Artist Spotlight: Tom Wheeler - Painted Light in Western Landscapes

Tom Wheeler, Sticks #1, Archival pigment print on cotton fiber, 21.3 x 30"

Tom Wheeler’s newest work builds on his years of long-exposure light-painting experimentation, producing striking photographic imagery situated in vast western landscapes.

Tom Wheeler, Vortex Trio, Archival pigment print on cotton fiber, 21.3 x 30"

Wheeler’s work is crafted to marry his personal sense of aesthetic beauty with elements of abstract expressionism and minimalism while exploring man’s correlation to nature. In this photographic survey, Wheeler does not advocate or condemn any particular relationship human kind has to nature, but acts as an observer showing his appreciation for the synergistic dichotomy between the two.

Tom Wheeler, Boulder, Joshua Tree, Archival pigment print on cotton fiber, 21.3 x 30"

Painted Light in Western Landscapes was created and conceived at the time of exposure, with no image being digitally altered or processed in digital post-production software. Each photograph is a hand-painted, long-exposure image using light-tools such as flashlights and other objects that illuminate his subjects and landscapes, the two often blurring into one entity.

Tom Wheeler, Empty Chair, Archival pigment print on cotton fiber, 21.3 x 30"

Wheeler has implemented light-painting techniques since 1989, venturing on a journey to seek new levels of experimentation with light tools to keep his ideas and portfolio of work innovative. Subsequently, a recurring theme in Wheeler’s work is vast, open landscapes with minimalist components. Wheeler shows the powerful majesty of the natural world and man’s attempt to thrive in its grasp.

Tuesday, May 15 - Saturday, June 9 

Artist Talk: Saturday, June 2, 3pm 

Artist Spotlight: Isabelle Hope Grahm - My Color Garden

Isabelle Hope Grahm, Felicis Celebritas, Acrylic on canvas, 60.5 x 72"

Isabelle Hope Grahm’s debut exhibition at TAG speaks from an ethereal or aerial view depicting civilizations from a great distance; not only from above in the sky but in the minds eye of God. My Color Garden shows human beings simultaneously through a macrocosm as well as a microcosm.

Isabelle Hope Grahm, Energetic Photon Flash, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60"

The energetic patterning of living forms are seen through color, the relationships shown are very close, yet apart. Each individual space, utterly influenced by the space next to it, remains its own entity amidst the whole. The work, although comprised of a multiplicity of separate parts, cannot be denied as one organism itself.

Isabelle Hope Graham, Instructions, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48"

Grahm states: “While it appears (and feels) as if we are living our own separate existence, our true condition is more like a solitary communal one. If mankind does not become extinct, some secret doctrine extolling this ancient paradox may be revealed as THE ONE hidden amongst the many.”

Isabelle Hope Graham, Boop Boop Ditum Datum, Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48"

These paintings provide a lens showing people, culture, and city life patterns forming and shaping autonomous compartments, businesses and social juxtapositions. The stark lack of differences between “inner and outer” are demonstrated as Grahm’s primary influence. Looking closely one can catch a glimpse that the seer and the seen cannot be separate.

Tuesday, May 15 - Saturday, June 9 

Artist Talk: Saturday, June 2, 3pm 

Artist Spotlight: Carole Garland - Streaming Color

Carole Garland, The Oak Grove, Watercolor, 25 x 33"

For her current exhibition, Streaming Color, Carole Garland painted in watercolor en plein air as a form of meditation and escape, as a distraction from the stress of 21st century living and a job in sales.

Carole Garland, Solstice Retreat, Watercolor, 25 x 33"

She drove to the local Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu Creek, Solstice and Topanga Canyons to find solace. Sitting on the ground with an Arches full-sheet watercolor paper taped to a 27 x 34” board held in her lap, Garland looked out on a stony stream bed, a creek tracing a path over the rocks. Against a cloudless sky, willows draped over the water, their branches glancing the water’s surface. And so she began, Isabey brush to paper.

Carole Garland, A Quiet Place, Watercolor, 34 x 26"

Nature is the springboard for Garland’s imagination, but her interpretation of it begins and ends with the medium of watercolor. Her nontraditional, abstracted landscapes take their cue from the watercolors: their brightness, their transparency, and their inherent desire to slide in odd directions, out of control. She is its servant, surrendering to the direction and will of the medium.

