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.

     ​Oceana Madrone’s work directly and honestly reflects the emotional and meaningful aspects of life with an emphasis on healing through the beauty and joy of art. This season she is especially excited about beads, their colors, textures, sizes, shapes and sparkle. She finds herself adding them to every one of her fantastic creations, sewn to quilts, dolls, jewelry, dream catchers, and wound around boxes, bottles, driftwood, and more.  Madrone started her first adventure with beads at the age of twelve, with her first bead loom and two pounds of beads. That is a lot of beads for a twelve-year-old!

    In her own words, "My art is a mirror of my life. It reflects who I’ve been, who I am and who I hope to become. My art is my effort to create order out of chaos and to transform pain and survival into strength and beauty. Art doesn’t make the hard things in life go away.  It does help me to find joy and continue on my path of healing and discovery. I love the color, textures, and sparkle of fabric and beads. I create images of beauty and magic. Life is a magical gift. There is beauty all around us if we take the time to see it and appreciate it."

     Tom Kingshill is a local woodworker inspired by the great variety of wood in our surrounding landscape. He uses foraged sections of local trees and with a lathe creates decorative vessels for the home. He specializes in natural-edge bowls. These vessels challenge the artist to practice a fine-tuned discernment of formal qualities of design while leaving the edge of the piece wild. 

     The elements of smooth, machine-like precision and natural, raw undulations of the untamed surface of a tree come together to form an utterly unique bowl.

  Born into a family of carpenters, Kingshill learned at an early age the woodworking techniques he has spent his life exploring. His biggest challenge is finding the wood he needs to create his art.

​As he says, "There is always the fear that someday there won't be beautiful burls to work with. The joy of wood turning is finding a redwood burl and discover the beauty as I turn. The bowls you see in these pictures are second-growth redwood burl, a growth on the outside of the tree, somewhat like a wart.  The grain is going in all different directions so you have no idea of the beauty of what you have until you are done."

  


​     Trinidad Art Gallery is proud to participate in North Coast Open Studios 2017 as an Artist Hot Spot, where you can visit artists who will be present with their work, some giving demonstrations of their creative process on-site. We will be open during NCOS Friday Art Night, June 2nd from 6 pm - 9 pm, during our regular Trinidad Arts Night featuring two of our member artists. Still more TAG members will be opening their personal art studios for visitors! Available artists and demonstration times are listed below. 

Patricia Sundgren Smith: "I wanted to do something life-affirming and uplifting in the new year, so I've been focusing on birds and birds' nest imagery. I've been using two of my favorite techniques -- linocut printmaking and drawing with Prismacolor, graphite, and ink. I hope that viewers will enjoy the images as much as I did in making them."

Tom Kingshill is an artist inspired by the great lumber of his surrounding landscape. Tom takes foraged sections of local trees and using a wood lathe, creates decorative vessels for the home. Tom challenges himself in the wood shop, and his speciality are his natural edge bowls. He is an artist constantly driven to improve on his craftsmanship in an attempt to reveal a combination of handmade and natural beauty.