Join us for our First Thursday Reception at the Broadway Gallery on September 7, 5:30-7:00 pm.
Barbara Kaempf Matkowski exhibits her abstract paintings and collage and Joel Smith presents his unique scaled surf board sculptures. Barbara’s pieces are lively and intriguing while Joel’s sculptures are simple yet highly detailed. Enjoy speaking with the artists, visiting with friends, having great refreshments and listening to the music by Freelance.
Barbara Kaempf Matkowski- Abstract Painting
Inspirations
Each day I cannot wait to get into my studio to start putting paint on a surface, building up, sanding down, layering, revealing, covering over. Throughout this push-pull of adding and subtracting, I’m constantly unsatisfied with a piece. I may be covering up areas I don’t like, windowing out areas I do, layering, adding glazes, scribbling with a pencil or oil stick, often not knowing what I’m doing or wanting.
I just keep affecting the surface each day, and then something always begins to work. Then it starts to be fun. Shadows or textures of earlier marks show through, or a glaze over scratches is interesting, and I’m suddenly happy.
As always, it’s the unsatisfied covering up, layering and random ’fixing’ that ends up to be the very aspect that makes me most happy with a piece.
Joel Smith- Wood Sculptures
Joel Smith has experienced living in various locations but it’s California that left its mark on his work. He is a very accomplished artist of many mediums and has worked at a variety of construction type work. After serving in the military, he found that working with his hands helped him relax and concentrate on something very special to him- surfing.
It is his love of surfing that led him to sculpt miniature surf boards. They are constructed of various woods such a teak, western red cedar, and oak but his favorite wood is Port Orford Cedar. The sculptures are sanded various times, painted with a special acrylic paint and sealed to assure freshness of the wood stains and paint. They are mounted in various ways usually on drift wood.
We hope you join us in welcoming Joel as a possible new member to our gallery. His work is simple yet very detailed. Enjoy the waves!