Olof Carmel -

 

Olof is an award winning photographer whose coveted open and limited edition fine art prints have been among California's best selling for over 10 years. He began his photo career in a prominent S.F. Bay Area custom B&W lab in 1981. During the 1980's and 90's he worked, explored and photographed as a Backcountry Ranger with the National Park Service in Yosemite, Denali, Glacier, Mt Rainier and Rocky Mountain National Parks including a seven-year residence in Yosemite Valley with the National Park Service and Yosemite Mountaineering School. His images have received numerous awards and regularly grace the covers of magazines, with one curator stating "Mr. Carmel creates sublime images of nature's beauty. He is a master at capturing subtle light that illuminates the landscape with delicacy and grace" (San Diego Natural History Museum show). A long time licensed design / building contractor, Olof is the primary designer and builder of both the Carmel’s Truckee Gallery (2007-2009) and Calistoga Gallery (2011-2013).  Olof's undergraduate education was completed at the Stockholm School of Economics and his graduate work was done at UC Berkeley in California.  He has an art background in watercolor and charcoal drawing, an influence that can be seen in some of his images.

Victorina Damwijk -

 

Victorina, a native of Holland and of Dutch-Indonesian descent, has been creating unique pieces of art since her childhood. She is a conceptual artist who is driven by the need to transform simple and seemingly unimportant objects (rust, shells, pebbles, etc.) into beautiful and elaborate pieces of art. Each creation whether it be a beautiful windchime, drawing or sculpture, is birthed out of either a dream, a life experience-sorrowful or joyful, or even a strong desire to express something deep within her soul. Every windchime and each strand have their own elegant beauty, being intricately formed with a variety of unique pieces: vintage beads, stained glass, beach glass, hand-made clay pieces, rust, driftwood, shells, etc., all of which have been hand selected and collected over many years. Her love for the rawness of creation, from the desert or the ocean is heard and seen in the gentle sound and sway of her windchimes. As the sun shines through a piece of stained glass, one is reminded of how life can be simple, fragile, and yet beautifully complex. Because of her past experience in owning and managing her own art gallery, people from all over the world have had the opportunity to enjoy her work. You may someday find yourself strolling along the coast and happen to see one of her creations hanging in the window or placed lovingly in a home.

Tracey Goff

 

I have great memories from my youth taking back country drives through Southern California with my architect father looking for the perfect old barn, Victorian house or Spanish Mission to stop for a quick watercolor sketch.

 

Later in life I relocated to Northern Nevada with my husband and three young children.  With the Sierra Mountains to the West and high desert to the East, wildlife, wild horses, and ranching are inspirations for my work.

 

I enjoy working in Watercolor and Oil mediums and strive to learn new techniques to improve the quality of the art I create. Through the years I have entered juried shows and have been successful winning many first place through honorable mention awards at state and local competitions.

 

When I’m not painting I enjoy spending time with family, canoeing with my husband, going on walks with our rescue greyhound and riding my horse.

Sabrina Frey -

 

I am a full time award winning artist dedicated to expanding the artistic possibilities of my chosen medium, Glass Beads.  Thinking beyond traditional beading methods of the past, I've developed many innovative techniques for highlighting the beads personality.  As a nature lover, I use my beads to represent life by creating highly detailed representational art of animals, landscapes and the elements.  The beading techniques I have developed allow me to create immersive and tactile mosaics that embody the DNA of each piece. As with nature, they are a diverse aggregate of smaller parts that make one cohesive and unique body.

 

Protecting the world I love is also a priority, so I use many re-purposed materials such as cabinet doors and serving trays to create my art work. These sturdy bases are given new life and add to the uniqueness of each piece.  As a former academic, I enjoy sharing my discoveries with others and have played a major part in expanding and growing interest in bead mosaics.

