Artists of Sonoma

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Sonoma Art Directory

illustration

Michel Stong
artist, graphic designer

Michel Stong is an artist and product designer who has illustrated book covers and interior book illustrations, wine labels, fine food labels, and business identities. You can find her art and designs on products from Clay Company, beverage flasks at Tota+Able (now Capabunga), and linen dresses for Paper & Fog.

Tony Speirs
artist

Tony Speirs is known for vintage and pop-culture inspired paintings and collaborative work, acrylics, silkscreens, life drawings, illustration, and circus posters.

Charles M. Schulz
“Sparky”
artist, cartoonist

Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) was the American cartoonist that created Peanuts, the comic strip, and the cartoon characters Charlie Brown, Snoopy and their friends — a comic strip beloved by millions that spun into books and television specials, like A Charlie Brown ChristmasPeanuts ran in American newspapers from 1950 to 2000. Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Schulz loved drawing and sometimes drew his family dog, Spike, who ate unusual things, such as pins and tacks. Spike was the inspiration for the cartoon dog Snoopy. Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers. The weekly Sunday-page debuted on January 6, 1952.  Peanuts eventually became one of the most popular and influential comic strips of all time. At its height, Peanuts was published daily in 2,600 papers in 75 countries, in 21 languages.

Schulz had been a resident of Sonoma County since 1958. The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa opened on August 17, 2002, two blocks away from his former studio, celebrating his life’s work and art of cartooning.

Books by Charles Schulz, and biographies include:

preview of books on Charles Schulz, The Many Faces of Snoopy, The Complete Peanuts, etc.

(source of this bio and photo: wikipedia.org)

Rik Olson
illustrator, engraver

Rik Olson specializes in wood engravings, scratchboard, linocut and pen and ink illustration.

Stanley George Miller
Mouse
artist

Stanley George Miller, better known as Mouse and Stanley Mouse, is an American artist notable for his 1960s psychedelic rock concert poster designs and the album covers of Grateful Dead and Journey music records. By 1958, Mouse had become fascinated by the Taint movement that had begun in California a decade earlier. Having developed skills using an airbrush he began painting t-shirts at custom car shows.  His work is featured in the book Freehand: The Art of Stanley Mouse.  (photo credit:  “Grateful Dead: Skull and Roses” scan of LP cover, licensed under fair use of copyrighted material, via wikipedia.org.)

  

Linus Maurer
artist, cartoonist

Linus Maurer is a cartoonist and artist who resides in Kenwood. He graduated from the Minneapolis School of Art in 1950, and created the cartoon strips Old HarriganAbracadabra and In the Beginning, and later Newshound for the Sonoma Index-Tribune. He was a friend of Charles Schulz, who named a character after him in the comic strip Peanuts.

Victoria A. Kochergin
artist, illustrator

Victoria Kochergin is a botanical artist and illustrator, specialized in drawing with colored pencils. She also works in charcoal, ink, painting, pastels, sculpture, watercolor and lithography.

Caroline Hipkiss
artist

Caroline Hipkiss is an artist from Sonoma, California who paints with acrylic paint on birch mounted to wood frames. Caroline received her BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a concentration in Scientific Illustration. Her subject matters include the natural world, people, buildings, foods and other nonscientific images.

artist, illustrator

Michael Coy is a painter and illustrator, who blends realism with whimsy. His flora and landscapes are whimsically surreal.

Sara Bell

Sara Bell’s paintings, drawings and sketches are inspired by the world’s natural beauty. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, cum laude. Her subject matter includes children, people, landscapes, botanicals, creatures and symbolics.

Irene Rowley

Irene Rowley began this website and writes a blog, to promote the fine artists of Sonoma County. She is a fine artist, painter and illustrator, who grew up oil pointing, acrylic painting and drawing landscapes and portraiture<. Irene has a B.A. in English and Studio Art from the University of California, Davis and works in web development and creative services. Irene simply loves art! Sonoma County is a beautiful place to paint!