed, fun, imaginative, childlike, creative. No small wonder that her influence is drawn in large part from her long teaching career spent with primary aged children. Kathryn began her interest in ceramics due to her friendships with fellow teacher, Ken Winebrenner, and classroom aide, Lori Kelly at San Andreas Elementary in 2001. Both mentored Kathryn in the basics of ceramics, working patiently with her as she navigated the world and wonder of ceramics. Having had a lifelong attraction to crafts and decorating, Kathryn found her passion of ceramics to be a natural result of her earlier interests.
Born and raised in Southern California Kathryn developed a keen sense of observation and could spend hours in her family’s ten-acre orange grove, experiencing all the wonders that lay before her, like the clay that was left after her father flood-irrigated the grove. She was delighted when she discovered she could work the clay, at first making cats which she baked in her mother’s oven and then added rhinestone eyes! So, Kathryn truly has had her hands in clay from a very early age. She taught at San Andreas Elementary for 31 years before her retirement. During her last years of teaching, she was encouraged to show at the Calaveras County Fair. She was hooked. She then began to show at the Amador County Fair and has been a fixture at the Fair every year since 2002 being challenged by entering in the Fair Theme categories. Now the holder of numerous first place ribbons, she is delighted with her growth as an artist. This AmadorArts Gallery exhibit is her first formal show, made especially exciting to be showing with her dear, long-time friend, Cathleen Berglund.
Quirky realism, sophisticated primitivism, hard edge sentimentalism: all of these phrases have been used to describe Cathleen Berglund’s style of painting. She likes to capture unique and colorful images, and she favors telling an implied story with her art. Humor abounds in the isolated detail—laundry dancing in the wind, love notes pinned to the post office wall, or garlic buds on the stovetop. She has the sure hand of an experienced painter with her frank blocks of color, bold outlines and respectful disregard for the “rules” of perspective.
A native San Franciscan and now a resident of Amador City, Cathleen Berglund studied art primarily with Maurice Lapp at Santa Rosa Junior College. Her distinctive paintings, drawings, and sculptures were first shown in Sonoma and Mendocino county galleries in the late 1970s. Her art has appeared in the Mendocino Art Center Gallery, Artrium Festivals in Sonoma County, the San Francisco Art Festival, The California State Fair Art Exhibit, and in her own gallery on Orcas Island, Washington. She has had one woman shows in the Santa Rosa City Council chambers, private galleries in Santa Rosa, Locke, Minneapolis and in Sutter Creek, including Gallery 10, which she co-founded almost two decades ago with nine other local women artists. Her art can be found in private collections from the west coast to Australia. She has recently illustrated two books of her poetry, written as “Mrs. Coyote.” The poems offer a four footed, poignant and humorous view of life, similar to her painted subjects.
The AmadorArts Gallery is open weekends 1:00 to 4:00 pm and weekdays 9:00 am – 2:00 pm, except Wednesdays. It’sadjacent to the historic Monteverde Store Museum and well worth the short walk off Main St. to see the monthly shows each featuring unique local artists. Visit www.amadorarts.org or call 209-267-9038 for information.
PHOTOS:
Kathryn Devlin with many of her ceramic creations.
Examples of the work by Cathleen Berglund.
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