Second Chances on First Thursday

SURFACING @Sullivan Goss

Second Reception: THURSDAY, September 7th from 5-8pm

September is widely recognized as the official kickoff of the art season. Some galleries, reopening after a summer hiatus, offer up fresh exhibitions curated during the period of August's scorching hot days. Artists and galleries alike, eagerly await the return of art enthusiasts who have been away on their summer sojourns.

And, as we transition from one season to the next, while children settle back into the routine of a fresh school term, it is an ideal moment to reunite with friends and explore the vast array of exciting new exhibitions on display.

September First Thursday events mark the launch of Santa Barbara’s own art season. SULLIVAN GOSS at 11 East Anapamu will host a brand new show in the main gallery titled SPACE while in the back and front gallery is the second chance to see my show SURFACING and Holli Harmon’s exhibit To Feast on Clouds. Most of the artists will be in attendance, myself included.

If you need some enticing JOE WOODARD has written a fabulous review of SURFACING in the Independent.

A Bit of Perspective 14x14” oil on cradled birch panel

Click to read the full article

Another reason to visit the gallery - the catalogs are in!

This catalog was published on the occasion of the Sullivan Goss exhibition: Nicole Strasburg: SURFACING, July 28 – September 25, 2023. Featured essays by Jocelyn Webb-Pederson and Jeremy Tessmer. Plus, artist statement and curriculum vitae included in back. Featuring 43 color plates. 40 pages total. Measures 8.5 x 11 inches, softbound.

Available in my SHOP, at the gallery and online at Sullivan Goss.

Special thanks to Jeremy Tessmer for all the help making this catalog beautiful and such a fantastic complement to the SEA CHANGE companion.

Preview inside pages

Rick Rubin: The Creative Act

There’s a reason we are drawn

to gazing at the ocean.

It is said the ocean provides

a closer reflection of who

we are than any mirror.

Radiant Heat (Campus Point Tide) 20x40” oil on panel, on view now at Sullivan Goss

It's finally here! THIS week opening reception at Sullivan Goss

First Thursday, August 3rd from 5-8pm

S U R F A C I N G

at Sullivan Goss, 11 East Anapumu, Santa Barbara

Save the date: August 3rd 2023

As many of you have guessed, from the image campaign on instagram/facebook, I have a show opening at Sullivan Goss in a few weeks. I’m busy in the studio getting the last of the paintings done and starting to turn my attention to letting people know that the work will be on the walls in August and September here in Santa Barbara. The reception will be during First Thursday openings August 3rd from 5-8 pm. The show officially opens on the Friday before, July 28th, 2023. It will feel good to emerge from the studio, see everyone and share what I’m working on.

Waiting Offshore 10x30” Oil on cradled panel ©2023

Five year Anniversary of The River's Journey Exhibit at the Wildling Museum of Art Nature

Is it possible? Five years ago this month the Wildling Museum in Solvang, California celebrated the opening of the exhibition The River’s Journey. The show focused on the 92-mile long Santa Ynez River watershed. Six artists spent over a year translating the largess of Santa Barbara County’s water source into small intimate gouache paintings (and a few large oils!).

The artists, myself, Holli Harmon, Nina Warner, Connie Connelly, Libby Smith and Pamela Zwehl-Burke, embarked on this project in August of 2016 working steadily through drought and rainy seasons leading up to the exhibit. A catalog was created to document the project and three further venues in the city of Santa Barbara followed the success at the Wildling.

I’m still in awe of the trajectory of the exhibit and the wonderful experience of sharing the journey through these images, for more than a year, in four locations. What a ride! Thanks to the Wildling Musueum, Santa Barbara City Hall Gallery, Sullivan Goss and The Ridley-Tree Museum of Art for hosting this project.

Thank you to the artists who came along for the ride and made gorgeous paintings honoring the river. We appreciate the contributors who wrote essays for the beautiful catalog designed by Leslie Lewis Sigler. I’m still smiling and in awe five years later.

*catalogs can still be found through the Wildling and in my online shop.

Excerpt from The River’s Journey website/blog

Summer and the longest day of the year

Summer is closing in and the longest day of the year is on the horizon. Sullivan Goss is launching new shows at the gallery with an opening reception happening this week for First Thursday events. I have a brand new painting fresh off the easel being shown in the Summer Salon in their back gallery. I’m so honored to be hanging with artists John Nava, Hank Pitcher, Nathan Huff and Susan McDonnell, to name just a few. AND I get to be on the wall next two lovely Lockwood DeForest paintings.

Patricia Chidlaw is in the front gallery with a beautiful show celebrating the swimming pool and the in main gallery FORMALIZE: Strategies for Abstraction, an exhibition that emphasizes the formalist view of abstract art.

So much to see and enjoy as we slide into the new season.

Western Shore 48x24” Oil on Birch Panel

SEA CHANGE catalog

We are about ready to send the catalog to press. Sullivan Goss has put up a digital preview HERE and Beth Taylor-Schott has outdone herself with an exceptional essay about the work. I’m speechless and grateful. Thank you Beth for the poetic expression of my visual experience.

Catalogs should be in the gallery by mid month.

Palette to Panel

Every day alchemy

details of new work with mixed color on palette

Summer Salon at Sullivan Goss

I love to be hanging with friends and beloved colleagues.

Coastal Fog can be viewed now at Sullivan Goss through July 26, 2021 beside the works of John Nava, Nathan Huff, Patricia Chidlaw, Phoebe Brunner, Angela Perko, Colin Campbell Cooper, Lockwood DeForest and many more.

Left to right, Nathan Huff “A Sudden Lurch to Help”, Angela Perko “Refugio Beach, West End #2”, Nicole Strasburg “Coastal Fog” and John Nava “Summerland 4-2”.