Pastel artist Lesley Harrison demonstrates her techniques at July's ACAA meeting

Pastel artist Lesley Harrison demonstrated her techniques for creating realistic animals at the July 13 meeting of the Amador County Artists Association.  Harrison works exclusively on velour paper, using a variety of dry pigments to achieve her lifelike images. Conte and pastel pencils, along with soft and hard pastels, were the tools that brought the image of a black horse to life.

She spent a great deal of time on the eye of the horse, stating that “if you get the eye right, you can be forgiven most anything else.”  The artist teaches classes locally and throughout the country.  Her schedule of classes and images of her work can be found at www.harrison-keller.com, where she also offers step-by-step lessons to be completed at home.

Creating the eye...

Completing the eye.

Goard artist Aaron Bullock featured at Sutter Creek Gallery in July

Aaron Bullock likes to tell stories whether through his gourd art, wood carvings or writing. His favorite time is when someone looks at his work and smiles in understanding of the story in his artwork. Bullock’s narrative gourds will be featured at the Sutter Creek Gallery during the month of July.

The self-taught artist is in his sixth year creating gourd art. Bullock likes to smile when shaping his designs to see what direction his imagination will take him. He states that “you will see frivolity and fantasy in some of my work and then the next piece will be dealing with Native American history, wildlife or whatever image begs to come out.”

Bullock has earned many ribbons in his short association with gourd art but finds the awards a measurement of how far he has progressed. He is currently president of the Amador County Gourd artists and has been showing his work at the gallery for a little over one year. He is also a member of the Amador County Artists Association and part of a Gourd Artist Network.

Sutter Creek Gallery invites you to spend some time with Aaron Bullock at a reception in his honor on Saturday, July 2, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., as part of the region’s First Saturday Art Trek. He is one of 25 local artists exhibiting at the cooperative located in the heart of Sutter Creek at 35 Main Street. Besides original paintings and photography, Sutter Creek Gallery offers many affordable items including prints, cards, jewelry, gourds and fiber arts. 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

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