Here is another chance to partake in a Virtual Art Party…Stay home, open a bottle of wine, and browse online the artists from Skidmore Contemporary Art (BergamotStation, 2525 Michigan Avenue, B-4, Santa Monica, 90404). An engaging group exhibition featuring New Works by gallery artists is currently on view. Call 310-828-5070 for more info.

David Ashwell, 26th St Crossing, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 42″ x 49″

Artists include: Jhina Alvarado, Karen Appleton, David Ashwell (see image above), Alexandra Averbach, Jennifer Bain, Richard Baker, Jim Bandsuh. Melissa Chandon, Emile Dillon, Robert Charles Dunahay, Isabel Emrich, Nicole Finger, Daryl Gortner, Tracey Sylvester Harris, Bradley Hankey, Richard Heisler, David Jenks, Nina Jun, Anne-Marie Kornachuk, Lori Larusso, Terry Leness, Diane Rudnick Mann, Courtney Murphy, Eric Nash, Laurie Raskin, Michael Sheets, Doug Shoemaker, Brighton Smith, Maxine Smith, James David Thomas, Shalene Valenzuela, and Clay Vorhes.

David Ashwell doesn’t consider himself to be a landscape painter, at least not in the plein air sense. While his coastal and beach scenes are an attempt to find motifs that resonate with life in Southern California, he is also looking to express a more abstract feeling of optimism—a feeling that brought him here in the first place.

Arriving from Britain in 1984, Ashwell was struck by the intense light that greets us nearly everyday. “By comparison,” he says, “living in Britain was like living under a 40 watt bulb.” At that time Ashwell was a director of television commercials. When he began painting, he drew heavily from this previous career.

In the same way he would look for a film location, Ashwell visits a likely painting spot at various times of day to photograph the different lighting effects created by time and by weather: early morning cross light – intense white-hot top light – magic hour evening light – and everything in between.

Another painter whose works are part of the group show is Daryl Gortner.

Daryl Gortner, In the Limelight, 2019, Oil on canvas, 40″ x 60″

“Humble but visually striking things inspire my photorealist paintings. Some of the objects that fascinate me are brightly colored coffee cups, lollipops wrapped in cellophane, a gumball machine, patent leather high heels, salt and pepper shakers, and marbles in a mason jar. I celebrate the extraordinary beauty of the ordinary objects in our everyday lives. I am especially drawn to objects that both have intense color and offer the opportunity to paint reflections. Glass, metal, patent leather and plastic present fascinating mirrors of things around them. I get almost as much pleasure painting the ephemeral world of reflections as painting the still life objects themselves. If you look very carefully, you can almost see me in them.”

On view thru April, 2020;

What: Group Exhibition
Where: Skidmore Contemporary Art, Bergamot, 2525 Michigan Avenue, B-4, Santa Monica, 90404
Phone: 310-828-5070 – Call for more info
Website:  http://www.skidmorecontemporaryart.com