North Auburn Artists

Meet the North Auburn Artists

Seventeen well known Californian artists will be participating together in The North Auburn Artists Studios Tour on Mother’s Day weekend, Saturday, May 12 and Sunday, May 13, 2012 from 10 am to 5 p.m. The tour is free and all artists participating in our annual North Auburn Art Studios Tour are within a few miles of each other.

Jennifer Riley - C (map locator)
Jennifer Riley is an Auburn, Ca. artist who creates exciting and distinctive sculptures created from found and discarded steel. The sculptures form a powerful and, at times, controversial, expression of personal experience and social stereotypes. Currently showing throughout California and in Washington, she is an award-winning international artist who focuses her work on the human form and horses. Her sculptures range in size from 15 inches to 15 feet. Jennifer Johnson's studio is open year-round by appointment, inviting the visitors to roam through the garden of sculptures and watch creativity in progress in the studio. Purchases can be made directly through the studio or at any one of her galleries. Jennifer invites corporate and private commissions and has a mailing list for show information. www.jjohnsonstudio.com

Cathy Cline - J (map locator)
Cathy Cline a well known jewelry artist and artist-in-residence at the Arts Building in Auburn, continues to explore the creative challenge of designing gold, silver and vitreous enamel one-of-a-kind jewelry. She is also currently using her watercolor and acrylic landscape painting background to create new “paintings” and functional works in vitreous enamel. “I am fascinated by the interplay of reflections, color, movement, texture and transparencies in nature. I enjoy interpreting nature’s beauty in my work.” Cathy has a Master’s Degree in Jewelry Design, studied jewelry in London, England and Guadalajara, Mexico. Also she completed The Revere Academy’s program and achieved Graduate Jeweler’s status. In the area of enameling, she has taken numerous seminars and workshops from nationally and internationally known enamellists. She has taught jewelry design for over 30 years in college and high school. Cathy will be sharing studio space with ceramic artist Anita Posey Lowe during the Mother’s Day Weekend Studio Tour. www.cathyclinedesigns.com

Reif Erickson - N (map locator)
Reif Erickson is a regional artist with works in public, corporate, and private collections throughout the Pacific Coast. REIF (pronounced ray-f) has been pursuing his art career for the last twenty-eight years and contributes much of his success to his continuing practice of painting "on location" in what he refers to as Fresh Air™ painting. Through careful observation and technical expertise, Reif achieves masterful landscapes of California, Hawaii, Alaska, and the Southwest. www.reifart.com

Barbra Paitich - G (map locator)
Silk and steel are her specialty. For many years she has combined the elegance and drape of hand painted silk woven with steel cut in organic shapes to create unique and flowing wall hangings.Vibrant color and bold designs are her trademark and make her work unique. Along with large installations, her work includes scarves, framable greeting cards and luminaries. Her studio is set up for visitor participation. Adults and children are encouraged to try their hands at applying dyes to silk. Barbra also offers kiln fired glass jewelry and accessories. A beaded jewlery line "Baja Elegance" incorporates unique tube shells she finds on a remote island in southern Baja California. www.consciousartbybarbra.blogspot.com

Marianne DeMartini - M (map locator)
German-born studio potter, Marianne DeMartin, has lived in Auburn and maintained a studio since 1981. She creates hand carved candle lights, large lace bowls, delicate lotus-shaped bowls, and marbled jars made of two clays. The pieces are hand thrown on a wheel and then carved by hand. After completing the design, they are bisque-fired. Cone 6 stoneware glazes ranging from a muted multi-layered cream to vibrant blues and greens are then applied for a final firing.
www.adventuresinclay.etsy.com

Sonja Hamilton - B (map locator)
Sonja Hamilton is a San Francisco born artist, teacher, and calligrapher. Sonja is noted for her fluid, concise watercolors - whether landscapes, seascapes or flowers. She graduated from San Jose State University with a BA Degree and holds a Lifetime Special Teaching Credential in Art, has exhibited widely, and has paintings in private collections in the USA, Australia, Canada, Mexico, England, France, Japan and China. Sonja has taught in adult education since 1967, has conducted several workshops in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Nevada, and was an instructor on a tour of Italy and Greece, the Canadian Rockies, France, Belguim and Switzerland. In 2012, she will be teaching a watercolor workshop in Provence. Amongst her numerous awards are several Best of Show, First Awards, and the Grumbacher Gold Medallion. "Although I draw and paint in many media, I find watercolor the most exciting, spontaneous, and challenging. When I paint, my cares leave and I become totally immersed in what I am doing. Watercolor is exhilarating, yet most relaxing for me - a great joy. It's who I am." www.sonjahamilton.com

Anita Posey Lowe - F (map locator)
Anita Posey Lowe is well knownfor her beautiful and reasonably priced ceramic bowls, cups, plates and individual casserole dishes that are microwave, dishwasher and oven safe. She notes that her glazes are lead-free and safe for food and drink. The colors she works with are earth tones; tan, blue and green when overlapped they create beautiful blends. All her pots are hand thrown, trimmed and signed. Aside from her functional pottery Anita’s sculptural art is a mixture of wheel thrown, hand built or a combination of both, she uses several methods of firing -- raku, reduction or pit-- to get results. She plays with the forms to perfect concepts that reflect her personality. She says, “each ceramic piece is one-of-a-kind”. A graduate of San Francisco State University with a BA in art, emphasis in ceramics, Ms Lowe has been developing her technique for more than 38 years. "No matter how much effort I put into a clay piece, the fire, glaze, wind, air and timing all play a role and control of the final outcome of the pottery is left to Karma," says Anita Posey Lowe. "That's the beauty of pottery and why I enjoy working with it." www.aposeylowepottery.com

