Celebrating the Heritage and Practices of Traditional Fine Arts Worldwide
September 26 - December 11, 2023 CAC Virtual Gallery
Building upon the California Art Club’s long history promoting traditional art forms, we are pleased to present Autumn Splendor, the eleventh installment of the quarterly Excellence in Traditional Fine Art Competition!
Our gratitude goes to Erin M. Curtis, Ph.D., Director of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College, for being the guest judge and curating these images for this virtual exhibition, showcasing the most exemplary submissions as well as the prize-winning works.
Artwork is available for purchase. If you have interest in acquiring a work, please submit a purchase inquiry. In addition, we suggest consulting our Terms of Sale.
This painting depicts splendor of autumn foliage in Little Sycamore Canyon, Orange County, California. My intent is to express the intrinsic truth and beauty of my subject. To reveal the power or presence of spirit in a place or person. I am inspired by what I feel and by what I see...They reflect one another. I can't imagine a more gratifying experience than painting outdoors while listening to the birds sing and feeling the sun on my face. Future generations will not have the experience of this quickly disappearing natural landscape. I aspire to create a permanent repository of these unique places in my paintings.
In the Great Plains of California’s Mid Valley, warm winds urge the harvest of lavender, the sun shines the violet colour of lavender extraordinarily gorgeous, It sets off the people who are working happily, showing the harmony between nature and people. From beginning to end, making this painting was like composing a poem in my heart.
Farmers' Market Largesse, AKA 15 Pears, reflects the seasonal beauty of our autumn harvest. More than most fruits and vegetables, pears offer all-important gestural variety in addition to a lovely varied palette.
I enjoy sharing my delight at finding the seemingly "commonplace" and exploring it through my own painter's lens. The brown box presentation provides a structure that both contains and compares the fruit.
Fall sunsets on crisp evenings are even better on horseback. This is 3 generations of my family out for a coastal sunset ride. It doesn't get any better.
The Grand Mesa of Colorado in the fall is a spectacular place to view the aspens and fall colors, as well as the distant Rocky Mountain peaks that sometimes boast early snows. This particular painting depicts one of our favorite hikes at over 9,000ft elevation. The view, and the hike, leave us almost breathless! I trained with an Italian artist in my early teens and then was immersed in the art world as a teen member of the California Art Club. I went on to study at Laguna Beach School of Art which spring-boarded me into my life-long joyful journey into transparent acrylic painting.
This painting is showing a single house in the woods by a river. The river turns into a waterfall at the end. I love it because of the variety of colors I used in it as it's the beginning of the fall and the trees are turning yellow/red.
On a fine autumn day, an afternoon hike took us to 2,000ft elevation on Mt. Diablo. A few turns brought us to a classic attractive scene: stretches of golden grass fields surrounding tall green trees. The far away skies and light clouds complimented the unspoiled landscape in front of us. We took a breather stop to take in the breath-taking vista.
Freshly harvested from deep within the earthy loam, the scent of fresh rain blankets these jewel-toned beauties with memories of summer and the cooling breezes sharpening the edges of shorter days. Contrasting organic and inorganic textures, elements of earth and iron, patterns both curved and linear, and natural hues in brilliant warms and thirst-slaking cools compelled me to capture this botanical still life a scene infused with the familiar siren song of petrichor, the nostalgic smell of fresh first rain after the heat of summer. Summer washes into fall, the generous abundance and spectacular palette of natures gifts a reminder to give thanks in the moment.
To me, autumn is the season of romance when persimmons ripen, sunflowers sprout seeds, and dried leaves fall. I have chosen various materials and set those. I had felt while I was painting as if I was listening to chamber music.
