​Maureen McGarry is a watercolor painter who primarily paints local landscapes. Also a teacher, she has offered classes to people of all ages over the past 40 years, primarily teaching art to children in many of the local schools.    

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​Donvieve is a multi-dimensional artist/educator.  She creates masks that challenge our personal barriers and speak to our inner spaces.  Another longtime resident of Humboldt County, she is best known as a mask-maker.  She has conducted many art workshops, including in other countries.  

Matthew Gagliardi has always been attracted to the fluidity of working hot glass. He explains that most of the process of blowing soft glass is spent trying to influence a material that is not totally in a liquid form or a solid state, but tends to ebb and flow between the two. He says with some sincerity that when blowing glass his perception is often in a similar tidal pattern, drifting between daydreams in the etheric realms and physical reality, yet at the same time it requires his complete attention and total focus.

    Jim Lowry’s photographs are collected internationally, and he has won a number of awards for his stunning photographs, including Photographer of the Year and a second place award for landscapes in the International Panoramic Photography Contest.
 
   Here in Humboldt County, Lowry is perhaps best known for his landscapes and beachscapes. While his use of color is always effective, he especially enjoys the stark minimalism of black and white photography, and he can be strongly reminiscent of Ansel Adams. 

  During the month of July, Trinidad Art Gallery will feature a new print by Patricia Sundgren Smith. She has expanded on her Japanese-inspired koi theme with a new, larger linocut, "Koi Beneath Bamboo." As with her other koi images, she incorporates Japanese decorative papers into the design.

Patricia will also be exhibiting some of her past linocuts of birds, as well as her new series of egret and heron rookery collages. The birds are drawn on white or black printmaking paper, and then collaged onto two layers of decorative papers. The first layer is Murano paper, and the second is shredded and dyed amate bark from Mexico.

  ​Elaine Y Shore has been developing her current style of ceramic art for more than ten years, although she was first entranced by the craft many years earlier. “Throwing a piece on the potter’s wheel is mesmerizing. It looks easy, but takes lots of practice and determination.”
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  After retiring from a long career in financial modeling, Elaine moved to Humboldt County to be a full time artist and grandmother. “Fortunately, I discovered the Fire Arts Center in Arcata and it has become my second home.”  
​  Elaine decided to specialize in wheel-thrown and hand built functional porcelain pieces, and uses various surface decoration techniques to interesting, complex surfaces.

 
​  “I wanted to do more than simply dip my pieces in a glaze, so I started exploring other ways to provide visual and tactile interest and beauty”.
Her pieces have evolved to include colors and textures, using techniques that include carving, painting, applying colored clay or etching away clay, all of which result in a piece that is interesting to look at and a treat to use.



   Her current collection includes striking, black and white carved designs, and colorful, glaze-painted, textured designs inspired by the natural world.

Kurt Hellmich has been working in wood for over thirty-five years. He began by turning
driftwood into utilitarian art pieces, and evolved over the years into his broad, popular selection
that includes creative cribbage boards, cutting boards, unique boxes with lids and cunning
drawers, and bird houses that still feature his signature driftwood.

​​Delicate details adorn the boxes and cribbage boards. Hellmich's precision has been refined over the time of his practice of this woodworking artistry, and the Trinidad Art Gallery is happy to boast his efforts in our midst.

John Wesa has long made his mark on the Humboldt County art scene through his landscape-focused serigraphy (screen printing), with his Master of Arts degree at Humboldt State University in 1976. His prints of the area have found their way around the world.
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Wesa says of his work, “I love the interaction of shapes and colors. When things are going right the image achieves a hypnotic vibrancy. It’s fun to see it take its first breaths and begin to live.
The thing I find most exciting about serigraphy is the self-publishing dynamic. I produce multiples, yet they are all originals and individual. When a good one takes off it can acquire a social life of its own. It can pop-up anywhere in the world. It can acquire a kind of currency that represents a shared value and experience.”

Our gallery hosts over 20 local artists every day, but during the two weekends of North Coast Open Studios, you get a chance to see some members working their magic right at the gallery. Check out the (updated!) schedule below, and visit anytime to chat with our members.

​Amanita Mollier is a silkpainter. Although she does create silk scarves with a simple flowing design, the main focus of her art is in wall hangings that are complete landscape paintings. She is especially fond of mountains and streams, or oceans and cliffs. Her egrets are a tribute both to Mother Nature and to her brush skills. 

​Sarah Magnuson’s art is constantly evolving. She began with the creation of a myriad of hanging fantasies, from fairies to dragons. Then her imagination went wild and she added all kinds of enrichment. Shells, beads, acorns, dried seed pods were just the start. Soon there were tiny vessels of handblown glass and larger shells. 

J.D. Jeffries is a founding member of Trinidad Art Gallery, and his music will add to the festivities this Art Night. J.D. Recently stepped away from performance to reset his music focus. His music at the gallery will be the first chance to hear his new sound as he appears with his new guitarist Chris Volas, a seasoned musician in his own right. He’ll be singing along with J.D.in sets that focus on vocals. As J.D. says, “I love harmony. Good band have good vocals.” J.D. has been singing pretty much all his life, and has several CDs with covers as well as his own songs, all on sale at the Trinidad Art Gallery. J.D. is hoping for some great Humboldt County spring weather so he can perform outside on the front patio.

​   ​Howdy Emerson wears two hats at the Trinidad Art Gallery, musician and painter. He creates landscape paintings in oil and fine-line brush paintings in ink, working on location or in his on-site studio. He also plays and teaches a beautiful Celtic harp and has CD's available. He is a Certified Music Practitioner and has worked as a hospital-staff therapeutic musician.

