Three Hills by Debra Holladay courtesy image.
VENTURA — Ventura Land Trust broadens its public program offerings with an Artist-Led Plein Air Painting Workshop on Saturday, July 9th at 8:00 am at Harmon Canyon Preserve. Artists Debra Holladay, Laura Wambsgans, and Marian Fortunati will offer instruction for beginner and experienced artists on how to capture Harmon Canyon’s natural landscape through composition, form, color, and paint handling.
Participants will receive instruction as a group and one-on-one. Group discussion will allow painters to learn from one another. Ventura Land Trust staff will join the workshop to share elements of Harmon Canyon Preserve’s natural and cultural history.
Painting en plein air, the French expression for “in the open air,” is the act of leaving the walls of a studio and painting in the outdoors. Artists explore how to paint form and light, with its changing, ephemeral qualities, with portable paints and easel.
“Plein air painting allows me to focus and interact in real time to understand and learn about a place,” says workshop leader Debra Holladay. “Experiencing the light, color, sound, smell, temperature, and touch magnifies and records my experience through paint.”
“One of the most rewarding aspects of working en plein air is seeing things you’ve never noticed before, like the color of dry grass or a fleeting neon edge where light bends or reflects. I hope to share that aspect of seeing and how to translate it into paint with participants of the workshop, in addition to a basic approach to transforming a blank canvas into a painting.”
The workshop is $20 for Ventura Land Trust members and $30 for non-members. Participants can view a fill list of suggested painting supplies and register for the workshop at https://www.venturalandtrust.org/pleinair.
About Ventura Land Trust — The mission of Ventura Land Trust is to permanently protect the land, water, wildlife and scenic beauty of the Ventura region for current and future generations. Founded in 2003, Ventura Land Trust believes that preserving open space and providing public access enhances the economy, quality of life, and public well-being of Ventura and surrounding communities. The organization currently owns and manages land along the Ventura River and in the Ventura hillsides, including the 2,100-acre Harmon Canyon Preserve. All preserves are open to the public daily from dawn to dusk for free. Ventura Land Trust is an accredited member of the Land Trust Alliance.
Debra Holladay
Debra Holladay
A lifelong painter and native Californian, Debra’s art career began at age two with a tube of red lipstick and her cooperative dog, followed by a crayon wall mural unsuccessfully hidden behind a chest of drawers. Working both in the studio and in the field, Debra’s paintings capture fleeting moments of the American experience which, on closer inspection, reward the viewer with small details often overlooked by the casual observer. Her passion for art and sense of wanderlust for the natural world have culminated in a series of plein air painting adventures which include a pack trip to Lake Ediza in the Eastern Sierras and trips to Canyon de Chelly, California’s gold rush country, Yosemite Valley, Joshua Tree National Park, and the California coast. Debra earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Central Oklahoma followed by six years of study at the Art Students League of New York. Debra’s high-collectible work is frequently included in juried museum and themed gallery exhibitions and invitational shows. Debra is an Artist member of the California Art Club, a co-founder of Studio2310, and a founding member of the PAC6 Painters. https://www.debraholladay.net/
Laura Wambsgans
Laura Wambsgans.
Native Californian Laura Wambsgans began landscape oil painting sixteen years ago, after working as the managing director of a major recording studio and then as a sculptor for two decades. Studying intensely with Scott Christensen and other well-respected landscape painters and painting daily, Wambsgans strives to capture the effect of light on the land, though color and paint quality. Wambsgans’ work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions, including the Riverside Museum, Bakersfield Museum, Lancaster Museum, Ventura Museum and the Huntington Library and participated in many national plein air events, since 1986. In 2006, Laura spearheaded “Chasing Open Spaces,” an environmental project painting the open spaces of the Santa Clarita Valley. Exhibits generated by this project were instrumental in preserving Elsmere Canyon in Santa Clarita. Laura has been an active member of the California Art Club since 2002 and is a founding member of the PAC6 Painters.
Marian Fortunati
Award-winning artist Marian Fortunati considers herself “one lucky artist” because art has enabled her to experience more of the beauty in our world (and because her name, Fortunati, means “lucky” in Italian). Fortunati is a contemporary California impressionist who uses oil paints to create interesting experiments with texture and color. Her outdoor sketches often serve as references for larger studio work, but are also special mementos of places and adventures. She is a Southern California native who enjoyed a lengthy career as a teacher and a principal in Los Angeles. After painting and studying art for many years during time off work, she now paints full-time.
Fortunati has established a foundation in the Impressionist tradition of seeing and painting shapes of light and color through instruction by artists Ray Roberts, Frank Gardner, Matt Smith, Daniel Pinkham, and master landscape and undersea artist David C. Gallup. Fortunati’s work is found in collections throughout the United States, Europe, China, and Australia. She is an Artist Member of the California Art Club and a founding member of PAC6 Painters; she retains affiliations with the American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America, and various other art organizations. https://www.marianfortunati.com/