The River's Journey: 5 year reunion at the Wildling

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We’re in the final days of the River’s Journey anniversary show at the Wildling Museum in Solvang. The show will come down on September 4th. The museum is offering a $50 off coupon with the purchase of a painting AND a free catalog from the original exhibition. Thanks to the museum for another chance to grace the walls and thanks also to the participating artists!

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

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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

Remind me when we met?

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A week has passed since the opening of SURFACING at Sullivan Goss in Santa Barbara. With the show successfully launched, life now turns toward other, more mundane, pursuits; the long forgotten and neglected chores, the unglamorous tasks, that accumulate during the swirling excitement of completing a body of work and the subsequent installation at the gallery.

One luxury, post-reception, is time.

First to fill my calendar: take a long walk with a friend, followed by a plunge in the Pacific.

As we meandered the cliff and shoreline at Campus Point and while scurrying around the craggy rocks during the advancing tide, I was reminded of an image I painted from two decades ago. Still, this view surprises, inspires and holds my attention.

Every. Single. Time.

How does it do that?

Campus Point, Santa Barbara, CA, 2023

I created several versions of this view, small studies and a larger format oil painting, which caught the eye of my then “soon-to-be” husband. I created one last rendition in a size that would fill a wall in our dining room where it has lived for two decades, still bright, still shiny, still inspiring.

And, this morning, standing in front of the muse as it, once again, sparkled and posed, I caught my breath as the vision spilled its fairy dust reminding me that amidst the ebb and flow of life, some things always remain the same.

Point Break, 30x72”, oil on panel 2003

SURFACING catalog preview

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As with my 2021 exhibition SEA CHANGE, my current exhibit, SURFACING, will have a catalog to accompany the show. The layout is complete and the cover decided. I hope to have it ready by the middle of August if not sooner! It will be a beautiful companion to the first catalog, a match set, warm and cool, made up of the same subject, shore and sky, sand and sea. SURFACING will officially open at Sullivan Goss, 11 East Anapamu, Santa Barbara on Friday, July 28, 2023 with the reception on First Thursday, August 3rd from 5-8pm. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the gallery.

New Catalog Cover

“SURF: Once again, I am deeply engrossed in my longstanding relationship with the shoreline, entranced by the interplay of sand, sea, and sky.  My newest collection of paintings seamlessly continues the narrative established in my previous exhibition, "Sea Change," delving further into the exploration of color and composition, with an emphasis on the delicate balance between truth and memory.” (catalog excerpt)

Inside Catalog Page

Save the date: August 3rd 2023

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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

The River's Journey catalog revealed again

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The River’s Journey celebration continues! Not only is the exhibition having an anniversary so is the catalog. Here is a sneak peek into the 120 page catalog from the exhibit that opened at the Wildling Museum of Art & Nature in February of 2018. (You can flip through the entire catalog on my instagram feed). This gem showcased articles from many voices in the community in addition to the six artists participating in the show. You can find it in my shop as well as at the Wildling Museum store. Stayed tuned for information about a reunion exhibit coming soon!

Artists on site at Jameson Lake November 2016

The year in review.... really?

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Do I have to? It was another doozy full of highs, lows sprinkled with chaotic activity. By the time I make it to the winter holidays I’m usually ready for hibernation and a long winter nap. It sounds so good, right? Friends in snowy places, like Canada and New Hampshire (you know who you are) have the perfect excuse to pull in the welcome mat, settle down by the fire with a stack of books and wait for the spring. Okay, maybe some winter activities are included but those are always optional.

Looking at my photo collection from 2022 the year both started and ended at the beach with plenty of visits to the seashore in between. My solace, my comfort has been found at the edge of the pacific. Joy and laughter with my husband and dog are created and felt there as well. It’s a meeting place with friends and where I run for time alone. It is a steady, unwavering presence that impacts who I get to be while traveling in this skin. I have the great pleasure of sharing these experiences from the inside out through my chosen work. In that knowledge I feel blessed every day. Considering the past few years of uncertainty and quarantine, without close connection to routines and the familiar patterns of day to day existence, my relationship to the sea and sky never wavers. My love for the pacific stays true.

Looking back or looking forward there will always be the sea, the sky, color, light, friends and fur balls. With love, I wish you all a wonder-full start to the new year.

Merry wishes for the holiday!

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Sulllivan Goss has done it again, another spectacular display from local artists in their annual 100 GRAND exhibition. Even though sales have been brisk there are still plenty of worthy entries waiting to be collected this holiday season.