J. Jirsa -

 

Jessica Joy Jirsa received her Bachelor of Science in Art Education from New York University in 1999. She discovered the wonder of painting outside while living in South Dakota. She became an active member of the Plein Air Association of South Dakota in 2004, painting and showing her work across the state. Her paintings have been part of countless shows and private collections across SD and the Midwest. This includes exhibitions at the Washington Pavilion, Brookings Art Council, and the Museum of Visual Materials, as well as being a featured artist in Sioux Falls Women Magazine in 2008.

 

In 2010, Jirsa made a new home in Oakland, CA, and continues her pursuit to capture the beauty of the surrounding environment in plein air and working primarily with oil paint on canvas. Jessica breaks from traditional plein air painting of natural light and colors with her more vivid and wild color palette that makes for paintings that jump off walls. Obsessed with color’s power to demand attention and provoke emotions, Jirsa makes familiar Bay Area scenes pulse with life.

Aaron Jones -

 

Originally from Truckee, California and a Graphic Designer by trade, I honed my Photography and Graphic Design at San Jose State University where I received a BFA. I now live locally in Carson Valley with my family capturing Wildlife and Landscapes from the air with drone photography as well as grounded with my still camera. I  enjoy capturing the beautiful landscapes of  Eastern Sierra and Lake Tahoe as well as  local events .

Vickie Kingman -

 

Before moving to Gardnerville, Vickie lived at South Lake Tahoe for 20 years. She was a vocalist with several local and Sacramento bands. She sang on the M.S. Dixie and at the Top of the Wheel at Harveys. Her Art interests didn’t stop there. She always loved to paint and continued to develop her skills. Now she works predominately in Watercolor, but will jump track and do a painting in Oil also. “Our Valley offers an abundance of beauty” she says. Vickie has been giving classes lately. She says ” It is such a joy to see the enthusiasm of others when they experience the magic of painting”.

 

Frank Rossbach -

 

January, 2022

 

Frank’s wonderful smile, good natured manner and generous Spirit will be greatly missed by all who knew him. Frank embraced life as an artist – born into a family of glassblowers with a 400 year history.

 

He was born in Duisburg, Germany and immigrated to the USA with his parents and sister when he was 4 years old.

 

His youth was spent in the Bay Area, where he attended San Carlos High School and learned the art of glassblowing from his father, Gerhard Rossbach. The entire family was artistic, with his mother Inge not only glassblowing, but also painting on the glass ornaments for the Christmas Tree. After High School Frank spent time in East Germany as an apprentice to master glassblowers in the town of Lauscha where the art was famous.

 

Frank loved music, and studied classical piano as a young boy. He loved playing drums, and was drumming on pots and pans with a wooden spoon when he was just 3 years old!

 

His interest in Art and Music continued throughout his life, leading him to opening glassblowing galleries in Incline Village and Truckee.

 

Truckee was Frank’s home for over 30 years and he had many, many friends who were like family to him. His latest vision was to form an artist cooperative on West River Street where art and music could flourish.

 

Frank is survived by his sister Ilona Robinson and brother in law Bob Robinson, who were also glassblowers, with Bob having learned the art from Frank.

 

Frank will be missed greatly by all who knew him.

 

Margaret Stillwell -

 

 Art is Margaret Stillwell's third career and a culmination of her journey thus far. After three long years of not being able to live her life pain-free, she began reinventing herself and healing as an artist. Her romantic narrative abstract art is rich in depicting the exploration of ones psyche and soulful connections made along the way. Margaret's urban landscapes represent our inner structures and our. exploration within them. Her love of nature is expressed in those moments of pause when you catch your breath in wonder and anticipation.

