Opening Art Reception for "Water is Gold" August 14, 2008

We had a very successful opening reception for our current exhibit entitled, "Water is Gold", which will be on display through September 30, 2008. Thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed the food and wine and got to experience lots of great art. There were lots of wonderful comments about this show and it is always so terrific to see the artists interacting with the visitors who want to know more about their work. I think that is a really special time for art collectors.

Our reception was also part of a larger "Second Thursday" open house in our building and its been great as more and more people find out about our new building and all the great things going on at this unexpected location. This was our first "Second Thursday" Art Night & Open House and we hope to be doing these every second Thursday of the month (although, for our gallery, an opening reception for a new exhibit occurs every other month, we are certainly going to be doing an Open House every month).

Next big event is Sunday August 24th, when Treat Avenue will be closed off for a block party (11 am - 4 pm) that will include more than 12 local independent bands and lots of arts & crafts booths and of course the gallery will be open throughout the event.

If you are local, feel free to stop in and see the new exhibit, and if you are not able to come to 18th & Treat Avenue, you can always see the art work online at the gallery website.

Art & Estate Sale Sunday August 3rd

The Gallery will be participating in an Art & Estate sale this Sunday, August 3, from 11:00 - 4:00 pm. The sale will be on Treat Avenue in the Mission district, between 17th and 18th and between Folsom and Harrison.

There will be lots of very high-quality items, not at all like a flea market thing - more like our own little Antiques Roadshow with some great art available as well.

If you are local, stop by! If you are not local, you can check out the latest art at kathleenmcmahonfineart.com

Opening Art Reception for "Patterns" June 7, 2008

Our gallery held an Open House reception for the new exhibit, "Patterns", running June through July. The Open House was from 1-4 pm and it was a lovely warm, sunny classic San Francisco day.

Some comments I've heard on the new exhibit seem to cause people to think about food, though the artwork is not related to food. One person said Sue Averell's piece, "Reality Skewed" - a cityscape, made her want to eat chocolate. Interesting! Several people have commented that Cari Hernandez's floral beeswax sculptural paintings looked 'yummy enough to eat'. They do!

One collector eyed Sherry Miller's "First African Quilt" and could not get over how cool it looked to him. 'Stunning', he said for the fourth time to me. Margaret Tcheng Ware's, "Reflections" piece has been drawing admiration for its amazing colors and calm quiet tones. Elizabeth Stahl's "Palace of Fine Arts #11" brilliant colors and the strong shadow lines of her "Alta Plaza Park #1" piece has drawn several admirers. Nancy Federice's large "The Relationship" and her "Red #2" made its first gallery debut to a great response. Many people commented on the strong lovely colors in Michie Wong's "Dahlia" photographic piece. I overheard people looking at Michie's "Velvet Fire" photograph, a macro image of a plant showing the patterns, quizzing each other as to trying to guess what it was. And Idell Weiss always draws admiring comments on her California landscapes, of which 3 are featured in this exhibit showing the patterns in nature.

Here are photos of a couple of spots on the wall of the exhibit:





If you didn't have a chance to stop by the reception, please do visit the gallery to check out the exhibit now through the end of July!

Art Exhibit Opening Reception: April 25, 2008

April 25th launched the weekend of Open Studios throughout the Mission district with over 7 different artist collective buildings participating, including ActivSpace - the building where our gallery is located.

Friday night we hosted an opening exhibit reception for our current exhibit, "A Room With A View" (the exhibit runs through the end of May), and we were so pleased to meet so many people, have many of the artist attend to speak with guests and there was a great festive atmosphere and everyone had a great time and got to see some great art.

We continued Open Studios weekend yesterday, with an amazingly sunny and actually hot day - everyone was walking around, in a great mood, and enjoying the warm weather and art. It is a wonderful combination and it could not have been a better weekend for this event. Open Studios continues through today (and another brilliant sunny and hot day is on tap).

Here are a couple of photos from our Friday night reception.

Clay Art Burnished and Pit-Fired Pottery Vessels

We are so pleased to be representing the fine work of local artist, Judy Hummell.

