Current Exhibitions
“Joanne Julian: Nature’s Spirits”
On view November 9, 2024, to March 9, 2025
Joanne Julian decided early on to be an artist. Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, Julian inherited a strong immigrant work ethic and sense of discipline from her first-generation Armenian American parents. From her father, Joanne also acquired a fondness for gardening; from her mother, a love of art, dancing, and music. Julian’s first art lessons at age 12 included formative exercises in line and inspired her love of drawing.
Julian paid her own way through college and earned B.A. degrees in printmaking and sculpture and an M.A. in printmaking from California State University, Northridge. She later completed her M.F.A. in painting and drawing from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. To support herself as an artist and single mother, Julian built a career as a college art professor, including 34 years at College of the Canyons in Valencia where she served as Chair of the Fine Arts Department, Dean of Fine Arts and Humanities, and later Gallery Director.
It was a colleague who invited Joanne to a demonstration of Sumi-e ink brush painting led by Japanese Zen master Keidō Fukushima. Already an avid collector of Japanese woodblock prints, Julian was drawn to the movement and expressionistic quality of Japanese brush painting and its deference toward empty, ethereal space. Julian now begins every artwork in her Oxnard studio with a meditation and a spontaneous brushstroke in ink or acrylic, around or above which she draws realistic natural forms in graphite or Prismacolor.
The ensō, or Zen circle, appears often in Julian’s work. In Zen Buddhism, the ensō can symbolize wholeness, enlightenment, and the totality of the universe. But for Joanne, the dance of two distinct art styles, spontaneous gesture and meticulous drawing, are what make an image whole. They are yin and yang, learned skill and intuition, restraint and freedom.
The art of Joanne Julian is an invitation to meditate on nature’s miracles, from birds, insects, and botanicals found in the garden to clouds, stars, and nebulae witnessed in the night sky. We are all part of nature’s plan and part of the artistic experience.
Click on any image to enlarge.
"Gail Pidduck: 8² + 10"
On view September 14, 2024, to January 12, 2025
Gail Pidduck was born and raised on a citrus ranch in Santa Paula. After earning a B.A. in art from Brigham Young University in Utah, she returned to Santa Paula and started a family. With three young children, Pidduck made art when and where she could, in her kitchen or on her back porch. Her preference toward oil painting stemmed from her ability to set the slow-drying medium aside in a house with busy kids.
As her children grew older, Pidduck was able to dedicate more time to painting and exhibiting her work in Ventura County and beyond. She built a studio and acclaim as a rural landscape painter. Gail’s work has been acquired by numerous private and public collections, including the City of Ventura, City of Santa Paula, City of Thousand Oaks, Museum of Ventura County, and Dixie State University.
In 2023, as Pidduck approached her 74th birthday, she found herself with a childlike desire to just make art without being limited to a single subject or theme. She wanted to paint, but also have time to explore other mediums like linocut printmaking and digital art.
Gail gave herself the goal of creating 74 new paintings, 40 of which she selected for this show, and let the dimensions of the paintings, 8 inches square, provide the unifying ingredient. Thus, “8² + 10.” With no other restraints of expectations, Pidduck painted for the pure pleasure of creating, which, for her, “is what art is all about.”
