March showers have ushered in beautiful conditions for the Pence Gallery’s 20th annual Garden Tour on Sunday, May 1. During April, we are eager to tell garden lovers that this great community event is happening, and ticket sales will begin April 15.
This year’s tour centers on nine artistic gardens, all in rural West Davis. Visitors will enjoy an intimate peek into some of the most exquisite outdoor living environments that are thriving in our spring weather. Included are some of the largest gardens ever featured, including fruit orchards, bountiful vegetable plots and native plants. Not to be missed is a garden traversed by three bridges over a slough featuring a gaggle of geese, a miniature train display and an extensive selection of bamboo. Visitors can enjoy strolling through shady redwood groves past brick-lined grape arbors.
Local artists Naomi Bautista, Marie-Therese Brown, Kristine Bybee, Jeanette Copley, Philippe Gandiol, Debbie Gualco, Deborah Hill, Cynthia Kroener and Beth Winfield will be painting from noon to 4:30 p.m., inspired by the beauty on display in our selected gardens. Weaver Natalie Mackenzie will demonstrate spinning for interested viewers.
For someone like me, who loves to garden but has little knowledge of what works, the event offers great learning opportunities. Master Gardeners will be on hand, and the booklet offers great information on plant selection. Last year, my sister-in-law completed her yard inspired by plants that she discovered on our Garden Tour.
Our silent auction, from noon to 5:30 p.m., will be at 37810 Russell Blvd., and offers an exciting array of gift certificates, services and fun items donated by local businesses. Complimentary homemade refreshments and restrooms also will be available at this location.
Tickets are $20 for Pence members, $25 for nonmembers and $28 if purchased on tour day. This fundraising event benefits the Pence’s education and exhibit programs, serving more than 14,500 people annually. Tickets may be purchased at the Pence, 212 D St.; Redwood Barn Nursery, 1607 Fifth St.; Newsbeat, 514 Third St.; and Beyond the Garden Gate, 1015 Olive Drive. The day of the tour, tickets will be sold at the Pence and at 37810 Russell Blvd beginning at noon.
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Back in the gallery, we continue to offer visitors a chance to see two great exhibits: “Touching Base” and Michael Radin’s photography exhibit “Playing with Perspective.” As part of our effort to support emerging artists, UC Davis art professor Robin Hill curated the exhibit “Touching Base.” At its center are works in all media (installation, drawings, ceramics, paintings and sculpture) by 11 artists who completed their bachelor’s degrees in art at UCD over the past 10 years.
Radin also attended UCD to receive his master of fine arts degree, and has continued to work on expanding his personal vision through his unaltered photographs capturing motion perspective. Don’t miss his talk from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Pence, at which he will enlighten visitors about his journey in creating two evocative series of photographs.
Opening this month and continuing until May 6, “Human Nature” showcases the ceramic work of San Jose-based artists Malia Landis and Wesley Wright. Wright includes several pieces that show the transfiguration of one thing into another in a long sequence. For example, in one piece, a rooster slowly becomes a fish.
His skill at imitating reality is amazing, especially in his self-portraits. In his larger-than-life sculpture “The Process,” two versions of the artist’s face are joined in a surreal Siamese-twin merging. One “twin” blows a bubble crafted of glass, while his mate samples another bubble on his outstretched tongue. As Wright says, the humor in his work “helps to soften the harshness of life,” and this sculpture seems both intensely inward and playfully engaged with his environment.
Landis’ work often features an alter-ego of sorts, an older female figure, who is surrounded by various possessions. As she explains, “Incorporating the female form, voluptuous and unembellished, I intend to invoke the nurturing self. Embracing the beauty of volume and the seductive nature of the feminine poise, these women are an interpretation of my psychological self.”
In “Relic of Bareness,” a nude woman appears strong and comfortable with herself, surrounded by a field of delicate Easter lilies, against a blue boat. It is a lovely scene of abundance, and seems perfect for display this spring. I invite you to enjoy Landis and Wright’s evocative work upstairs at the Pence. They are two artists I expect to hear a lot more about in the future!
— Natalie Nelson is executive director and curator of the Pence Gallery. Her column appears monthly.
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