The theme for Ojai Valley Museum’s new exhibition, Ojai Mystique,currently on view, is a simple one: celebrating the beauty of the Ojai landscape. Co-curators, and Ojai-based, participating artists Dan Schultz and Jennifer Moses, also add that the exhibition is an homage to and a continuation of the historic legacy of painting in the Ojai Valley. The small coastal town, situated between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, has been known to attract many an artist with its natural scenery, including the main attraction of the region—the Topatopa Mountains.
Logan Maxwell Hagege, Hollyhocks with Chief Peak, oil, 45 x 49”
“The landscape of California’s Ojai Valley has been inspiring artists for more than a century,” continues Schultz, also a board member at the museum. “Some of the early California impressionist painters, including Edgar Payne and Elmer and Marion Wachtel, created paintings in Ojai. Artists continue to find inspiration here today.”
The exhibition features 42 paintings by 21 high-caliber artists, each presenting a major large landscape work accompanied by a small landscape piece. Participating artists come from across California, Nevada and Colorado, but all maintain a connection to Ojai. Artists like Meredith Brooks Abbott, Peter Adams, John Budicin, Marcia Burtt, Len Chmiel, John Cosby, Steven Curry, Rick Garcia, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Robin Hall and Jennifer McChristian, will show their Ojai landscapes in the show.
Ray Roberts, Ventura River Channel, oil, 24 x 32”
Ray Roberts presents his astounding oil painting Ventura River Channel, illustrating the artists expertise in color and light. “The coastal range of California has always had a big impression on me ever since childhood,” the artist says of his inspiration for the piece. “It is a desert with an intermittent marine layer that adds interesting color and vegetation to its geology. Crumbling hillsides, dotted with oak trees describe the drainage from the infrequent rains, all leading to a whitewashed, dry creek bed. This is how I found Ojai; an idyllic and iconic part of the California coastal range with all of the elements of my favorite subject matter…I felt right at home there scouting and painting as it felt like stepping into the vision of an early California impressionist [painting]…”
Peter Adams, Golden Sunset Matilija Valley Ojai, oil, 12 x 9”
Artist Logan Maxwell Hagege and his family have made Ojai their home for the last four years. He also contributes his own unique vision in his show painting Hollyhocks with Chief Peak, featuring the artist’s iconic hollyhocks. “I have been inspired to paint hollyhocks for several years now,” Hagege explains. “The strong rains that we had last winter/spring caused many wildflowers to pop up, and seeing the hollyhocks has been very exciting for me. I have been able to grow hollyhocks behind my studio this year, for the first time since [moving] here. The mountain in the background is Chief Peak, which I can see from my studio…Seeing the flowers and the land is a daily part of my life, so the choice to include both in my painting made the most sense to me.”
Jennifer Moses, Sunswept, oil, 17¼ x 21”
Through February 4, 2024, the Ojai Valley Museum displays these fine landscape examples and so much more. “We hope collectors and visitors will appreciate the legacy of landscape painting in the Ojai Valley that continues today,” says Schultz. “We also hope that we might inspire visiting artists or young viewers...” —
Ojai Mystique
Through February 4, 2024
Ojai Valley Museum, 130 W. Ojai Avenue, Ojai, CA 93023
(805) 640-1390
www.ojaivalleymuseum.org
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