categories
Sonoma Art Directory
painting and drawing
Sandra Lane paints landscapes and human forms on canvas and archival paper, in a rather abstract manner.
Maurice Lapp (1925-2014) was a devoted oil painter, watercolorist and art teacher, and was recently featured in Art Trails catalog as someone with a calling for communicating the absolute necessity of art. He held a position as an art instructor at the Santa Rosa Junior College.
Diana Lee (died 2016) created fine art scratchboard renderings, and taught for the International Society of Scratchboard Artists. Her etchings are on white kaolin clay (porcelain) and sprayed with a layer of thin black ink.
Lee also wrote the book Starting From Scratch, about her techniques with black and white and color scratchboaring.
Denise Leite is a Petaluma artist that paints human figures in a surreal, circus like world. She calls it “psychological alchemy”.
Lin Lipetz (1928-2014) was a Sonoma author, artist, instructor and interior architect. She was born in Bozeman, Montana, and studied interior architecture and fine art in Washington and California, before finally settling in Sonoma County. She served on the Cultural and Fine Arts Commission for the City of Sonoma, and helped establish the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art in the 1990s. She also wrote the book, The Secret of Inner Presence. Lin was “a mentor for many students and a friend to all.” Lin had a B.A. from San Jose State University in interior architecture, and M.F.A from the University of Washington in ceramics, textiles and painting.
Sherrie Lovler offers a combination of nature art and poetry. Her poems and calligraphic paintings are featured in her books, Two As One: Poems From a New Love, and On Softer Ground: Poetry, Poems and Calligraphy. In her newest book, twenty-four paintings and poems illuminate the magnificent possibilities of creation.
Lauri Luck is known for her drawings, paintings and art notes.
The artist Christine MacDonald was born on Tiree, a small island off Scotland, and graduated from the University of Brighton, Sussex, England with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honors in Painting. She settled in Sonoma, California in 1986. Her subject matter includes human figures, eagles and hawks.
Diana Majumdar is known for encaustic and mixed media artwork, inspired by nature. She was born and raised in Estonia, before settling in Sonoma County.
Gayle Manfre is an artist and educator who was born in San Francisco, and moved to Sonoma in 1980. She works in watercolors and acrylics, and directs children on mural projects. Gayle also works for the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, leading the “Arts Rewards the Students” program.
Sandra Maresca is a Western Sonoma County artist who provides abstract and impressionistic paintings, animals with attitudes, figures, narratives, still lifes and landscapes. She also provides small spirit totem sculptures, wall hangings and fiber accessories.
Lucy Martin creates watercolor paintings, mushroom paintings, and mushroom prints, burnt landscapes, and bird art.
Paula Matzinger is a Northern California artist, designer and writer. Her favorite subject is a brightly hued California landscape, and she enjoys oil painting in the Sonoma County countryside.
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 Harrigan, Abracadabra 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.
Sonoma artist Caitlin McCarthy creates original drawings of mythic, Celtic and romantic subjects.
Sophia Shiloh McCloud is an artist and poet, and founder of the Intentional Creativity movement. Her workshops and books are created to empower people through intuitive painting and storytelling. Her books include: Color of Woman and Heart of the Visionary.
Books by the artist:
Mary McCrystal is a Sonoma County artist who enjoys making collages and acrylic and wax painting on canvas and wood panels. A quote from the artist: “Creating art becomes a sacred practice, it is supremely reciprocal in its intentionality, and it is an honor to participate in such a mythic journey.”
Patrick McMurtry is a Sonoma Valley artist who creates oil paintings and 3-D plastic assemblages.
The artist Christine McNamara is known for watercolors in plein air of the local Sonoma landscapes, and also for her mixed media abstracts. She has a B.A. in Studio Art from Stanford University and continued studies at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Academy of Art.
Helen Mehl is an artist and art teacher who is interested in conveying wellness and Feng Shui through her work. She combines brightly painted colors, layers, textures and symbols. Helen received her Master of Arts degree at San Jose State University, and a B.A. degree from Stanford University in history and art. Helen has taught art in California, Pennsylvania and Hawaii.
Pat Meier-Johnson is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and a fine artist of Sonoma County, painting with oils on linen panels. Her paintings depict scenes from around the world, and from everyday life in the northern California wine country. “It is my own selfish pleasure to create these paintings and my joy to share them with people who are moved by them.”
Martha Mellinger creates paintings of rural Sonoma landscapes, Italy, interiors, western subjects, and wildlife.
The artist Kristin Meuser paints landscapes, most often outdoors and on location throughout California and the Southwest. She also teaches classes on nature journaling with watercolors.
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.)
Artist Helene Minelli (1918-2010) was a native of Sonoma Valley, born on a ranch in 1918, and the Valley inspired her lifelong creative works. Her mediums were oil, acrylic, and especially watercolor. She dedicated an impressive amount of service to the local art community, including: President of the Sonoma Valley Art Center and Gallery, later known as Valley of the Moon Art Association; founder of the North Coast Viticulture Art Exhibit and Sales; Trustee on the Board of Society of Western Artists; and Judge for the Society of Western Artists, San Francisco.
Janet Moore lives and paints in the northern California fishing village of Bodega Bay. She paints the coastal landscapes in a minimalistic style.
Ruby Newman works in a variety of mediums on canvas, paper and prepared panels, also on custom mural designs. She enjoys creating abstracts, contemporary Plein Air landscapes, and figurative and still life studies. Ruby majored in Theatrical Design at the Carnegie Mellon University. She worked for the Santa Fe Opera, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Minneapolis Institute of the Arts and the International Opera Barga in Italy. She also worked over ten years on public projects through the San Francisco Art Commission, including several mural works and the restoration of the 1914 Golden Gate Park Carousel.
Karina Nishi Marcus is known for her expressionist and abstract art. Look for the Nishi Studio in Sebastopol, California.
Soo Noga creates oil paintings, abstracts and modern expressions.
Rik Olson specializes in wood engravings, scratchboard, linocut and pen and ink illustration.