Judy creates clay art burnished and pit-fired pottery vessels. They are really quite stunning. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein from San Francisco purchased one. The swirls in each pot are very complex and distinctive, and the surface is so smooth and shiny - it makes you want to kind of rub it like a magic lantern or something.

Of course given that very smooth and shiny and curvy surface, it was about near impossible to take digital photos of her pieces that would really do them justice. She tells me even professional photographers have turn her down because they felt the work was too difficult to photograph. But in person, they are just gorgeous!

Here are her own comments on her process and below her comments are a couple of sample photos of her pieces:

My pots are hand-built using the method of coiling and a low-fire red clay called Navajo Wheel. Coiling is a slow process, but I find it enjoyable, rolling out the coils, attaching one coil at a time, smoothing and shaping the growing walls of the pot as I go along. During the drying process, I burnish the pots several times with a smooth stone in order to achieve a high polish. No glaze is used. When the pots are completely dry, they are bisque-fired in an electric kiln to about 1500 F. Since they are fired at this low temperature, my pots will not hold water. Next the pots are taken to the beach and a pit is dug in the sand. Sawdust is put into the pit and the pots are placed in the sawdust. Black results wherever the pot touches the sawdust. Copper carbonate and sea salt sprinkled in the sawdust around the pots create variations in color, especially reds. I most often use wood scraps as fuel, but sometimes I use cow dung, or both wood and dung. When the fire has died down I cover the pit with sheet metal so that the pots will cool slowly and not crack. The firing usually lasts all day. The most exciting time is of course at the end of the day when the pots are cool enough to remove from the pit. No two pots emerge from the fire alike; each is unique and the results are always a surprise.

A light coat of carnauba wax is applied to the pots to bring out the colors and to finish them.

The photos below are not professional. They are just a best attempt with a digital camera. You can see more of Judy's work at http://www.kathleenmcmahonfineart.com/artists/judy_hummell/.

New Encaustic Paintings by Cari Hernandez

Two new works are now available at our gallery, from Cari Hernandez, contemporary encaustic artist: "Oh... luscious" and "Passion Pod" (see images below).

These are part of Cari's "Oh" series which is a lively series that has been described as "visceral". It was developed while on a quest to explore jubilant emotion-creating a sense of movement and spontaneity in form.

The painting is pigmented pharmaceutical-grade beeswax painted on a solid box-like wood support. The encaustic beeswax medium, with its organic qualities, is not only beautiful because of its inherent and evocative luster and translucency, but it is one of the most durable of all artists' paints, since wax is impervious to moisture.

It is sold unframed (its cradle is so deep, it definitely doesn't need framing) and comes wired and ready to hang. The depth of her color layers and luminosity in her wax is just stunning. Instructions for the care of encaustic paintings come with the piece.

Cari is open to considering commission projects based on her work and style.

You can see more paintings at: http://www.kathleenmcmahonfineart.com/artwork/

Gallery Introduction

Kathleen McMahon Fine Art Gallery is a gallery located in San Francisco, CA. We represent the work of contemporary artists with work that ranges from California landscapes and cityscapes to abstracts to expressionism to pottery to hand-blown glass. Some artists work primarily in oils, some in encaustic beeswax, some in acrylics, and others in clay and glass.

We offer artwork for sale both in our gallery and online at our website http://www.kathleenmcmahonfineart.com/

Our gallery is located in the Mission district of San Francisco:

Kathleen McMahon Fine Art
3150 18th Street, Suite 105
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-673-0802
http://www.kathleenmcmahonfineart.com/
Open Tues-Sat 11am-5pm

The gallery door is actually on Treat Street, between 17th and 18th Street (even though our mailing box sits on 18th Street), and Treat Street sits between Folsom and Harrison Street.

This blog will be a place to look for gallery news, as well as news about our represented artists, interesting San Francisco art news, feature current or newly added work, thoughts and ramblings. Put our blog on your RSS feed to keep up to date on new postings.

We look forward to seeing you at the gallery or one of our events!