Functional Pottery and Paintings at Coast Highway Art Collective
The members of the Coast Highway Art Collective are excited to host two local artists, Brenda Phillips, ceramics and Bruce Jones, painting in an exhibit during the month of November. An opening reception on Friday, November 5 from noon to 5:00pm will give the community the opportunity to meet the artists, enjoy local art and start holiday shopping for that special gift.
Brenda Phillips began taking pottery lessons around 2002 after retiring in 1995 from teaching at Manchester Elementary and as a resource specialist at Point Arena High School. She has studied under Paul Stein and taken classes at Brandybuck with Kaye Like and at the Mendocino Art Center. Phillips is showing some new work at this show, including large footed oval bowls and globes. She says “It’s a challenge for me to make new shapes that I haven’t tried before. I love it when a lump of clay can become so many different shapes and forms. Glazing is still fun especially when different colors are layered onto a single piece. I love to challenge myself by mixing my own glazes, then brushing, dipping, pouring, or spraying them for so many different effects.”
Bruce Jones comes from a long line of artists, including his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. He has always dabbled in drawing and painting for fun and relaxation, but was finally able to indulge as a fulltime artist when he retired in 2000 and moved to Gualala.
Everything around him seems to inspire him to create. Art lovers who follow Jones’ work are familiar with his watercolors and drawings of peoples’ faces, hands and bodies, insects, trees, rocks, flowers, and gardens, the ocean with all its moods, cityscapes and engines.
Jones says “Unlike most watercolor artists, I like strong darks and distinct shapes. Use of inks is helpful with darks so I often use pen & ink in many of my watercolors and pencil drawings. And sometimes the art is just ink, as it often was in the past.”
Since Covid hit the coast, Jones has been spending a lot of time in his garden, capturing images in Prismacolor wax pencil. Jones explains that wax pencil takes a lot longer to do than watercolor, but he felt he had the time, so he dove into wax pencil and thoroughly enjoyed developing layers of color in the wax. Working with this medium, he says he would get completely lost in color and shut the whole world out of his mind. “So this year, you will see a lot of different looks in this show: plants, flowers, gardens, ink, and some of my favorite watercolor landscapes, plus a couple of screwy paintings I just like.”
The Coast Highway Art Collective is located at 284 Main Street, Point Arena, the little red building with the big yellow sun, located next to the Redwood Coast Credit Union. Regular hours are Friday through Sunday, 11:00am to 4:00pm. Visit the website at www.coast-highway-artists.com for information about the collective’s artists, upcoming events and how to join. Those interested in selling holiday items in the Collective’s December Holiday Show should contact Ling-Yen Jones via the website above.
