By Julie Ann Bell
You are invited to join a flock of grackles, a red fox, an exuberant monkey, blooming plants and a canoe—each extending a “Welcome” to the current exhibition of that name in the Stairway Gallery at Trackside Studios. Through April 30, seven artists highlight our studio’s mission: We welcome all to a vibrant, fun, friendly, imaginative space for local artists to create, teach and market art.
Pure Joy. Peggy King, artist
Fun and friendly certainly describes the young monkey swinging from a branch in Peggy King’s Pure Joy. King says this “and all my baby monkeys are inspired by my granddaughters. I love how they bring a smile to your face. Anything that makes you smile and brings joy to your life is an experience to be welcomed.”
Hal Brindley’s red fox, he says, “beckons you into her sunset forest world, surrounded by twinkling fireflies and the gentle caress of ferns. Welcome to the woods! It is magical here!” Brindley illustrated Fox Ferns Fireflies “purely from instinct as a simple exercise to practice” with the watercolor brushes in Procreate. “I tried to allow myself to embrace imperfection and messiness, which is counter to my perfectionist nature, and the result was a surprisingly magical, emotional piece that I truly love,” he says.
Embracing the unpredictable is key in Heidi Mayfield Drost’s wabi-sabi art classes where she teaches gel plate mono-printing. In My Plants, the end result is a calming invitation to pull up a chair by the houseplants and stay for a while.
Laura Chall’s hydrangeas in Blooming Friendships are a vibrant burst of life in a moving sea of background colors. Hydrangeas, says Chall,
“remind me of the welcoming of spring, of warmer weather, of bugs buzzing and birds chirping. In this piece, ‘welcome’ is about that moment of seasonal permission, when the world softens and opens again. The work is an invitation to slow down and notice the quiet signals that something new is beginning.”
Fox Ferns Fireflies. Hal Brindley, artist
Becker describes grackles as “highly intelligent and social birds with exquisitely colored iridescent feathers” whose beauty, intensity and vocality she has always admired. In creating Grackles no. 2 she used her loose and expressive watercolor-and-ink technique to “capture the elusive, transcendent essence of these birds as they greet one another,” she says. “With this up-close and personal composition, I also wanted to invite the viewer into their environment; I hope you feel welcomed to gather along with them in the branches.”
An empty canoe bids the viewer to enter a peaceful mountain sanctuary and release their worries for the day. Lake of Serenity, created in paper collage by Li Newton, takes the artist “back to my years of independence and exploration in the Sierra Nevada Mountains,” she says. In this, like many of her pieces, Newton creates a “place that clears the mind and welcomes dreams.”
Lisa Underwood says she strives to “view everything from different perspectives, especially my work.” She describes View from Above as connecting heaven and earth. Like her approach to her work, it also connects “different art forms, welcoming a connection of style and approach.”
Just as these works invite you into joyful, magical, meditative and explorative places, we welcome you to our studio of 60 local artists and to this exhibition.
Trackside Studios is located at 375 Depot Street in the River Arts District. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, and by appointment. Learn more at TracksideStudios.com.
