Embrace by Troy Poeschl

Art Exhibitions

Art to keep you going!

Exhibits: Upcoming

Past Exhibits:

WOVEN

In collaboration with LBUSD
at Laguna Beach City Hall
July 1 – August 10, 2023
Laguna Beach City Hall 505 Forest Ave, Laguna Beach, CA

Art instruction is not just for art class anymore. In the Laguna Beach Unified School District, art has become an integral part of a comprehensive education experience and is applicable in all subjects and in a variety of methods.

“Woven,” the latest exhibit on the walls of Laguna Beach City Hall, is a celebration of the transformative power of arts in education. In a partnership between CAP and LBUSD, 28 works by students from elementary school through high school have been selected and will be featured in this six-week exhibit.


A Visual Experience

In collaboration with Gallery Q at The Susi Q
Friday, May 12, 2023 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Laguna Beach Community & Senior Center
380 Third Street, Laguna Beach, CA

CAP is delighted to be welcomed to the beautiful Gallery Q Library to display a juried show featuring nine fantastic artists working in Sculpture, Acrylic, Oil, Mixed Media, Fused Glass, Photography and a new process called Grit Script.®
Read on to learn more about what’s in store … click through to Charlie’s article.
Exhibit will be on display from May 10-July 12, 2023, Monday-Friday from 9 am to 5 pm


“A Visual Experience,” CAP’s newest exhibit in collaboration with Gallery Q, showcases the variety of nine artists through choices of subjects, mediums and styles.

Lesli Bonanni
Lesli Bonanni’s work is abstract, yet has and organic feel visually, as if you are looking at a scene in Nature. She works in a process she developed and trademarked, named GritScrip®.

Elizabeth Bridy
Elizabeth Bridy works in the abstract style. She finds her freedom in the genre using multiple layers, textures, colours and the emotions of the moment in the creation of her works.

Elaine Cohen
Another painter who enjoys experimenting with materials, colours, textures, design and size is Elaine Cohen. For her it is “freeing because there are no rules!”

Jill Cooper
Hot glass, also known as fused glass, is Jill Cooper’s art medium. Working with variety of coloured glass, cut into specific shapes, layered then fired in a kiln, produces a beautiful one-of-a-kind piece of art.

Adrienne Fayne
Painting with brilliant colours, free flowing strokes or creating three-dimensional, stylized works of sculpture allows Adrienne Fayne to be “free in expressing herself with no limits.”

Yuri Kuznetsov
Yuri Kuznetsov mixes styles, techniques, textures and vibrant colours with just a touch of humour. His goal is “for one brief moment, all the chaos that is our modern way of life, slips away and you are smiling.”

Andrew Petterson
Working in an impressionistic style, Andrew Petterson’s goal is to capture a fleeting moment of a person or location. Paying detail to the light and elements, layer by layer he builds that moment for the viewer to enjoy.

Mitch Ridder
Composing cinematic stories with light and colour is Mitch Ridder’s focus. His passion for capturing the fine details of the moment, within his view finder is what achieves his dramatic photographs.

Sherry Salito-Forsen
A Zen mood, created from cut pieces of glass fused in the heat of a kiln, can be felt when viewing Sherry Salito-Forsen’s work. Colours and shapes come together to create the feel.


Natural Flow

Through December 2, 2022

“Natural Flow” presents the relationship of elements in Nature, as viewed and interpreted through the eyes of artists Lesli Bonanni, Marianne Champlin, Adrienne Fayne, Paul Gardner, Tom Lamb and Troy Poeschl.

This exhibit is in conjunction with the 10th Annual, Laguna Art Museum, Art & Nature program.

Located at Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center
235 Forest Avenue, Laguna Beach
Exhibit runs November 3 – December 1, 2022
Open hours: Saturdays from 11 am to 4 pm.

Closing Artists’ Reception
during First Thursdays Art Walk
Thursday, December 1, 6-9 pm

Piece-Full Protest

Through – April 22, 2022

A Solo Exhibition of Quilts by Textile Artist Allyson Allen, Artist, Author and Instructor. 2020 Winner of the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance 7 Degrees of Inspiration Grant.

Colorful, textured handmade story quilts focusing on issues of social or global concern, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Location: Neighborhood Congregational Church, Bridge Hall, 340 St Ann’s Dr, Laguna Beach, CA 92651, corner of St Ann’s and Glenneyre.

Reframing Nature

Through January 14th, 2022

A celebration of Nature as seen through the eyes of artists Sheryl Smith Seltzer, Patricia Prescott Sueme, Laura Stickney and Vilma Mendillo. The exhibit is part of the annual Art & Nature event at Laguna Art Museum.

