Art Exhibit: Wine Country Gold

RECEPTION: Saturday, September 2, 2023, 3:30 – 5:30 PM: Join the artists and welcome a glorious autumn season with this beautiful show. Refreshments will be served. Upstairs Art Gallery artists Nancy Gray, Willow LaLand, Karen Miller, Phyllis Rapp, Laura Roney, Donna Schaffer, Carmen Sheldon and Luba Stolper pool their talents to present Wine Country Gold, a collection of paintings that taps into Sonoma County’s spectacular Fall colors in a special salute to the season. Autumn notes harmonize the collection as each artist expresses her own interpretation. In Miller’s “Martorana Winery: Rooftop View” we are mid-vineyard surrounded by multi-hued grapevine leaves playing a starring role. Schaffer’s longer view presents a golden vineyard complemented by rich grey blue skies in “Storm Approaching Vineyard.” Sheldon’s “Orange Trees” also taps into these color complements in this dramatic watercolor. Stolper’s sensational luscious reds shine in her classic still-life paintings of fruit and Rapp’s bold oranges enliven “Navajo Robin.” In Gray’s vineyard scene, backlit golden vineyards vibrate in rich color saturation. Autumn is also a time of harvest and Roney and LaLand works focus on wines in autumn settings as a salute to the region’s renowned viticulture. As the days grow shorter, Sonoma’s vineyards morph into to carpets of gold, tinged by every shade of red imaginable: a true artist’s paradise. And inspiration. These local artists have “struck gold” in drawing from this surrounding beauty to create a collection that is truly a feast for the eyes.