Carole Garland, After the Fall, Watercolor, 26 x 33"

Garland explores mark making, color and form in these chromatic and vivid watercolors, at the same time reminding us to take solace in our natural surroundings.

Exhibition runs through Saturday, June 9
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 19, 6-10pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 2, 3pm

Current Exhibition: Carole Garland, Isabelle Hope Grahm, Tom Wheeler

Tuesday, May 15 - Saturday, June 9 

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 19, 6-10pm 

Artist Talk: Saturday, June 2, 3pm 

Carole Garland - Streaming Color

Carole Garland, Reflections, Watercolor, 25 x 33"

Isabelle Hope Grahm - My Color Garden

Isabelle Hope Grahm, Some Sum More, Acrylic, 36 x 60"

Tom Wheeler - Painted Light in Western Landscapes

Tom Wheeler, Turbine 7, Archival pigment on cotton fiber

Artist Spotlight: Sally Jacobs - Sunday At The Farmers Market

Sally Jacobs, Turban Squash, Watercolor, 20 x 21"

Sally Jacobs is a contemporary watercolor botanical artist. She is also a foodie, and the Los Angeles farmers' markets are a treasure trove for her. Each Sunday Jacobs visits one, prospecting for her gold: Turban Squash, Cherimoya, Lady Finger Bananas, Safflowers, Buddha’s Hand – she loves and paints them all.

Sally Jacobs, Buddah's Hand (Lemon), Watercolor, 19 x 16"

In her latest exhibit, Sundays at the Farmers Market, Jacobs zooms in, portraying flowers, vegetables, and fruit with a dramatic precision unique for a watercolorist. She illuminates a vegetable we may choose for dinner or a flower for display, rendering its structure eye-catching and explicit. She causes viewers to catch their breath in wonder at the feats of nature.

Sally Jacobs, Pink Peony, Watercolor, 26 x 22"

Jacobs has exhibited in numerous juried shows in New York and San Francisco, and at museums in New York, Minneapolis and Phoenix. She was an award winner at the Brand 37 Works on Paper exhibit and is one of the artists included in Todays Botanical Artists, a publication of well-known nature artists. She has taught botanical art at The Getty Center, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles Arboretum, and the annual meeting of the American Society of Botanical Art.

Sally Jacobs, Safflower, Watercolor, 25 x 26"

The exhibition runs until May 12th.

Artist Spotlight: Ernie Marjoram - Selected Paintings

Ernie Marjoram, Laguna, Oil, 36 x 48"

Ernie Marjoram returns to TAG gallery with a selection of paintings that reflect his passion for life and its pleasures. Ernie enjoys the challenge of representational art, trying to capture the illusion of three-dimensional objects and real physical places on a flat canvas. Inspired by everyday environments, architectural monuments, natural landscapes and even the food we eat.

Ernie Marjoram, Manhattan, Oil, 36 x 48"

 Marjoram’s art is based on a solid foundation of perspective drawing, dramatic lighting and appropriate color. He often paints outdoors using a limited palette of white and the primary colors; red, yellow and blue. “Working on smaller paintings outdoors with a limited palette is excellent preparation for the larger paintings done in the studio with a full color palette under more controlled conditions”.

Ernie Marjoram, Via Delle Bombarde, Oil, 8 x 6"

Marjoram’s interest in urban landscape comes from his training in architecture. As a college student, he studied architecture in Florence, Italy for a full year and often created watercolor travel sketches of the sites he visited. In 2003, Marjoram was invited to exhibit his travel sketches in a group art show in Pasadena and when they quickly sold out, a deeper interest in fine art took root. Encouraged by the positive reaction to his artwork, Marjoram began exploring painting in oils and in 2005 held his first solo exhibition Europe, Asia and the US, followed in 2007 by a second solo exhibition Bell’ Italia at the Wilshire Ebell Art Salon.

Since then, Ernie has exhibited in the California Art Club Gold Medal exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, was invited to participate in the prestigious Torrey Pines Plein Air Invitational competition and won first place in an art competition at Ironstone Vineyards. Since 2009, Marjoram has exhibited annually at TAG and this year’s exhibition: Ernie Marjoram – Selected Paintings brings together mixture of subjects drawn from the artist's recent work.

Ernie Marjoram, Truffles, Oil, 12 x 12"

The exhibition runs until May 12.