Flight Song 1 10x10” oil on panel (FYI there is a Flight Song 2 that didn’t make the wall. You can ask to see it!)

After visiting the artpalooza in the front gallery, be sure not to miss the WINTER SALON in the back gallery. It is another space filled with myriad styles, sizes and colors for the collecting. Four of my paintings are on the wall accompanying other beauties by Nathan Huff, Phoebe Brunner, Hank Pitcher and Julika Lackner, to name a few.

When you weary of wandering the streets and stores in search of that perfect gift, stop in at the gallery to recharge your holiday spirit. Happy merry holiday!

Fall happenings & beyond .....

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It's October, the start to the last quarter of the year, the beginning of the end of 2022. It's a month that heralds the start of holiday fever and a ramping up to the new year looming. New work is emerging from the studio and finding new homes as well as annual exhibits. Here are just a few to check in with this coming season.

CREATIVE WOMEN III - GALLERY MAR CARMEL
OCT 21 through NOV 11, 2022

New Work by Twelve Regional Female Artists
Opening Reception Friday, October 21st, from 5 to 8pm.

Four new paintings will be showing alongside the works of 11 other artists in
this juried group exhibition celebrating women of the central coast.

More information can be found on their WEBSITE

VALLEY GOLD , 36x60” Oil on birch panel

SUNDANCE Home Catalog and SUNDANCE online have a new collection of paintings on offer. Thank you Sundance for the amazing environments that showcase my work.
See the collection HERE

LA PALOMA Restaurant in Santa Barbara has been open now for a couple years, making it through the toughest stretch of Covid quarrantine. This beautiful space has showcased seven of my paintings from the day it opened. I am honored to part of the gorgeous surroundings. Go have a drink, share a meal and visit the now permanent collection of work in this one of kind Santa Barbara establishment. Check out the MENU and make a plan to stop in.

All the wild that remains and OH! so very dry.

Plane, bus, plane, van, horse, helicopter, raft, speed boat, van, bus, plane. It seemed almost every mode of transportation in the short span of 6 days getting to the Grand Canyon and back again. We missed trains and motorcycles, hot air balloon? Each mode of transportation offered a new perspective of the classic western landscape. Scale. The vast quantity of the open western landscape, immensity of space, but also uninhabitable space and the evidence of the drought that continues to be ever present.

Summer heat has arrived. The sizzle of August meets us before sliding into fall.

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It has been such a mild summer here on our piece of coastline. I’ve been wondering when the hot days would arrive. So often we get a good blast of heat in October and as the summer ticked away, with cooler than usual temperatures, I kept wondering if September and October were going to be blazing. The heat always shows up, it’s just a matter of when.

Evening Sizzle by Nicole Strasburg. Oil on birch panel. The summer heat has arrived. Evening color over the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, California. Available at Sullivan Goss Gallery.

Evening Sizzle, 14x14”, oil on birch panel

Summer at Sundance

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Summer Solstice marks the first day of of the new season, the season of blue skies, heat, and running to the shoreline, lake or mountain tops to cool from the radiating summer sun. Sundance has a new collection of paintings celebrating the season, big sky and cool ocean colors or mountain pines with night skies.

Summer and the longest day of the year

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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

Western Shore 48x24” Oil on Birch Panel

Spring into Summer at Sundance

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A warm thank you to Sundance for showcasing 16 new paintings online. Represented are paintings from seashore to mountain top, estuary birds and cloud filled skies.

Wild Pines, 12x48” Oil on Birch Panel

Post Show Disappearance

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My show concluded at the end of September of this year and what an amazing show. I felt like I ran a marathon at a sprint putting together the 54 pieces that were delivered to the gallery in July.

By the end of the show all the gas had been consumed from my tank. My normal pattern would be to celebrate by traveling somewhere and filling my eyes and heart back up before returning to the studio. Alas, it has been another grounded year.

Life continues and despite being home there are shows still on the horizon. Right now at Sullivan Goss you can find my work in both the annual 100 GRAND exhibition as well as the Winter Salon.

Sky Sea 40, 4x4”, Gouache on Arches Board - 100 GRAND Exhibition at Sullivan Goss Santa Barbara

I hope the season finds you all well and thriving. May your creativity find you hard at work. Happy Holy Days.

Campus Tide 5, 28x40”, oil on cradled birch panel - Winter Salon, Sullivan Goss