 

Teri Sweeney -

 

 As a landscape painter, I am constantly observing nature. Whether I am walking, riding a bike or driving, I am always on the lookout for a scene that is new or different. For this reason, I carry a camera with me wherever I go so I can capture these remarkable moments when I see them. I can be inspired by the beauty of the light, the positioning of objects in a vista or just the feel and look of the atmosphere that is lending a sense of moodiness to the scene. When actually contemplating my next painting, I usually have an idea already in my mind that I may already have a photograph of, or I may need to begin compiling several photographs to create a composition around the concept I am envisioning. If I am stuck for an idea, I will spend time going through photos I have already taken to see if a particular scene will catch my eye and compel me to paint it. Because I love detail, I also look to see if the scene has some detailed area I can exploit in my painting to make it more interesting. Once an idea gels, I usually start out with a drawing of the composition which I then transfer onto paper or canvas. As a watercolorist and an oil painter, my painting approach in both mediums is very similar. I start with blocking in a loose background and then work toward areas of detail. During the early years in my painting career, my mentor, the internationally known artist and teacher Julie Gilbert Pollard, impressed upon me that abstract shapes and design set the stage for a painting. Because my love for transforming a flat image into a three dimensional one is so strong, I am always aware that I need to be cautious that I don't detail the whole composition but leave some less defined areas to set the backdrop for the more defined ones. Also, as the painting progresses through several layers, I may see a quality of light or mood emerging that wasn't in the original photo or scene. At this point, I may end up going in a new direction following what the painting is showing me. My love for the detail in nature makes me want to share that love with others. I feel that many of the nuances that occur in a landscape may be missed by some and I hope that, through the way I portray an area, I can bring attention to them. I feel a piece has succeeded when I can walk away and say that my work says what I meant to say and there is no possible way I could change it to state it any better. My goal is to send my messages in even clearer and more exciting ways in the future.

Irene Taylor -

 

I have called myself an artist even as a child, influenced by creative parents who surrounded  us with the arts and the process of art.

 

I have a fine arts degree from San Jose State University and have also trained at the  Cleveland Institute of Arts, Cooper School of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, and Ohio University,  Athens, Ohio. While in Sonora, CA I studied with several successful local artists and was a long-standing member of the Mother Lode Art Assoc. and Tuolumne County Arts Alliance. In  June 2015 my husband and I relocated to Gardnerville, NV and I am now an active member of the Carson Valley Arts Council and the Nevada Arts Association. I show at regional art shows and at Gallery at Prism, Minden; East Fork Gallery,  Gardnerville; Nevada Art Association Gallery, Carson. I love to teach adults and children and awaken in them the idea of “seeing with their fingers” using contour and blind contour drawing exercises and giving them confidence that they can paint with watercolor successfully. Currently, I teach by appointment in my home studio.

 

For over 40 years, my professional career was as a graphic designer. I worked for advertising agencies, marketing/pr firms, corporate creative departments, and colleges. I also ran my own graphic design business for many years. My passion in producing art is not to emulate what I see but to put it into color and feeling what I experience. My best work comes when I have experienced a scene or flowers, study it with color, composition in mind, and joy of the heart, and then photograph for further reference.  I love the process of paint to paper and use the full range of color and light. I am also available for commissions. My studio is in my home and I am available by appointment. .

Scott Thompson -

 

Scott Thompson of Scott Shots Photography, located in beautiful Truckee, California. I have been living in Truckee / Tahoe since 2002, providing fine art photography and professional commercial photography services. I love to photograph the Tahoe area, often from my kayak. I currently photograph with a Canon 5DS R, a 50.6 megapixel camera capable of producing very large high quality prints.  I use a variety of lenses. My studio has a color calibrated 27 inch iMac for processing images, an Epson 9900 for making large prints, and color corrected lighting in the studio to make sure all my print colors are perfect.

Robert Bucknell-

 

"While studying art in college in the 70's I noticed that historically the progress of realism was interrupted in the 1800’s by impressionism and in the 1900’s by abstract painting.  But some of us rebellious young artists were captivated by the hyper-realists and I’ve attempted to follow that course throughout my career.  Apart from simply making something look real, I strive to express passion through the use of dramatic color and composition . I believe great art should stir the emotions and I’d like to think my paintings cause the viewer’s heart to beat just a little faster."