Past Exhibitions
Lara's
Fine Dining
AOPR Summer Member Exhibition
June 24 - November 18, 2023
The exhibition features 44 pieces of art by 28 AOPR artists (including 5 new members) working in a variety of media.
Art is displayed throughout the restaurant.
Big thanks to Lara, for hosting AOPR exhibitions, to organizers and exhibition managers Louise Williams, Jan Chleboun, and K Olival, to all the artists who submitted work, and to all the AOPR volunteers who helped with installation of the show.
Point Richmond
Post Office
Stephen Kowalski
Upcycled Steam Punk
September 18—November
California native Stephen Kowalski took apart his toys as a child to see how they worked. Now, several decades later, Stephen does the same thing, just with larger and more expensive parts. Trained as a Graphic Designer and then later an Industrial Designer, Stephen has won several awards for his work in both fields. Stephen does work for his own enjoyment as well as commissioned work at his Richmond Studios.
Contact Stephen at:
E: skowalski1955@gmail.com
T: 510-812-1249
I: therealevenstephen
Point Richmond
Post Office
Gayle Asali Dickson
Acrylic Paintings
July 17—September 18, 2023
Gayle Asali Dickson, ordained minister, and former member of the Black Panther Party, has been creating art for most of her life. She illustrated the Black Panther's newspaper, gave art-related classes and workshops in at a Senior Housing Complex in Oakland, and occasionally illustrates her sermons with her art. Gayle began painting in acrylics in 2010 and currently is practicing "The Art of Letting Go" as taught at the Jessel Miller Art Gallery in Napa, California.
Her work is drawn from spiritual musings, lessons from the environment, as well as stories from the Bible, from history, and life.
Linda Drake Gallery
at El Sol Mexican Restaurant
"Conversations"
Paintings by
Judy Rattner
July 16—October 15, 2023
"This is a small collection of work that touches on the last twenty years or so...Time is not linear..I have a world that I invite you to enter. Then move within it, feel it. See it through your eyes. Sense it with your mind’s eye, and make it yours."
"When you start working, everybody is in your studio-The past, your friends, your enemies, the art world, and above all...Your own ideas, all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then if you are lucky, even you leave.”
—John Cage, American avant-garde composer (1912—1992)
"I like paintings that do not have all the questions answered, but still pose some questions."
%20oil%20on%20paper%2022x28.jpg)
Point Richmond
Post Office
K Olival
Wildlife
Photography
May 22 — July 17, 2023
Rest assured, we were always at least 50 yards from the bears and with a group of 12 photographers and 3 guides I always felt safe. If you are wondering if it was cold, I can tell you YES, it was cold. Very cold. The temperatures ranged from -10 to -30 below zero. One of the best trips ever. I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoy sharing them with you. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me at kolival@att.net
The photos in this Post Office exhibit were taken on a polar bear expedition to a place called Churchill, in Manitoba, Canada. Many companies offer similar trips but the company I chose promised that I would be "on the ground" with the polar bears. And so I was. The experience of being at eye level with these apex predators was truly amazing, and one that I will never forget.
Linda Drake Gallery
at El Sol Mexican Restaurant
Watercolors
April 9—July 16, 2023
Paintings by Lenore Stormes and Jean Brady
Lenore Stormes
Watercolor, acrylic, and oil
I find great joy and inspiration in nature and in traveling to new places. Art and design are threads that weave through all of my endeavors—interior design, fashion design, stained glass—and after retiring from a 29-year career in laboratory design for the biotech industry I am thoroughly enjoying a return to the colorful world of painting!
email: lenorestormes@gmail.com
instagram: lenorestormesartist
Jean Brady
Watercolor and pastel
I joined Arts of Point Richmond in 2010 with encouragement from one of AOPR's founders, Linda Calvin-Drake, and it has been a valuable resource as an artist! I love painting animals, flowers, coastal landscapes and images that tell a story. Many of my paintings highlight scenes of local interest, such as the historic wigwag train signal in Point Richmond.
email: jeanbradyartist@gmail.com
website: https://jbradyart.com
Lara's
Fine Dining
AOPR Member Exhibition
January 28 - June 24, 2023
This is one of our best shows ever, so be sure to treat yourself and have a look! The exhibition features 54 pieces of art by 35 AOPR artists working in collage, oils, acrylics, photography, watercolor, textiles, metal and more. Art is displayed throughout the restaurant.
