Mountain art show set this weekend in Lake Arrowhead

10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, October 1, 2009

By PENNY E. SCHWARTZ
Special to The Press-Enterprise

The Mountain Arts Network will hold its autumn group show and sale, featuring the work of more than 30 artists, today through Sunday at the Burnt Mill Beach Club in Lake Arrowhead.

A wine and cheese reception is planned from 5 to 7 p.m. today, and the show continues at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Entertainment will be provided by Senara, a harp and hammered dulcimer trio.

The work will include paintings, jewelry, sculpture, photography and hand-crafted rustic furniture.

The artists' group was formed years ago with a handful of members and has grown to more than 100. It became a nonprofit organization three years ago and regularly exhibits members' work at the Willow Woods Art Colony in Skyforest. The larger Lake Arrowhead venue will house the show.

Members' artistic disciplines include oil and acrylic painting, watercolor, print making, sculpture, photography, jewelry, pyro-engraving, fused and stained glass, mixed media, textiles and furniture. Subjects run from classical still life to modern abstract imagery.

"Our sculptors create some very large works," said member Lisa Cook.
Story continues below
Special to The Press-Enterprise
Painter James Arlus Snow's work will be on display this weekend at the Mountain Arts Network's fall show.

Karen Pollitt, for example, builds massive Viking boats with ghostly rib structures. Claude Robert welds together enormous metal sheets, gears and rods.

Victoria LaVers paints large modern abstract images while Jon Olson creates finely detailed miniature paintings, often just four inches square.

Darleen Ortlieb uses pyro-engraving on gourds grown for her by her brother. Helga Batman-Koplin creates impressionistic floral painting while Candy Butler is a mixed media artist who recycles found material into three-dimensional objects.

Cheryl Chapman and Kathy Jenkins are glass artists and Deborah Guyette, Kelly Pajak, Nancy Anderson and Sue Klump are photographers.

Curtis Bayer creates prints from images he has carved onto wood blocks. Margaret Spiess is a textile batik artist and Graeme Gale builds organic rustic furniture. His wife, Lisa Cook, is a painter and jewelry artist.

Other jewelry artists are Ruth Woods, Veronika Evans, Cheryl Chapman, Maria Britzman and Adrienne Dentith. Darlene Kraft creates photo-realistic watercolors and Wilma Van Mierlo paints moody forests and shimmering nudes.

The group's president, Linda Harlan White, is a china painter who specializes in wildlife imagery. Franki Brotzler paints portraits of women and saints. Vergie Lightfoot builds sculptures of pumpkins and animals, usually cats, using a multi-layered process.

Kara O'Brien, Brenda Lee Gibson, LeRoi Pierce and James Arlus Snow are painters, Cook said.

Reach Penny E. Schwartz at panache616@earthlink.net

The Mountain Arts Network fall show begins today at the Burnt Mill Beach Club in Lake Arrowhead.

When: Wine and cheese reception, 5-7 p.m. today, exhibit, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.- 3 p.m. Sunday.

Where: 27910 Lake's Edge Road, off Highway 189 near the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.

Information: www.mountainartsnetwork.org or 909-337-1238.

Gallery: Willow Woods Art Colony, 28561 Highway 18, Skyforest.