Upcoming Events

Schedule of Guest Artists

* Tuesday Evening, January 14th, 2025 at 7:30 pm – Samantha McNally / Watercolor

* Tuesday Evening, February 11th, 2025 at 7:30 pm – Thomas Taneyhill / Illustration

* Tuesday Evening, March 11th, 2025 at 7:30 pm – Dave Wagner / Oil

Tuesday Evening, January 14th, 2025 at 7:30 pm

Samantha McNally - Watercolor

Bio:
Samantha McNally is an award-winning, professional watercolor artist, whose works are in private collections across the country. Known for her realism and delicacy in capturing floral and nature-inspired subjects, Samantha also teaches watercolor painting, is an art juror and a demo artist. She is a signature member and past president of the California Watercolor Association. Samantha is on the board of the Lamorinda Arts Alliance (LAA) and also the webmaster for LAA, Benicia Literary Arts, Martinez Arts Association, Benicia Plein Air Gallery and Main Street Arts Gallery, aRt Cottage, Concord as well as for several local artists.
McNally shows her paintings at Benicia Plein Air Gallery, Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek and Main Street Arts Gallery in Martinez.
Samantha studied art at Ramapo College and Ridgewood School of Art, NJ, and the School of Visual Arts in NYC. She further honed her eye for creating finely detailed work during her 15-year career as an embroidery designer in the NYC garment district.

See Sam’s artwork at www.samanthamcnally.com

Tuesday Evening, February 11th, 2025 at 7:30 pm

Thomas Taneyhill - Illustration

Bio:
Thomas R. Taneyhill is a fine artist and illustrator. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Cal and studied illustration at the Academy of Art University.

“In my experience, the art of being an illustrator is the ability to create within parameters set by the client. The fine artist attempts to make art itself an individual statement. I see my artistic vision as a union of both disciplines. My greatest challenge is to find the elusive quality of timelessness hidden within a modern landscape.”

Thomas Taneyhill

Tuesday Evening, March 11th, 2025 at 7:30 pm

Dave Wagner - Oil

Bio:

“My educational path has led me to study at Cal Poly, The California College of the Arts, and the New York Academy of Art. I’ve been interested in art my entire life. Now I teach at Las Positas College, in Livermore. When I’m not teaching or in the studio, I’m generally exploring the outdoors of Northern California.”

Oil Paintings:

“My newest work is an extension of my relationship with the natural world, which I love to explore. The people, scenery, and events occurring while searching for a new mountain, basin, lake, or valley are never-ending fuel for my paintings. In contrast to previous work which described the sublime, new paintings focus on the pastoral. I’m interested in communicating the energy of the moment, the feeling of that time and place, and the truth beyond a physical reality.”

Formations:

“I am interested in the dualities I see shaping the grand dance of the universe: tragedy and beauty, chaos and order, destruction and creation. The paintings I make are enigmatic meditations on impermanence and the sublime. My work is heavily influenced by my love of spending time surrounded by mountains, staring at the stars, and considering the epic of what has come before and the potential for the future.

The notion of impermanence, championed by Buddhists, is also a theme in this work. In comparison to rocks or mountains, our time here on Earth is minute; yet everything is in a state of change, including geology. In our lifetimes a mountain, or boulder, or rock, or star may not appear to be changing at all. But everything is in a state of flux, being altered by the stresses and influences of what is near and the physics of our reality.”
Dave Wagner