Big thanks to Lara, for hosting AOPR exhibitions, to organizers and exhibition managers Louise Williams and Jan Chleboun, and to all the AOPR volunteers who helped with installation of the show!
Point Richmond
Post Office
Doug Smith & Peter Carleton
Photography
and
Dye on Aluminum
March 15—May 15, 2023
Dr. Douglas B. Smith Artist Statement
I began my photography training underwater! Beginning in the 1990’s, I traveled to warm water diving locations and participated in underwater photography training workshops conducted by a National Geographic photographer. Selected images from this phase of my work are included the Point Richmond post office exhibition.
I recently participated in the Arts of Point Richmond Art Tag experience, where participants were challenged to create Accidental Art. When frozen food packed in dry ice arrived at my doorstep, I seized the opportunity to use the dry ice to create accidental images. Using a crystal ball lens and dry ice in water, I captured amazing images ─ some of these are also on display in the Post Office windows.
email: dsmith@pacific.edu
Peter Carleton Artist Statement
My inspiration comes when my medium “acts up” and does something I hadn’t anticipated. I work with the class of dyes used for printing on fabrics or making photo “metal prints.” I sometimes apply the dyes in powdered form to a dampened surface, but usually they are mixed with water and thickened with shaving cream, a trick I learned from children. I use brushes, squeegees, bouncing balls—anything handy—to apply and manipulate the “paint”.
The white polyester coating on the aluminum strongly resists the dye, so I can often wipe off failed accidents and start over. When an accident is happy enough, I heat the metal to permanently set the dye.
email: artworkpvc@gmail.com
website: artworkpeter.com
Linda Drake Memorial Gallery
at El Sol Mexican Restaurant
Art of the African Diaspora
Satellite Exhibition
Photographs by
Saida Nassirruddin
and
Ron Calime
February 26—April 8, 2023
Point Richmond
Post Office
Bonnie Leonard & Becca Riley
Fused Glass and Textiles
January 9—March 14, 2023
Photos by Louise Williams
Artists' Statement
What began as a discussion about the rigidity of glass and the softness of textile morphed into a year-long collaboration between textile artist Becca Riley and fused glass artist Bonnie Leonard. The goal was to spotlight the importance of healthy marshes in our ecosystem. The year was filled with creating, experimenting, at times failing, and ultimately succeeding in combining the two disparate media into a depiction of a marsh viewed through the artists' eyes (and a better understanding of each other's perspective). We hope that you enjoy viewing our creation and that you take away an appreciation for the importance that wetlands play in our lives.
*Special thanks to AOPR artist Paige Tashner for making the legs for the egret and the oystercatcher, and to venue managers Jan Chleboun and Louise Williams for their encouragement and physical labor to help install the exhibition.
For further information about our marshes, visit Save the Bay https://savesfbay.org and National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/index.htm.
Taking It Outdoors
Banners of the 2022 Season
Out of the studio and into the public square
Linda Drake Memorial Gallery
at El Sol Mexican Restaurant
"Women of the Andes"
Paintings by Gabriela Nuñez
November 13—February 26, 2023
Email: galenuur20@sbcglobal.net
Website: https://www.gabrielanunez.com
Instagram: gabrielanunezartist
Artist Statement
I was born and raised in Lima, Peru and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in my late teens. Since childhood, I have expressed myself through art, and my Peruvian heritage remains a strong influence on my work.
My inspiration comes from the dignity and innocence of the Indigenous women and children of the Andes: the ready expression of emotions on their faces, the size and strength of their hands and feet, and the hard work they do. I am impressed by their practice of traditional crafts, reflected in the colorful handwoven clothing and knitted garments they wear, including their hats, which vary according to region, and are thus symbols of identity as well as offering protection from the elements.
Through my art, I would like people to see the beauty of the Andean women and their culture. These paintings represent my personal vision of Andean women, creatively portrayed with love and respect.
Point Richmond
Post Office
Nancy Whitley
Nov. 8, 2022—Jan. 2, 2023
Photographs
Nancy Whitley has exhibited her photography in several Bay Area venues and is honored to have been invited to exhibit a selection of her work in the Post Office windows.
"My quest is to discover the Illusion, the reflection, the bare truth; to see the beauty, the irony, the puzzle. And always, the detail."
Linda Drake Memorial Gallery
at El Sol Mexican Restaurant
"El Día de los Muertos"
Paintings by Eric Carlstrom
October 16—November 13 2022
Don't miss Eric Carlstrom's suitably colorful, creepy and imaginative exhibition to celebrate Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos). On display for one month only.
