Show Preview | Knowlton Gallery: One Random Day

Lodi, CA, December 1-January 12

West Fraser, A Month of Blue Moons, oil, 9 x 12.

This story was featured in the December 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art magazine December 2012 print edition here, or purchase the Southwest Art magazine December 2012 digital download here. Or simply subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!

Toward the end of 2011, gallery owner Robin Knowlton began to think about themes and shows she wanted to present in 2012. For the holiday season, Knowlton decided to defy a tradition—the annual miniatures show—and offer collectors something different. She settled on the idea of inviting a number of gallery and guest artists to create paintings on one particular day of the year.

The random day was selected when she pulled “August 28, 2012” from a hat. Works painted that day by 24 painters from across the country are on view this month. The show, which opens with a reception from 1 to 4 p.m. on December 1, includes both plein-air and studio paintings. “I like the idea of some unifying thing that ties us together despite distance and differences,” Knowlton says. “It’s why I wanted to organize a show around a group of artists—all painting on the same day but in their own way, time, and place.”

John Cosby, Where Lovers Walk, oil, 16 x 24.

For the One Random Day show, West Fraser from South Carolina painted a landscape titled A MONTH OF BLUE MOONS. “A blue moon is so rare, and so are beautiful, wild places. I have always enjoyed the moon rising over Port Royal Sound, seemingly from the depths of the Atlantic,” Fraser says. “In this painting, I am standing on a point in South Carolina’s Daws Island Heritage Preserve—a view not unlike what the natives saw when the French, along with Jean Ribault, sailed into the sound 450 years ago.”

On the opposite coast and at another time of day, Southern California painter John Cosby focused his artistic eye on a scene he views regularly on a morning walk in Laguna Beach, CA. The scene immediately drew him in on August 27, and he returned the next day to depict it for the show. “It was even better on the 28th as the fog was on the distant hill and the sun broke through in the foreground,” Cosby says.

Clark Mitchell, Heading In, pastel, 12 x 18.

For his painting HEADING IN, Northern California pastelist Clark Mitchell also zeroed in on a locale that is familiar to him—a pristine slice of the landscape between Petaluma and Sonoma, north of San Francisco. When Mitchell roams the area at different times of day, he always sees simple yet dynamic compositions. He makes a practice of storing such scenes in his mind for future plein-air excursions. “I had seen this possibility at the end of an earlier painting session, just as the sun was lowering to the west,” Mitchell says. “This time, as I set up, the wonderful single-file line of cows came through to make the composition even better.”

In addition to Fraser, Cosby, and Mitchell, there are other award-winning artists featured in this novel show, including Charles Muench, Kenn Backhaus, Randall Sexton, Don Demers, Joe Paquet, Dennis Ziemienski, Craig Nelson, John Budicin, and Carolyn Lord. —Bonnie Gangelhoff

contact information
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 www.knowltongallery.com

Featured in the December 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art magazine December 2012 digital download
Southwest Art magazine December 2012 print edition
Or subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!