   
​This year Emerson has begun to focus on Chinese fine-line brush style paintings in ink on "rice paper." Dramatic line variation comes from brushes that end in a fine flexible point, so that very thin lines that can be varied to thicker lines as more pressure is applied. Shading is done with softer brushes using ink and water color. 

   Barbara Wright wears at least two hats as well, one as a fused glass artist, and the other as a creator of superb mosaic creations. In 1999 Barbara Wright began making mosaics. In 2002 she attended the Sculoa Arte del Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy, learning the old techniques. There she was inspired by modern works in the old style and began creating two and three-dimensional pieces using art glass, Smalti, millefiori, tiles and various artifacts. Each piece expresses her vision and environment, with many ideas originating from the beautiful coastal area of Trinidad, where she now lives.

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   Wright has done several large mosaic projects in her home, as well as for commissioned work. Her art was included in the exhibition for the Society of American Mosaic Artists’ and the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco in 2004. She also studied mosaic portraiture with Laurel Skye in Tuscany, Italy, in 2013. She has been experimenting with fused glass jewelry for several years. In 2005, she studied glass techniques in Barcelona, Spain, with Rene Culler and Phillipa Beveridge, both well-known glass artists.s.

​Colleen Clifford's skilled glass work is light and flowing, usually treating subjects in nature. This past year, Clifford has found herself inspired in her images by her own customers who have commissioned her for specific topics and/or window sizes. Three of focused areas of creativity have been birds in flight, botanicals that include a fiddlehead fern that will be on display, and figures of women in moments of serenity.

Clifford begins her process by sketching drawings, and the lines create the glass pattern. The chosen glass colors create the underlying depths and reflective nature of the subject at hand. Texture and light give additional expression to the completed art windows. 
 
Clifford's creative variety is also reflected in her work with glass boxes and small mandala ornaments. The mirrored bottoms of these boxes reflect the rich, luminescent textures and colors of the glass she selects, and a simple design on top often brings a bit of beauty to these precious piece of home decor.

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Loryn White just joined the Trinidad Art Gallery as of the first of March, and much of the work that she has brought to this gallery demonstrates a number of new directions for her work. Long a favorite potter in various Humboldt County venues, White came to her passion for pottery rather late in her life. She took a class here and there, and before she knew it she had a studio and a kiln in her home and she had become a full-time potter with a steady demand for her lovely work.

     Tom Kingshill is a local artist inspired by the natural wood of the Northcoast landscape that surrounds him. Using the wood lathe, Tom shapes foraged tree wood into artistic vessels and sculptural wall art. He specializes in natural-edge bowls, pieces that challenge the artist to practice a fine-tuned discernment of formal design qualities while leaving the edge of the piece wild. The juxtaposition of smooth, fine craftsman precision and the natural, raw undulations of untamed tree                                                                        surface, are Tom's signature style.

​     ​Kingshill was born into a family of carpenters and has become passionate about woodturning. He was gifted his father's old lathe in 2007 and finds there are few other techniques in woodworking that embellish the inherent beauty of the natural wood of the tree. As Tom works he is driven by the unknown qualities of the wood. Beginning with a simple block he enjoys that there is no way for him to know exactly what the piece will look like when it's done, each a gift for us all to enjoy.

​  Annie Reid is exhibiting pieces from her new series, "Migrants, Monarchs & Immigrants". Her current works represent stages of the Monarch butterfly's migration. The titles are "Nurture", "Shelter", "Transformation" and "Listening to the Whispers of the Ancestors". The Monarch butterflies migration, the greatest return migration of any insect, is an evolved and somewhat miraculous example of a species' adaption to migrate for survival. At 3:20 pm Annie will give a short presentation on Monarch butterflies, their life cycle and migration. She will share how our observation can aid in their survival.
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     Annie earned her Certified Interpretive Guide designation to volunteer as an ambassador for the California Coastal National Monument and the Trinidad Coastal Land Trust.
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​    Annie is a lifelong Northern California painter. Her work is inspired by the natural world and conveys a deep connection to the spirit of that realm. Also on exhibit will be "Lotus emerging into its Light Body", a pigment and gouache piece from Reid's stay at the Morris Graves Foundation.

Townwide in Trinidad, Sunday December 9th, 10 am - 5 pm

   The Trinidad Art Gallery is joining with other artists, musicians, shopkeepers, restaurants and wineries of the beachside town of Trinidad for a celebration of the holiday season on Sunday, December 9 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is their hope that residents of the North Coast are beginning to make the festivity of “Holidays in Trinidad” a regular part of their Christmas enjoyment and a show of their support for shopping at local businesses for holiday joy and gift-giving.

    ​Trinidad Art Gallery will lead carols at 4:00 p.m., a sing-along with words provided. For the month of December all its artist are featured in celebration of the wonderful gift that a treasured piece of art can make. In addition to art photos, original prints and paintings, there are ceramics, jewelry, hand-turned wood bowls, bread boards and cribbage boards, copper fairy creations in ever more fantastic forms, cave art images in clay, beadwork and dolls, stained glass and blown glass, silk-printed and naturally dyed scarves, and a wide array of affordable prints and greeting cards based on members' art.

​    Each year this festivity has grown enthusiastically as businesses of Trinidad have drawn together to make it a very special day. Now the Trinidad Civic Club has taken the lead and given the day added meaning by asking local businesses to donate a portion of the day’s profits to the fund to restore and find a permanent home for the iconic Trinidad Lighthouse. It's traditional cliff abode eroded, necessitating its costly relocation. Everyone who participates in Holidays in Trinidad will be contributing to that worthy cause. For a schedule of the day, go to trinidadcivicclub.org.