CONCERT OF COLOR ART EXHIBIT AT MISSION TRAILS NOW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 20

September 4, 2013 (El Cajon) – The Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation (MTRP) is pleased to present an exhibition featuring the following award-winning artists:

Kris DeYoung - Oil; Deb Gargula – Colored Pencil; Terry Kvitky – Acrylic; Wilma Lopez – Encaustic; James Otto – Photography; Denise Strahm – Photography and Jerry Vande Berg – Oil and Watercolor. This exhibit is on display until September 20, 2013. Mission Trails Visitors Center is located at One Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego.

About the Artists:

Kris DeYoung – Kris has been inspired to create bold and sensitive paintings of the world’s plants in her “Native Plant Series.” In these paintings, she demonstrates man’s destructive relationship with nature by juxtaposing hard edge or abstract designs with representational images. She seeks to increase awareness of this negative relationship with nature with these artworks. Three paintings representative of these ideas in this show are Mojave Agave, Toyon and Chuparosa.

Deb Gargula – Currently Deb is working in Colored Pencil, sometimes mixing it with water-soluble pencil and gold leaf. Her images function as a structure to hang color on. Her style is based on the layering of colors and textures.

Deb likes the translucent nature of the materials she uses. She finds there is a richness of color to be achieved by layering colors that is not available by applying color directly onto the page. This allows her to form unique ways of expressing her subject.

Each piece is an adventure, a chance to further explore the world with new eyes. Deb’s images tend to be tranquil and atmospheric, not a photographic reproduction of the subject. Her goal is to translate what she sees into color, texture, movement, mood and beauty.

Terry Kvitky – Born in Chicago, Terry demonstrated a desire to express herself artistically starting in the second grade. By the age of sixteen, she began to explore the use of oil paints, and charcoal or pencil for portrait drawings. Through the years spent in banking, bookkeeping, and teaching, Terry never gave up the dream of one day pursuing her passion for painting more fully.

Terry has been a member of the Temecula Valley Art League for eight years. She has taken classes in oil painting with John Heinrichs and watercolor classes with David Musser. Her work has been featured in Fallbrook, CA as part of an international artist’s project, Landfillart.org, and Portraitofthefallenmemorial.org. Terry defines herself as a “colorist,” employing a vibrant palette to portray landscapes and other images in an Interpretive-Realistic manner.

Wilma Lopez – Through her encaustic paintings, Wilma tries to create unique original works that perfectly balance her knowledge of color and techniques.

James Otto – Jim is a landscape and still-life photographer living and working in San Diego County. He was born in Caracas and was raised in the Midwest. He started photographing in earnest after attending graduate school in Albuquerque and Denver. He began shooting black and white landscape images in the four corners region using medium format film cameras. Later, Jim started with digital cameras and print media. He has photographed in the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley, but he has an affinity for the quiet little places, where it is just a solitary palomino, or red-tail perhaps, lending its wry commentary.

Denise Strahm – Denise likes to call herself a paintographer. When she takes pictures, she strives to create artistic photographs with painterly attributes. The mood, color and texture of the scene are captured, and it communicates to the viewer what she sees and feels in that scene. Her graphic design background helps her transform complex, mostly architectural subject matter into simple contemporary compositions. And, since she does not paint with a brush, she will continue to paint with her camera.

Jerry Vande Berg – Jerry is a former Research Investigator at the Veterans Medical Center and University of California, San Diego. He has studied with internationally famous artists such as Gary Johnson, Lee Kromschroeder and John Seery-Lester. He has received numerous awards and juried Best in Show and First Place in oil and watercolor categories in numerous exhibitions. His paintings have been purchased by private collectors of wildlife art and many national corporations throughout the United States.  An appreciation for the manner in which wildlife exists daily in their environment is Jerry’s primary goal in his paintings.

The MTRP Visitor and Interpretive Center is located at One Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego, CA 92119, and it is open daily from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.  Admission is free.