Docent Tour of Lightcatcher Exhibits – January 25, 2013

We have two great exhibits at the Whatcom Museum’s Lightcatcher that we’d like to share with you. Save the date for Friday, January 25

Joan Ofteness and Dewey White, docents and walker/hikers, will each lead a tour at noon on California Impressionism: Selections from the Irvine Museum. Please come at 11:45 am to participate in the tour.

DURING THE LATE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH centuries, California artists produced a unique style that combined several distinctive aspects of American and European art. This style — known as California Impressionism or California plein air painting, after the French term for “in the open air”— focused on capturing the special light and color of the state’s landscape and helped to define modern landscape painting.

Through this stunning collection of 50 paintings from the collection of The Irvine Museum, California, this exhibition features many of the most important artists of the period, including Franz Bischoff, Emil Kosa, Phil Dike, Edgar Payne, William Wendt, Guy Rose, and Granville Redmond.

Martie Lopez, docent and walker/hiker will lead the tour at 1 p.m. on Chicanitas: Small Paintings from the Cheech Marin Collection (size doesn’t matter). This exhibition will not have docent tours for the public, this is a tour only for our WF.

Marin’s most recent passion is collecting small paintings averaging 16 inches square and smaller in size. Chicanitas showcases 65 paintings by 26 painters, ranging from photo-realism to abstractions to portraits to landscapes. In contrast to other works in his collection representing and promoting the Chicano art movement of the mid-60’s and 70’s, the content of many of these small paintings leans more towards the artist’s internal or personal statement rather than as a response to political, social or cultural situations.

To read more about the exhibitions: http://www.whatcommuseum.org/

Cost for the private tours, which includes admission, is $6.00 for non-members (please bring exact amount) and is free for members – just remember to bring your member card when checking in at front desk.

Friends and spouses are also welcome.  Carpools work best, and free parking is available at the Whatcom Old City Hall, otherwise be prepared to pay for metered parking for more than two hours.

Please email martie.lopez@verizon.net to reserve your spot on either tour.Laughing

An email will be sent to closer to the date as a reminder to those that have signed up. Joan, Dewey and Martie look forward to your attendance. These tours have become part of the Walking Groups special event series and we are happy to share our research on these exhibitions.

If you cannot make our tour, docents lead tours on California Impressionism on Thursday and Friday at 1. There are two tours on Saturday and Sunday, 1and 2 p.m.