Patty Pieropan Dong - E (map locator)
Patty Pieropan Dong enjoys working in a variety of media: oils, watercolors, and block printing. Her subjects include California landscapes, plein air work from Europe and the Caribbean as well as still life and portraiture. A graduate of Boston University with a BFA in painting, she also did post-graduate work at Boston State College and Suffolk University. In addition to teaching art and painting, Patty is a member of the Old Town Gallery of Art and active in the Placer Arts Council as an Art Walk committee member, Autumn Art Studios Tour steering committee member and Placer Artist's League board member.www.pepdart.com

Diane J Wood - H (map locator)
Diane J Wood works both in metal, glass casting, Pate de Verre,,and kiln form glass. Her work most often arrives in the form of faces, study of nature and spiral movement within the glass work. With her background in ceramics, she makes all her owns glass forms for her sculptural wall work. The glass work is an expression of movement, textures, and the use of transparency of the glass. Diane has studied under Dan Fenton for glass casting, and Pate de Verre glass work. She has a fine art jewelry glass line, and glass sculptural work that is shown in galleries in the United States, private residences and internationally. She teaches metal and glass art in Charter schools, as well as, being an instructor in fused glass at Sierra Community College, Rocklin, Ca.www.shenwood.com

Vincent DiLeo - A (map locator)
Photography has been Vincent's passion since day one. He worked as a news photographer for a local newspaper in high school and later owned a studio in Sacramento where he photographed beautiful women. Now married to a painter, he creates photographs from his dreams. This began during the BP oil spill. After watching too much TV news coverage, his dreams began to erupt with fields of oil and colorful landscapes of transmission fluid. A friend suggested that Vincent should create a collage photograph of an oil slick using seagulls. This started him down the path to his current work recreating dreams into photographs. www.vincentdileo.com

Dirk Dusharme - L (map locator)
Award-winning designer and photographer Dirk Dusharme uses photography as a springboard into examining architecture and the intersection of people and their man-made landscape. Sometimes stark, often wildly bright, and always from his own peculiar perspective, Dusharme’s architectural pieces make you look at your built environment in ways you never imagined. Visit his website at .
www.dirkdusharme.com

Rita Forman - K (map locator)
Rita Forman is presently an Art Glass Beadmaker. Her beads are fun, colorful, funky, and sometimes elegant. She uses beautiful handmade glass from Italy and the U.S.A. which is melted in a torch and shaped into beads. She has enjoyed making art ever since she discovered finger painting at a very young age. She really appreciates collectors that make art part of their lives. Rita will be showing in the Nicholsons Studio.Placer Arts Artist Registry Profile

Rick and Janet Nicholson - D (map locator)
Rick and janet Nicholson of Nicholson Blown Glass emphasize creativity and innovation. Originally from Hawaii and Ohio, respectively, Rick and Janet built their studio in Auburn in 1982. They have opened for Mother's Day weekend since 1996. Their painterly approach to glass blowing results in figurative sculpture, sculptural lighting, and multiple piece wall and ceiling installations. The combination of glass and metal have allowed their work to expand into large scale commissions. While Rick is the master glassblower, Janet assists and is the colorist and designer of their successful collaboration. Rick was a TA for Dale Chihuly at Philchuck in 1981 and continues to study with masters. A love of birdwatching and and recent classes with Karen Willenbrink-Johnson have inspired the Nicholsons to create new hot sculpted bird forms. Since glass blowing is a fascinating process to watch, their studio has always been a favorite stop on the tours."like" their facebook page and enjoy their blog. Visit wwwnicholsonblownglass.com for more information and schedules.

Don Crawford - I (map locator)
Auburn resident Don Crawford has spent the last 40 years in furniture and cabinet making. Heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, his cabinetry and furniture reflect the design elements of Greene & Greene, Frank Lloyd Wright, and other early 20th century designers. Recently Don has turned his attention to wood sculpture. These organically inspired abstract pieces are also influenced by the late 19th, early 20th century designer, Rennie Macintosh. Don hopes his sculptures give you as much pleasure to look at as he enjoyed making them.

Linda Farley- E (map locator)
Linda enjoys painting in a style she calls "spirit painting". She taps into what Carl Jung would call the collective unconscious. She has never received a formal art degree although she has a masters in counseling. Linda paints in many medias, including oil, acrylic and tempra. She also makes unique jewelry with fused glass and silver clay which she combines with beads. Linda will join her husband, Jim at Patty Peropan Dong's Studio this year.

Jim Farley- E (map locator)
Jim has studied the character, qualities and uses of various species of wood his entire life. Jim has had many careers including 25 years of practicing law. He finds wood working more satisfying because the wood responds his shaping and is content with the results! A variety of local and exotic hardwoods become puzzles, words and phrases, candle holders and boxes. Jim will join his wife, Linda, at Patty Pieropan Dong's studio for this tour.