Williams Gallery West Press Release 

A SOFT BEAUTY

 Contemporary Pastels by Deborah Eddy, Anne McClure, and Mary Offermann

 Opening Reception: Sunday July 21^st, 2002 - 5 to 8 PM

Exhibition will be on display from July 21^st through October 1^st 2002

  HOURS:  12:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday

Dear Friends, Collectors, and Art Lovers;

Please join us for an exceptional exhibition of fine art pastels by an exciting trio of California working artists. “A Soft Beauty” brings together the talent of three award winning artists with unique styles, all working in the same medium.

Williams Gallery West is celebrating our first year in our new location at 40680 Highway 41 in Oakhurst. We would like to offer special thanks to the artists and patrons who helped us make our  first year in our new location a success.  We look forward to continued improvements to our showroom and our inventory, and  to presenting our community with a number of exciting exhibitions in the coming year.

 Sincerely, Jonathan W. Bock, Curator, Williams Gallery West

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Deborah Eddy

Deborah Eddy, of Soquel California, is a Plein Air landscape artist with strong emotional ties to the landscape she portrays.  Deborah’s vision of the power of nature, and its innate beauty, add a poignancy to her work that only comes from a deep appreciation of the land and the natural world.  Her work seeks to draw attention to, and increase awareness of the simple beauty of environments we see day to day, but may not fully appreciate as we go about our lives.

Deborah is a two time Yosemite National Park Artist in Residence, and 1998 Artist in Residence at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. She has shown with the Santa Cruz Art League since 1988, and has shown extensively in California since 1986, including showings at the Yosemite Museum, and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Deborah received a BA from Pennsylvania State University in 1964, and is a published writer and illustrator as well as a dedicated artist.

“My art has always focused on the line and form and the spirit of the land, the trees and rocks, the sky and clouds.  My vision is to create work that awakens our ties to the earth.  All of my work is done on location in chalk pastel.  Many of the scenes I choose to portray are the “ordinary” places around us that we sometimes take for granted or fail to see.  Each painting is a composite of the days spent at each site.  The strong elements of the scene are added to the painting as they are revealed to me by the Sun as it moves across the sky.  I hope to cause the viewer to discover the place of the painting, to have the experience of seeing that landscape for the first time.”

Anne McClure

Ahwahnee artist Anne McClure is a seasoned designer, illustrator, and portrait artist with a love for historical and Western subjects.  Although her best know work falls in the genre of Western Art, she is not limited to Western themes. Her subjects also include the American Civil War, animals, still life, and portraits of friends and family.

Some time around the age of seven Anne McClure was introduced to pastels by a British sailor, a friend of her grandfather’s who spent time with the family in Yonkers when his ship docked in New York Harbor.  Knowing Anne loved to draw, he brought art supplies from England for the child. As Anne matured her creative interests took on new direction.  She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and Design in New York City where she studied clothing and design. Upon graduation she entered the field of coat and suit design, and worked as a freelance artist using watercolors and oils.  It wasn’t until the 1980s that she rediscovered her childhood interest in working with pastels.  Pastel became her medium of choice, and she has spent the last two decades honing her skills.

Anne is a signature member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, Society of Western Artists, ands the Pastel Society of America. She has been published in the “Best of Pastel” and the “American Artist” magazine.

Mary Offermann

Mary Offermann divides her time between her Santa Cruz studio and a tiny village in the south of France, where she teaches and paints mountains, trees, and village scenes in a rich and joyful display of pastels. Her paintings resonate with color and a love of life.

Educated at the University of California Davis in the early 1960's, Offermann has also lived in San Francisco, Chicago, New England, New York, Philadelphia, and East Africa. In 1971 she began her exploration of visual expression with black and white relief prints. She has worked in pastels and mixed media for the past thirteen years, and studied with Wayne Thiebaud's Masters' Workshop at the Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts.

“I spent the month of April in the mountains of the south of France.  When I first arrived, the weather was dark and rainy. The quince had burst into bloom, but the buds on the fruit trees had only begun to open.  So I painted in the rain, trying to capture the softness of the emerging life, the colors on the mountainsides of the chestnut forests, which had not yet begun to leaf out.  Then the clear blue days of spring arrived with the tiny leaves on all the bushes and trees showing themselves as a green haze on the mauve of the mountain slopes.  Tulips, lilac, and irises greeted me, but I immersed myself in Madame Sirven’s orchard at the end of a tiny dirt road behind the village of Labastide Esparbairenque….”

Related Links 

Gallery Info

Williams Gallery West is the West Coast branch of the Williams Gallery family of galleries, a family art business founded in 1983 by Mary Lou Bock. Williams Gallery West opened its first showroom in Oakhurst in 1998 in an out of the way location off Road 426, shaded by ancient oaks along the Oakhurst Parkway. On July 4th 2001 the gallery moved to a central Oakhurst location in the Houchin building on Highway 41.  The gallery offers a wide selection of American and International art including contemporary fine art, international folk art, vintage prints, photography, jewelry, pottery and art glass.  Currently on display are woodcarvings, masks, and other works from Indonesia, Australia, and Thailand, and a variety of artwork from California and the Pacific Northwest. In addition to maintaining an impressive offering of work available year round, the gallery presents several rotating shows each year featuring unique works by local and international artists.

The gallery is located at 40680 Highway 41, Oakhurst, next door to Days Inn, and across the street from Adriannes and Lightscape Gallery.  Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday, Noon to 6 PM, and by appointment.  The gallery can be visited on the Internet at https://galwest.com

Upcoming Exhibitions

September 2^1st and 22^nd, from 9 AM to 8PM

Second Annual California Ceramics Show

The show will open with a two day weekend indoor / outdoor ceramics sale at the gallery, and will feature art pottery and utilitarian ware by working California ceramic artists Jennifer Fig, Ann and Ralph Mendershausen, Adrian Castelo, Allison Hudson, Ken Foster, and many others. Artist interest in participation please contact the gallery for details.

November 17th, 2002 through Jan 20th, 2003

International Printmaking

Limited Edition prints from Australia, Japan, and Thailand, including the Work of Canberra, Australia master printmaker Jorg Schmeisser,  Japanese master Susumu Endo, and student and faculty work from Chiang Mai University in Northern Thailand.