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.

AmadorArts Gallery presents the Holiday Adornments Show & Sale

The Holiday Adornments Show and Sale offers a wide variety of clever and affordably-priced gift ideas including ornaments, holiday decorations, feather art, fresh wreaths, cards, jewelry, wearable accessories, small wall art, pottery, and much more. Over 20 local artists from Amador and Calaveras Counties have been selected by the non-profit AmadorArts Gallery to be a part of this unique shopping experience.

On Saturday, November 5, the gallery is a part of the 1st Saturday Amador Art Trek, opening at 11:00 am; reception with appetizers and wine from 3 to 6 pm. Join the fun!  Hours in November and December are 11:00 am to 5:00 pm every Saturday and Sunday, plus the day after Thanksgiving, called Plaid Friday. On weekdays, excluding Wednesdays, the gallery is also open when the admin. office is open, generally 10-3. Best to call ahead 267-9038.