Eric is inspired by tattoo art and Japanese wood block prints, and he paints mostly in acrylics. He also enjoys assemblage sculpture, and in this exhibition, he incorporates sculptural, 3-D elements in his paintings. Eric believes that art can be moving and inspirational, or simply fun and humorous. The use of bright colors and heavy black outlines in his paintings makes them visually vibrant and personally distinctive. He lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, please email CarlstromEric@gmail.com, or find him on Facebook and Instagram:
www.facebook.com/ArtworkofEricCarlstrom
Point Richmond
Post Office
Photographer Nora Lee
September 6—November 21, 2022
"Float On"
Image by Louise Williams
Nora has been printing photographic images on various materials since 2005, and is especially drawn to making photos that portray movement. Her current exhibition at the Post Office is inspired by several years of observing and photographing the seductively balletic movements of jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Nora transformed the large display windows of the Post Office into a visual aquarium containing four species of jellyfish and giving the impression of 3-dimensional objects in a 2-dimensional medium.
She printed her images in black and white, heightening their delicacy and drama, and onto a substrate of Crêpe Georgette silk. The ethereal fabric moves with the weightlessness of an underwater environment, imitating the exquisite real-life choreography and interplay of these graceful creatures in their fluid world.
For more about Nora Lee and her work, please go to https://noraleephotography.com
Kaleidoscope Coffee
Creatures Real & Imagined
Sept 1 - Oct 31, 2022
Opening Reception
Friday September 9, 2022 Sunday 2 pm - 4 pm
Kaleidoscope Coffee, 109 Park Place, Point Richmond
Wild and domesticated animals have long inhabited the depths of the human imagination and artists have brought mythic creatures to life in a visual form since antiquity.
Every culture, primitive and high-tech, that concerns itself with animal imagery and creatures born of our imaginations.
From part-human or animal hybrids to entirely fantastic beasts and spirit beings, creatures continue to thrill, terrify, inspire and entertain us. They give shape to our greatest hopes, fears and most passionate dreams and visions.
- Sharon Goods
Poster artists (from left to right): Louise Williams, DJ Leland, K Olival, Emily Erickson.
Linda Drake Memorial Gallery
at El Sol Mexican Restaurant
Clay Monoprints
by Virginia Rigney and Nancy Foss
July 17—October 17, 2022
"I am a watercolorist, and so for me, making clay monoprints was a new adventure." —Nancy Foss (pictured on left)
This innovative form of print-making begins with a raw clay slab. Artists paint onto the slab with colored slip (liquid clay tinted with colorant), and then add texture and imagery using a variety of tools and techniques.
"From earliest memory, I've found tremendous satisfaction working with clay and with paint, and making clay monoprints combines these two loves: painting and clay." —Virgina Rigney (pictured above on right)
When the design is finished, a large sheet of cloth-like paper is laid on top of the clay, and a brayer is used to pressure transfer a single print from slab to cloth. Each image is one-of-a-kind, a hand-pulled original.
To see more of Virginia's work, please go to rigneystudios.shutterfly.com
Point Richmond
Post Office
This site-specific installation, "Symbiosis", is an aesthetic narrative, a conversation among the elements of line, shape, texture, color, and value, within the contained spaces of the Post Office windows. It is the result of a two-year collaboration between the artists Penelope Anstruther and Betsy Kellas who recreated the Post Office windows in their studio to better understand and respond to limitations and possibilities inherent in the actual spaces.
Penelope Anstruther and Betsy Kellas
July 11 - September 6, 2022
Symbiosis
Noun: A cooperative relationship (as between two persons or groups): The two artists, each with their own style, share a symbiosis that enriches both their individual and collaborative work.”
The work evolved over many months with time spent in deeply focused conversations and critiques, as well as serious experiments and playful explorations of a wide range of materials including found objects, ready-mades, and clay. The installation is intended to engage the viewer, create curiosity, and spark imagination.
For more samples of Betsy's work, please go to www.betsykellas.com.
To see more of Penelope's work, please go to
Lara's
Fine Dining
AOPR Member Exhibition
June 25, 2022 - Jan, 2023
Art by AOPR members is displayed throughout the restaurant. Featured artists include: Rita Gardner, Nancy Noble, Sharon Taylor-Ward, Nancy Whitley, Louise Williams, Carol Gray, Marilyn Hertzberg, Carol Engelbrecht, Sharon Goods, Virginia Rigney, Ellen Pechman, Andi Biren, Jan Chleboun, Nora Lee, Mary Lee Cole, Jean Brady, Peter Carleton, Richard Ward, Gail Morrison, DJ Leland, Carol Lettko, Bob Colin, Debi Cooper, and Jackie Mucha.
