Gayle Lorraine is the featured artist at Sunday’s Columbia Fine Art Show at Columbia State Historic Park.Courtesy photo
The 45th annual Columbia Fine Art Show, sponsored by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Columbia State Historic Park. More than 45 artists are expected to display their paintings, pottery, photography and sculptures.
The show was started by the late Esther Allison, a Columbia College art teacher who wanted to have a venue for her students to sell their artworks.
This year’s featured artist is Gayle Lorraine. She is a self-taught artist who lives and works in Mountain Ranch. Her intuitive abstract paintings are expressions of emotional, rather than visual, realities. The finished works are fluid subjects based upon each viewer’s unique interpretation of what they see.
“I strive to create balance, beauty, depth and motion in my black-and-white acrylic paintings,” Lorraine said. “With knife and brush, fluid gestures and precise, delicate overlays, my intuitive process reveals hidden narratives. I invite the viewer to become an active participant in my art process, to journey into the canvas boundary and discover the symbolic language that speaks to them. I offer each painting as an archetypal story originating from and interpreted by the personal perceptions and life experiences of the viewer.”
Lorraine’s art represents a journey of transformation from grief and loss to acceptance and hope. On Sept. 10, 2015, she lost everything in the 71,000-acre Butte Fire. Two weeks after the wildfire, she went back to the easel as a way to reclaim a sense of normalcy in the face of tragedy. Her artistic discipline helped transform her trauma to beauty.
“I had two choices: to live carrying a tragic burden, or claim the experience a creative unfolding. Fire demanded of me to stay in the present moment. My art became my practice. When creating art and poetry, I realize a sense of being fully in the present moment, without future worry or past regret.”
In the two years since the fire, Lorraine has completed more than 50 paintings. Selections of her recent works have been exhibited this year in Toronto, New York City and Miami. She shows with the San Francisco-based art group Red Umbrellas in fine art exhibitions at various open air spots in San Francisco, including Union Square and the De Young Art Museum.
Lorraine displays her abstract paintings and selections of her writings at the Columbia Fine Art Show.
Other artists selling their creations include Linda Abernathy, Mary Anderson, Joyce Becker, Cindy Biles, Glenda Burns, Ron and Kawanna Cross, Merla Frazey-Jordan, David Goldemberg, Pat Gray, Christine Halley, Alexis Halstead, Diane Harrington, Rebecca Harvey, Jude Hyman, Judy Jackson, Gary Johnson, Lana Jones, Mary Kennedy, Rosemarie Knierim, Pam Levitan, Andrea McCann, George McCann, Steve and Cary McGrew, Ikoshy Montoya, Harry Nakamoto, Linda Osbourne, Pati Pearl, Jessie Pearson, Rene Reyes, Michael Reynolds, Peggy Reza, Christine Shultz, Sally Skogen, JC Strote, Corrie Vanderhelm-Davis, Corey Watson and Kathleen Wolf.
The show is free to visit and no commissions are charged, so all sales go to the artists. Any extra proceeds from booth rentals support the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.
For more on the show, call Kim Kyhl at 536-1329.
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Columbia State Historic Park, off Parrotts Ferry Road, Columbia
TICKETS: Free to attend
MORE INFO: 536-1329
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