“Paper, Paint & Pencil” is the title of the May show at the Willits Center of the Arts. It will showcase the different media artwork of three longtime Mendocino county artists, two of whom live and studied abroad. Paulo Ferreira studied in Lisbon, London and Paris and currently runs Colored Horse Studios, a creative service business in Ukiah. Eva Strauss-Rosen studied painting and drawing in Denmark, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and as Hamsa Design Studio built websites, created graphic art and jewelry designs. Nancy McHone, community arts organizer funded by the California Arts Council and teacher, has lived on a homestead outside Willits for many years after completing art studies in Chicago and San Francisco.
Paulo’s artwork involves what he calls ”the space between the eye and the objects that hold timelessly all emotions and understanding." He paints in oil and encaustic. For Eva, the media is of drawing and oil painting. She continually studied composition and technique while being occupied with her sons and family. She finds herself “attracted to the interaction between paper and pencil and the subtle difference of texture, hue and tonality” that allow her to spend equal effort on technical skills and a personal statement. Nancy is a sculptor who makes armatures from wire, foamcore board, canvas and found wood, and then lays a skin of paper and glue over them. While most of her work is wall hung, she will be showing her most recent series (called rural weaving) that has mostly freestanding 3D pieces. This artwork reflects “a basket-like nexus of wrap and weft with creates an interdependence of parts that are painted with the spirit of wood and texture, branches, leaves and stems interwoven. These pieces are containers of this spirit and an associative memory of rural lifestyles.”
To view a selection of the exhibiting artists' work: Paulo Ferreira, Eva Strauss-Rosen, Nancy McHone.