Patricia Prescott Sueme
Laura Stickney & Vilma Mendillo
Sheryl Seltzer

Below, please enjoy a glimpse into the studio of Andrew Petterson, one of the three artists from the Portraits Three Ways exhibit.


Summer Lift

June 26 to August 7, 2021 at Laguna Beach City Hall

Focusing on summer vacation and travel — beaches, outdoors, camping, hiking…Wanderlust! Activities that were temporarily put on hold due to difficult circumstances. Presented through the eyes of seven artists: Ron Azevedo, Mike Ishikawa, Russell Pierce, Troy Poeschl, Mitch Ridder, Veronica Schmitt and Cheyne Walls, we see their perspectives on this timely subject.

Mitch Ridder
Ron Azevedo

Insider Art

Through September 25, 2020

A Juried Exhibit of Artwork Created by
LOCA Arts Education Teaching Artists,
Board Members, Staff, Students, and Members.

Click for a list of Artists and their work exhibited

Images of Artists Work in the Exhibition can be seen here on facebook

Illuminating Elements

Featuring the works of pastel painters Mary Aslin, Lesli Bonanni, Gil Dellinger, Mike Ishikawa, Margaret Lindsey, Marie Tippets, and Elizabeth Wallace. The subject is the effect of light on elements found in nature – natural and man-made.

Margaret Lindsey’s Pacific Atmosphere is a shore scene featuring foamy shore breaks washing up on the dark, wet sand. A mottled blue sky is shot through with streaks of pink at the distant horizon and again peeking through the sky as you look up towards the top of the piece. Her work appears heavily textured with layers of rich pastels, but it is the fine application of thin layers of pastel that creates that appearance. A feeling of peace and calm at the end of a day can be felt when viewing this piece

Margaret Lindsey’s “Pacific Atmosphere,” Pastel   20” x 27”

Mary Aslin may be more known for her still life and portraiture work, in which her handling of light and shadow is exceptional. Her ability is also apparent in her outdoor scenes. Morning Sun, Laguna Alley is a view down one of Laguna’s quaint alleys. Early sunlight dapples the lush vegetation and brilliant bougainvillea lining the side of the alley, while long shadows start to withdraw. A feeling of early morning calm can be felt.

Lesli Bonanni’s work is more moody, abstract, and atmospheric. Blending color in thin layers and moving it around on the surface, also adding, subtracting, etching into the surface, she allows emotional and spiritual feeling to flow as she is working on her piece. Her edges are blurred, rather than sharp, giving a dream-like quality to her work. In Dare To Dream, a river flows from the foreground into the distant horizon. Land shapes are on either side. Overhead is a sky with golden hints of clouds. At the meeting point of the river and the sky is a sliver of bright glow. A hint of what could be or what is to come?

Gil Dellinger has a different view in his Tank Cars, Port of Stockton. Soft sunlight washes over the sides of the tank cars and on down to the ground. Meanwhile, surfaces that face away from the light are either in shadow or completely dark. For Dellinger, it is the way light can move around, defining shapes and shadows, such as the brightness that seeps over the tank cars and disappears into the surfaces between the cars.

Mike Ishikawa works with a saturated and bright palette. Manhattan Pier, Evening Glow shows the pier extending into the ocean, the bright red roof on the building, perched at the end of the pier, like a beacon. Behind it is a turquoise sky and light to dark pink clouds; cobalt blue water and sparkling white waves dance in the foreground of the pier while a mix of oranges, yellows, pinks, and reds reflect off the sand: the panorama of a bright California coastal sunset.

Mike Ishikawa’s “Manhattan Pier, Evening Glow, “Pastel 10” x 27”

In Early Snow and Winter In Utah, Marie Tippets’ goal is to “capture some of the magic” of the winter in Utah. The contrast between the dark trees and brilliant white snow blanketing the land, combined with the casting of cool shadows by the trees, bring to mind the cold, crispness, and deep expanse of her views. Visiting family in Utah gives her the opportunity of revisiting her experiences growing up in New York and brings that feeling to her work.

Elizabeth Wallace has a love of birds and they can frequently be the subject of her works. In a recent experimental series done in pastel, graphite, and watercolour wash, the backgrounds are wind turbines done in watercolor wash. In the foreground is a single bird, done in pastel, and winding through the piece is a stream of writing in handwritten graphite. Treadmills, Windmills features a roadrunner running across the foreground. Spiraling out from the center of each turbine is a stream of writing in pencil.

Looking closely you can read it and discover it is a poem written in a “stream of consciousness” style. These writings come about after Wallace has added the bird to the turbine background. She spends time looking at the work until the words come to her. For this one it is “Treadmills, windmills, time and space. Walking, running, stand in place.”

Each of these seven artists has their own take and interpretation of Art + Nature. The commonality is the medium they use to express themselves and their originality.