Show Preview | Anniversary Exhibition

Santa Barbara, CA
Waterhouse Gallery, November 19-December 20

This story was featured in the November 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art  November 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Over the last couple of years, Waterhouse Gallery has widened its highly regarded annual Great American Figurative Exhibition into an all-genre anniversary show. “We have everything from highly rendered realism to impressionism, with everything in between. It’s a visually stunning exhibition. It’s a feast,” says gallery co-owner Diane Waterhouse. Painters Suchitra Bhosle and Craig Nelson open the show with painting demonstrations on Saturday, November 19, at 2 p.m. An artists’ reception follows from 4 to 7:30 p.m. that evening.

The gallery expanded the show’s scope, in part, because gallery co-owner Ralph Waterhouse paints landscapes, and the exhibition’s previous focus excluded his work. The broader focus also allows Waterhouse to include a variety of top-notch artists. For this year’s show the gallery called upon its stable and guest artists to compile the impressive list of 35 participants, which includes Peter Adams, George Bodine, Jove Wang, Mian Situ, Hsin-Yao Tseng, Adrian Gottlieb, Jeremy Lipking, and Kyle Ma.

“We’ve asked these artists for new pieces that haven’t been seen in other galleries. Their reputations and their skills make it like Christmas when the boxes are delivered. I get so much joy in hanging their paintings,” Waterhouse says.

It really did feel like Christmas when she opened San Francisco artist Hsin-Yao Tseng’s GREEN DOOR (on the cover), a portrait of a little girl in an entryway decorated for the holiday season. Tseng was playing with light and shadow in this piece, while he focused on narrative in CHINESE OLD HOUSE INTERIOR, a depiction of his grandmother and mother’s former home in Taiwan. “Once I walked in, I felt really emotional,” Tseng says. “There are a lot of stories in this house. Even though there’s no one living there. I looked beneath the surface to reveal what’s hidden and painted the feeling.” Although these pieces are classic examples of his impressionistic paintings, he’s introduced turquoise green in each painting, a new addition to his color palette that emerged after a summer spent on the beach.

Kentucky-based George Bodine also captures the narrative behind a scene with THE INNOCENTS, a studio piece that blends the image of a statue from an Italian piazza with that of a little girl who modeled for him. “This painting represents innocence but also danger and things that are right outside of your vision, like when you walk in an alley and something catches the corner of your eye,” Bodine says. A second work captures a woman in a moment of peace and serenity. Both pieces, he says, are in line with who he is and where he wants to travel with his creative process. “My vision is becoming more clear to me. I’m painting the things now that I want to paint. I’ve been liberated to paint full time and paint the things that really mean something to me,” Bodine says of his dynamic body of work that moves between cityscapes, landscapes, and—in keeping with this show’s roots—figurative works. —Ashley M. Biggers

contact information
805.962.8885
www.waterhousegallery.com

This story was featured in the November 2016 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art  November 2016 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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