Recognized for both plein-air and large-scale studio paintings of rural landscapes, Bruce Everett’s approach has been referred to as painterly photo-realism.  For many years the artist lived in the recesses of a rocky Chatsworth canyon and focused on the unique terrain of the central California coastal ranges with their sand colored boulder formations, creeks and rolling hills scattered with oaks.  While it is hard to imagine any location in California being considered “remote” these days, many of Everett’s perspectives are obtainable only by means of his hand-built Ultra Light airplane.  Sometimes working from photographs made from the open cockpit of this plane, Everett creates bird’s-eye views of a California landscape we know, but assumed had vanished.   The scenes however, are usually not devoid of some aspect of our presence whether it be a fence, fire road or water tank.  Recently, having moved further north to the mid-coast of California, Everett has begun discovering “New Territory.” 

Concurrently, the gallery will present an exhibition of new paintings by Santa Barbara artist Pamela Kendall Schiffer, which also focus on the central coast of California, particularly the area of Hollister Ranch.  Working on relatively small-scale wood panels, Schiffer favors intimate compositions of atmospheric conditions defined by light. Minimal subjects, such as a small grove of eucalyptus trees against a foggy ocean horizon, allow the artist to focus on the sublimity of light and space in a Luminist fashion.  Like Everett’s remote subjects, Schiffer’s views of Hollister Ranch draw attention to a generally inaccessible area with what critic Josef Woodward calls, “ a beguiling poetry of restraint.