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.

Elaine Y Shore has been creating original, hand painted and hand carved, one of a kind , functional porcelain since 2009, when she moved to Humboldt County after a career in financial modeling and corporate finance.  Her pieces are meant to be beautiful, functional art to be used every day and include bowls, vases, mugs, tumblers and dishes.

    Recently, Elaine has been working in two complementary styles: She uses colored underglazes to hand paint the porcelain, which is then fired, then dipped in a clear glaze and fired again, resulting in bright, colorful work featuring flowers, fish and animals. She also creates striking, black and white pieces which she hand carves, using a technique called “sgraffito”.

Jim Lowry
Redwood Park

Jim Lowry
South Fork Eel River
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Elaine Y. Shore specializes in creating what she calls "functional art for every day." Her signature pieces--black and white, hand carved mugs and bowls--are her original designs. After throwing and trimming her work, she applies a black liquid clay ("slip") to the surface. She then carves her designs through the black slip, into the white porcelain, creating striking black and white designs of birds, flowers and animals. The pieces are then fired to harden the clay and finally a shear glaze is applied and the pieces are fired again, this time to 2,340°F. She has recently begun to use color to create lively new designs as well.

Barbara Wright's mosaics are piece by piece creations that come from color schemes or a visual image she has from her environment or her imagination. The spontaneity of each piece creates a surprise when completed. The fused glass work is an abstract arrangement of glass, both plain and dichroic, which is slumped in a kiln, cut in patterns and slumped again, ending up with the various jewelry pieces. She is basically an abstract artist, working with many materials to create each piece, whether it be a mosaic or a piece of jewelry.