Tag archives: art
The term “Narrative Art” has been very much on my mind with the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. The museum’s mission is “to explore how narrative art shapes our world, expresses beliefs, communicates values, expands imagination, and invites conversation.” The galleries are organized around themes such as Comics, Children’s […]
The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art presents “Haptic Knowing,” a new exhibition showcasing five artists whose work explores touch not merely as a physical action, but as a form of inquiry and a way of thinking, learning and understanding the world. The exhibition runs through November 7. Derived from the Greek word haptesthai, meaning to […]
Paintings, photography, sculpture and assemblage populate most of the workspaces for the 2026 Santa Barbara Studio Artists tour that takes place every Labor Day weekend. But it’s a fairly good bet that if you join the 25th anniversary of the self-guided visit to artist studios around town, you won’t see much that resembles what paper […]
Brian Kuhlmann has been a professional photographer for more than 40 years, working in a wide array of fields. His photography has been featured in many advertising campaigns for big-name brands – Coca-Cola, Coors and Corona, just under the letter ‘C’ – splashed across the pages of innumerable publications and hung on the walls of […]
The Channel City Camera Club’s (CCCC) August photography exhibit is on view now through August 31 at the SB Downtown Library during normal business hours. Putting her PR hat back on for the CCCC is Katrina Carl, former head of marketing and communications at the SB Museum of Art. Katrina reached out to me about […]
Abstract acrylic painter Josephine Tournier Ingram’s (’00) growing art career eventually collided with domestic life. As demand for her work surged, canvases began taking over her home. “Paintings were spilling into the guest studio,” she says. “And then I discovered spaghetti on one of them.” Realizing her home studio had officially been outgrown, she knew […]
“In wildness is the preservation of the world,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in his famous essay, “Walking.” In it, he maintains that humans are a part of nature, and that all things come from the natural world, which must be protected for our own health. In another essay he said, “We need the tonic of […]
On Thursday, May 14, I had a one-on-one tour with artist and SB County Arts and Culture Curator, Tom Pazderka, of their latest exhibit titled, Scaling the Walls. The show spans two public spaces, the Channing Peake Gallery and the City Hall Gallery, both on Anacapa Street. As these are located in government buildings, there […]
It is time for the Art Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) to hold its annual fundraiser for artists and collectors, titled An Artful Affair, on May 31, 4-6:30 pm, at the Santa Barbara Club’s outside garden area. Artists showing their works for sale are Andrea Anderson, Danuta Bennett, Rick Delanty, Manny Lopez, Wyllis Heaton, Chloé […]
Hello Loves! For fashionistas and lovers of art with local history, this is for you. Margaret O’Leary boutique is set to arrive this summer at 1235 Coast Village Road, (formerly the Whistle Club). The woman-founded brand has been in business for over 30 years and is independently owned. Their focus is on “timeless knitwear and […]
Hello Loves! It’s been a Society minute with many newsworthy notables coming your way. This weekend I had the utmost honor to attend the SB Museum of Art’s celebration for the 75th Anniversary Year of its “Ambassadors” (formerly known as the SBMA Women’s Board) on Saturday, April 15 at the SB Cabrillo Pavilion. The celebration […]
Family, friends and art lovers all packed into the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art to celebrate the 14 graduating art majors who presented their capstone projects in Reencounter on April 9. The exhibition, featuring a class of artists ready to make their mark on the world, will remain open through May 9. Near the museum […]
Members and supporters of the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art experienced California’s Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada on a unique trip Feb. 27-28 with stops at Manzanar National Historic Site, the Paiute Shoshone Cultural Center and nearby ancient petroglyphs. The group followed in the footsteps of Ansel Adams, visiting locations important to him, including […]
Two former employees of the Funk Zone, who met and fell in love in Santa Barbara’s Arts District, share their frustration with the disappearance of locally owned community spaces. For my first article back from hiatus, I contacted my premier source for finding interesting artists to interview in Santa Barbara, my old pal Ariel. She’s […]
Coast Village Association invites you to the first art walk of the year – our spring Beyond the Canvas event. This special evening has become a favorite gathering where creativity, culture, and local businesses come together in a lively evening stroll along Coast Village Road. On Thursday, March 26th, from 4-7 pm – galleries, boutiques, […]
MD enjoyed buying storage lockers whose owners had defaulted on payments. He bought one in the early 2000s in San Diego and stuffed boxes of books and papers into his own storage locker here in Santa Barbara. Newly retired, he had the time to sort through boxes of paperwork. In one old box he found […]
Pierre-Joseph Redouté was among the great flower painters of any age. During Napoleon’s reign he was commissioned to paint the roses in Empress Josephine’s garden at Château de Malmaison, her villa outside of Paris. She was devoted to horticulture and filled gardens with both native and exotic roses. Redouté’s fine detailed watercolors were translated into […]
Artnet tempted me with a list of “The Best Art World Movies of 2025” and they were all so good I had to share. These films deal with prescient themes such as gender, art theft (both outright and AI generated), collaborative relationships in artists’ lives, and include documentaries on controversial art figures that we thought […]
Emerging artist and Westmont alumna Chelsea Roberts (’18), who delicately illustrates wildlife and flora with a gentle, compassionate reverence, opens a solo exhibition, Habitual Curiosity, in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum’s downstairs gallery through June 20. Roberts, a scientific illustrator from Danville, conducts extensive research studying her subjects for hours before creating each piece. This forms a […]
Where is the art and decorative art market heading in 2026? Straight to the 1970s. Some recent high profile sales this past few weeks show that collectors are aggressively returning to sexy trophy objects, the more culturally evocative, the better; take for example a recent sale by the private boutique auction from Fair Warning on […]
