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Artist Sketches

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Matthew Rapaylea

Landscape Sculptor

Matthew’s love of art started at before he was seven, inspired by his mother and later a teacher. Other than one art class, Matthew is self-taught. He learned how to weld, carve and hand pound the metal by trial and error.

Matthew began to create shapes and objects that caught his imagination from everyday life. He broadened his work in his early 20s using bronze. Now he designs his work from different materials, structures and sizes that call to him. Like finding a form in a rock, Matthew finds a sculpture in the material and finds materials for a sculpture he envisions. His work range encompasses every part of life including the gorgeous, abstract, classical, realistic, whimsical, steam punk, serious, and fun to seriously fun. Matthew engages his desire to create larger than life representations of shapes and objects from everyday life including human, animal, earth, sky and even the universe, all of which draw the viewer into a like feeling. Matthew’s fascination with the human body and all its magnificent curves and differences enticed him to create real to novel, even abstract forms, in which viewers find beauty, sympathy, wonder, and an interest in knowing more. One series of work plays with the complexity of the hand. Another, the human face and its compound curves. While another series deals with a larger-than-life piece that represent observation instruments that play with the sun, moon and sky wonderfully. Another interacts with nature and its splendid diversity. Matthew’s series on the Indigenous Americans are bold, realistic and memorable through reading detailed depictions of Native Americans. He traverses cultures. His pieces are found at Cornerstone, Sonoma; I Street and Sunnyslope Drive, Petaluma and Bryan Dr. in Novato.

Debra Maddox

Fine Artist

San Francisco Bay Area artist, Debra Maddox, has been painting and making art her entire life. After her parents gave her a set of oil paints in grade school, she never looked back or doubted her desire to be an artist. 

After receiving a Bachelor Degree in Art Education, Debra completed post-graduate work in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. “My favorite medium is oil on canvas. I love using layers of oils to create depth and luminosity. Observing how light, shadow, color, and texture transform shapes and forms into aesthetic compositions, drives my desire to record what I see in the world around me.” Her work consists of two components. One is visual and the other is emotional. Many of her paintings include figures. Individuals in unguarded moments caught unaware, or figures in motion: dancers, swimmers, and cyclists. The dancer series provides visual kinetic energy. The interaction of the subjects serves as a narrative for interpersonal relationships. The push and pull of the dance movements between two individuals remind us that relationships are precarious in nature, requiring a give and take interaction in order to be harmonious. The water series celebrates the vibrant beauty of light refracting on top of the surface and beneath. Figures swimming under water enter into a realm of serenity and a meditative state. While the divers above the surface exemplify the exhilaration of motion and freedom. Her water series has its early roots. Incorporating swimmers, divers, and water as subjects in her paintings occurred organically for her. As a college student, she spent summers as a lifeguard with many long hours devoted to gazing at the shimmering water. She observed how light refracted and bounced off of the water’s surface. Later as an adult, she loved swimming under water: a realm that produced a state of equanimity. The under water theme serves as an archetype that taps into our collective unconscious. Her cyclist series focuses on another dimension – the freedom and exhilaration of the ride. Figures in motion is a reoccurring theme reminding us that nothing in life is static but always changing. The old car series evokes a time and place of a bygone era when cars resembled massive sculptural forms. During a time when the world moved at a slower pace, motorists ventured out without a destination in mind for the sheer joy of the drive. As she weaves together all of the compositional and emotional elements, she allows her imagination to take control, resulting in compelling images that only exist in her mind.

Kathleen Lack

Fine Artist

Ever since I was a child, my life revolved around painting, drawing and dancing. My passion was so alive, focused and engaged in these activities, that my father created a little studio just for me, in front of a window, looking out toward a beautiful Maple tree. 

As the seasons changed, so did the colors out that window, providing me with new color palettes to explore. To this day, I still see the ever-changing colors in a landscape, the hues and depth of purple, mauve, and sage green in a high desert landscape, the lush springtime intensity of new buds about to burst forth, and the cool turquoise and marine blues in the ocean, balanced by the golden brilliance of the setting sun. When I observe the people around me, I see colors framing their bodies, soft golden hues reflecting the curves of their faces. I see the strength and beauty of a dancers’ body, and the expression of emotional connection as a musician brings their instrument to life. These images and the emotions evoked become my muse in the moment. They are what I am compelled to express in my paintings. As I observe people in the moment, especially when they are being fully themselves, I am driven to capture their essence, the qualities and depth of emotion that are unique only to them. For me, it is imperative that my art continues to develop, to grow, to explore and create while ensuring the fullest freedom of expression.

Elmer Bischoff

A Survey of Paintings and Drawings

“Elmer Bischoff: A Survey of Paintings and Drawings, 1937 – 1972,” includes 38 expressive works that illustrate Bischoff’s visual journey from abstraction to figuration, and back again, over the course of four decades.

Bischoff was a Bay Area painter deeply engaged in the practice of putting paint on canvas in a way that kept him constantly searching for something just out of his reach. His paintings are sensual and lyrical, with marks and compositions influenced by his love of music, including New Orleans Jazz and classical music.

M. Louise Stanley

No Regrets

My work follows in the tradition of history and narrative painting documenting current and fictitious events using myth and allegory.