Point Richmond
Post Office
I have done book illustrations and political cartoons and had a greeting card company. In 1974 I was one of the founding members of the Art Squad, at first in San Francisco and later here in Point Richmond. We have met weekly to draw collaboratively, literally drawing on each other’s art.
I continue to do lots of drawings for friends and family. And I love the Arts of Point Richmond!
For more samples of my work, please go to www.sinceredesign.com.
David Moore
May 31 - July 11, 2022
Pen, pencil and watercolor
I have loved drawing since I was a kid growing up on an 80 acre corn and soybean farm in Southern Illinois.
I moved to San Francisco when I got out of the army. I decided to go to art school when I heard the saying that “if you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything.” I signed up for life drawing classes at the SF Academy of Art and loved doing them and kept drawing all kinds of things.
Linda Drake Memorial Gallery
at El Sol Mexican Restaurant
April 4—July 15, 2022
Portraiture
Featuring AOPR artists Gabriela Nunez, Greg Urban, Mary Lee Cole, Susan Shore, Bob Colin, DJ Leland, Mindy Pines, Brian McGilloway, Sharon Goods, Sharon Taylor-Ward, Nancy Whitley, Marilyn Hertzberg, Carol Letko, Stella Kim, Emily Erickson, Delaney Henderson, Virginia Rigney, Cherie Carter, Rita Gardner, Andi Biren and Judy Rattner.
Point Richmond
Jane Emley & Rita Gardner
Photography
March 28 - May 31, 2022
Jane Emley
Anchored by Beauty
Teasingly, I am called a color-drunk fool. And I am.
I also delight in the small and great wonders of nature; textures, patterns, forms, clouds, light, and shadows all delight my eye.
Living during the pandemic has challenged us so profoundly. My refuge is going outside. Capturing the beauty that surrounds me has become my anchor. It is a way to recenter and restore myself and my sense of hope.
It’s my pleasure to share this space with Rita Gardner
Rita Gardner
Nature’s Inspirations
I have always been awed by nature – there is no end to how it can teach us about our world, and even heal us.
This has been especially true during the pandemic, when being outdoors was a balm many of us sought as our world shrank.
I’m pleased to be joined in this exhibit by photographer Jane Emley, as we both share images of the natural world that have inspired us
Post Office
Dee Bell Paintings
Kaleidoscope Coffee
March 1 - April 30, 2022
"Color in a painting is like enthusiasm in life"
~ Vincent Van Gogh
Point Richmond
Post Office
Anna Froker
Visual Diary
Collage
February 28 - March 28, 2022
For many years I have enjoyed making collages, either on my own, or with friends, as a way to bypass the conscious mind and access a deeper inner landscape.
The process is intuitive. A collage-making session sometimes begins with a meditation, or a question, or a theme, but not necessarily. The end result reflects what is in the heart of the maker, and often reveals useful insights.
The collages in this exhibit span ten years. Each one captures a particular moment in time, and together, they form a kind of visual diary.
Mom & Pop Art Shop
Bring Back Love
February 12 - April 12, 2022
AOPR Artists Celebrate Love
The Reception
The Art
Artists include: Anna Froker, Bob Colin, Bonnie Leonard, Brian McGilloway, Caitlin Hibma, Carol Lettko, Cherie Carter, Clarita Griffin, Debi Cooper, Dee Bell, DJ Leland, Douglas Smith, Betsy Kellas, Emily Erickson, George Tomberlin, Gretchen Blais, Jacinto Castillo, Jean Brady, Judy Rattner, Kelly Nicolaisen, Louise Williams, Mary Dollar, MaryLee Cole, Nancy Whitley, Paige Tashner, Rebecca Riley, Rita Gardner, Sharon Goods, Sharon Taylor-Ward, Siobhan Siegel, Stells Juna Hill, Steve Hurst, Travis Straw.
Point Richmond
Post Office
Bill Johnston, Jr.
Modern Life
Photography
January 4 - February 28, 2022
I like to take what I call documentary photographs, largely free of the tell-tale marks of the computer.
These run the gamut from still lifes to architecture and street (inside to outside). In this show, the photos are documentary and still lifes.
In addition to Arts of Point Richmond, I belong to the Berkeley Camera Club and the Marin Photo Club.
