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Collaboration. I thought, I proposed, we met, we proposed, we painted, and we will exhibit. And, hopefully, you will come.  That’s the short version.  The long version took more than a year.

A while ago I wrote an article called Titles (scroll down past the palm springs post), about creating titles as an inspiration to an exhibit, painting, or a series.  Following my own musing, in November 2017 I came up with an exhibit title. Unrenowned Nouns: ordinary persons, places, and things.  At first I thought I would submit this to a museum or gallery.  But my generosity waned and I thought “I want to do the persons”! 

My next thought was that I wanted to partner with two other oil painters, who I admire, to present the places and things. It only took me a moment to identify them.  Like me, they tease out the beauty and uniqueness of the commonplace. So, before I could change my mind, I emailed Martha Cowan and Karen Werner with the idea. They loved it.  

Over a fun lunch, we shared our vision, our schedules, and discussed venues.  We all agreed that the Claremont Community Foundation was our first choice.The space is great and their mission is philanthropic.  So, on impulse, we hurried over to CCF and made our pitch to Mary Roy, the art program curator. She loved it.

Over time, our exhibit title morphed into unreNOUNed: persons, places, and things. Each of us has been dedicated in creating and/or selecting paintings for this exhibit.  My paintings are large faces of regular people, Martha’s paintings depict places we easily overlook, and Karen’s paintings are of domestic objects. All three of us  are excited to share our visions of the beauty in everyday life.  We hope you love it.