The human condition, modern-day romance and political issues are often explored. Voyeurism, a longing to ‘be someplace else’ and a sense of places and events remembered are recurring themes. Humor is the catalyst and a bridge to darker, more troubling issues. In my youth I wanted to make paintings people would gag and cry in front of until I saw two women doubled-up laughing in front of my painting. At an opening years ago a woman came up to me, drink in hand, and said, “these are not funny paintings, they remind me of junior high when I was miserable.” She then dropped her glass at my feet and ran out of the gallery. At an opening at PS1 in New York, years ago, Joyce Kosloff commented, “God, lulu, your work is so American!” I strive for that precarious line between the colloquial and the sublime, perhaps in order to sabotage both extremes, but more often just to see if I can pull it off. Recent paintings are based on research gathered during European travels and the ‘Art Lover’s Tours’ I organized and lead for 14 years. An interest in the transformation myths of Ovid, sainthood, the ills of organized religion and current events are ongoing compulsions. Often the subject becomes a vehicle for experimentation (what can I learn from the painting of it) and an excuse for making an objet that refers back in time, ie faux painted Renaissance and Baroque frames with attached predelle. In the fourth grade I made an assessment: ” there is no magic in my mark.” I knew then that the subject would dictate how it would be painted. The magic probably lies more in the drawing, my first love.

Marty Knapp

B&W Photography

Marty Knapp lives in Point Reyes Station, California where for over thirty years he has created his fine art black and white photographs. His work celebrates a fascination with light and forms he has discovered in the coastal landscape near his home.

His prints, valued by collectors, reside in private and public collections world-wide. Marty is engaged, hands-on, in the entire creative process, from recording his photographs, to printing, framing, displaying and the shipping of his completed artworks. He and his wife, Jean, show his work at the Marty Knapp Photo Gallery in downtown Point Reyes Station. An extensive catalog of his photography is also available online at MartyKnapp.com.

 Lissa Herschleb

Fine Artist

The photographs I saw in National Geographic as a child were the first inspiration for my art. I was fascinated by the insects, plant life, and the photographs of peoples from indigenous cultures who lived for and through Nature’s gifts. I am moved by the endless possibilities nature offers…

I’ve been a practicing professional artist for 45 years, now. I can reflect on the different ways in which the richness of Mother Nature has affected my practice. I can’t say I think in metaphor, rather the metaphor occurs through interaction and presents itself now in dimensional form. Read into it if you will. The intrigue of clay. It’s just that. It’s so exciting to feel wet clay, ponder it in the fingers. I’m finding, as a teacher said, it has a mind of its own. The ring of a fired clay piece is truly music to my ears. It is amazing to me the difference from the wet clay body to the clink of a finished piece. I see the vast and deep knowing of practiced ceramists. I am an older artist child playing with a new material. I more than likely will never have the expertise of mature clay people but, with due respect I will make my way forward in my own voice always humbled. You will find, in my work, an expression carried forth from many relationships with materials. It seems I have a creative voice that expresses through different mediums in a way one would recognize….similar but different, mature but hopefully always seeking the amazment of being blessed an artist with vision.

Jeff Downing

Ceramic Artist

Jeff Downing is known for his ceramic sculptures and large-scale public art projects. His work is highly articulated with textures, patterns and colors that help abstract their figuration, imparting the sculptures with a sense of the emblematic.

His work conveys emotional states both uplifting and solemn all while exuding a sense of humor. Downing has exhibited in Brazil, Europe and the United States in museum collections, public art venues and private collections. He teaches all aspect of ceramics with specialized knowledge in kiln theory/design and glaze firing processes.

Stephanie Thwaites

Fine Artist

Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Stephanie grew up in South Florida. With an art teacher mother and a Waldorf School education, Stephanie was always interested in art and creative exploration.

When she went to Yale University, she majored in Fine Arts, with a concentration in graphic design and photography. She continued her studies with art classes in Switzerland before becoming a professional graphic designer. After a 20-year career as a creative director and brand manager in Connecticut, Stephanie returned to her fine arts background full time in 2009. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014, where she has studied with several well-known local artists and immersed herself in the local art community. Stephanie has received numerous awards and has shown her work through solo shows as well as in many national and local juried shows and galleries. Her work is included in private collections around the United States and internationally.

Bill Russell

Painter, Illustrator & Designer

Bill Russell is a multi-disciplinary artist. For 30+ years, Bill’s creative life has included fine art, illustration, visual journalism, teaching and web design. 

He earned his degree from Parsons School of Design in 1976. Bill stays creative working in a variety of media and skill sets, including web site designer, illustrator and visual journalist. Bill has shown his work in a variety of settings including The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novato, Sofie Contemporary Art in Calistoga, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and the Reactor Gallery in Toronto, Canada. His paintings can be found in private collections throughout the Bay area and in Canada.

Janey Fritsche

Fine Artist

Janey was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, where she spent considerable time with her mom’s extended family on the beaches of the Gulf coast  –  a source of inspiration to this day.

Upon graduation from high school, Janey was offered an art scholarship. Given her fear of being a starving artist, she turned to earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics with minors in Art and Sociology from Lamar University. She combined these seemingly disparate subjects into a career of interactive design work for clients like Apple, George Lucas Educational Foundation, Stanford University, Paramount Pictures, the Smithsonian, and the Grateful Dead. At the same time, Janey’s art education continued at San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, and College of Marin. Her painting practice is woven together with her long-standing meditation practice and her abiding love of the ocean. Her memories carry a utopian vision that she explores in her search for “how can I use art as a force for good”? While living on Oahu for six months a few years back, Janey realized first hand the devastation to the coral reefs and other sea life. This inspired her to focus her artwork on the natural world related to the seas. Janey’s paintings are collected nationally and internationally. In recent years, she completed an Artist in Residency at Kriti Gallery in Varanasi, India, and had a solo exhibition of her work at the Maturango Museum in southern California and Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Her commission work includes paintings for Kaiser Permanente Technology Center, Kaiser Permanente Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, Sutter Cathedral Hills Hospital, and Bodega Bay Lodge. Janey has lived in the San Francisco bay area since 1981; her studio is in San Rafael, California.
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