BOLD BOTANICALS
An Exhibition of Nature, Garden, and Wildlife Art
April 14 - May 27, 2023
More than 30 ACCI artists will be exhibiting in our biennial Bold Botanicals show which runs from April 14-May 27. Garden and botanical themed pieces will be displayed in the gallery’s rear exhibit space as well as the garden. The Opening Reception will be on Saturday, April 22 from 3-6pm.
Once again ACCI is collaborating with the Berkeley Garden Club (BGC) to present the Art & Plant Street Sale event (11am-5pm) on Saturday May 6, and our collaborative event with the Berkeley Garden Club: the Art in the Garden Tour will be held on Saturday, May 20 from 10am-3pm. Various ACCI member artists will be exhibiting outdoors and in seven local gardens on the tour.
Live demonstrations are also planned, so please check back soon for the schedule and more details.
Once again ACCI is collaborating with the Berkeley Garden Club (BGC) to present the Art & Plant Street Sale event (11am-5pm) on Saturday May 6, and our collaborative event with the Berkeley Garden Club: the Art in the Garden Tour will be held on Saturday, May 20 from 10am-3pm. Various ACCI member artists will be exhibiting outdoors and in seven local gardens on the tour.
Live demonstrations are also planned, so please check back soon for the schedule and more details.
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Nessy BarzilayCeramics
After working for years in high tech, I discovered my passion for art and now I spend most of my time in the ceramics studio contentedly working with clay. I discovered that clay gives me the freedom to work on large scale pieces almost without any tools, mostly just using my bare hands. Earlier I was focused on precision and perfection, but through my work I have learned to accept and embrace the imperfections in my art and in my life.
Most of my work is done with paper clay that gives me the freedom to use clay just as I use pieces of paper. I especially love working with coils, connecting them into fragile shapes, exploring the strength of the clay, and finding the negative spaces in them. My garden totems, are created from different pieces threaded together, like beads in a necklace. For me they are the jewels of my garden. In them I combine my love of jewelry and my passion for gardening. I use higher fire with a combination of shiny and mat glazes so my pieces will stand out in the garden. I try to create my art just as nature creates itself. It evolves, and nothing looks quite the same
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David M Bowman StudioMetal
David M Bowman Studio is a father (David) and son (Reed) partnership specializing in patination of brass and copper objects that we have designed and built in our West Berkeley studio.
So, what does our patinaed metalwork have to do with a Bold Botanical show? Let's start with Bold patina colors and designs, but Botanical? Most of our designs are abstract, though our vases naturally are all about flowers. Likewise, Reed's large wallpiece that we're presenting here can be seen as a huge flower or plant (though in other orientations it might be a rocket or an amazing guitar). Then there are David's 'nasturtium' wall hangings with their obvious floral inspiration and his hand sawn brass tree belt buckles that you might have seen presented by any one of a half dozen different leather workers on Telegraph Avenue in its heyday as a venue for handcrafts some forty-ish years ago. 
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Vineeta ChandGlass
A mosaicist for over 20 years, I work with glass, concrete and raw natural materials (pebbles, driftwood), drawing inspiration from the natural world. My mosaics are a form of biomimicry, focusing on native California flora and fauna, intended to brighten interiors and gardens, offer reminders across seasons and landscapes.
Building on my experiences traversing the wild and not so wild hills and valleys of California, my landscapes are abstracted and essentialized, focusing on the singularity of each view. My mosaiced birds offer unique personalities—my interpretation of the individuals within each breed that I’ve watched in nature. Some native invertebrate beasties—harder to get a personality handle on, admittedly,—are paired with their respective sustaining habitats. And across all of these, light plays across and through glass, and surfaces. My work includes outdoor-friendly mosaiced wall hangings, individually sculpted and mosaiced 3D-relief wall hangings, outdoor friendly concrete-based stepping stones for pathways and pops of color, tables and framed suncatchers which shine in windows, but also hold their own as indoor wall hangings. My work is shown, sold and commissioned across California. 
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Margaret DorfmanMixed Media
My path to doing this work was unplanned and unexpected.
While slicing a zucchini for dinner one evening, I held the slice up to the light, and saw the complexity and wonderful surprise of the nested jade green seeds. I was captivated, and determined to find a way to permanently capture this short lived beauty. Twenty five years later, I now work with over 45 different varieties of fruits and vegetables. I build this work slice by slice, creating translucent sculptural vessels, jewelry and food safe glass serve ware. My work preserves the beauty of each season’s ripe offerings, and showcases the intricate botanical structures and vibrant colors in each unique fruit and vegetable. For this show, I have created new Blossom Bowls and Fruits of the Season Glass Serve ware. Making my living from materials found in the natural world feels like special privilege as well as an invitation - to slow down, look cl,osely, and rediscover the commonplace wonders that surround us. It's one of the reasons I’m so pleased to participate in the Bold Botanicals Show. Margaret Dorfman 
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Judith FeinsFine Art
As a plein air and studio landscape painter, I’m always trying to capture the beautiful places I find. I love to grow flowers, and to paint them. Each year I travel to see the wildflowers in the spring, especially along the coast, and use the photos to create paintings during the year. This painting was inspired by a "superbloom" I saw along the coast at Pt Lobos. It looked as if it were planted by a team of master gardeners, but was actually completely wild. I also look forward each week to seeing the profusion of color at the Farmer’s Market flower vendor. The rich blues of the Hydrangeas, with their variations of violet and teal, were particularly beautiful against the yellow flowers. I enjoyed exploring and mixing all the variation of blue hidden in the blossoms.
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Mayumi FujioTextiles
I use botanical printing technique and use fresh leaves and flowers to get the colors and shapes directly transfered to fiber. I also harvest mushroom and plants for the background dye. Botanical theme is all around my work
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Geraldine GaNunCeramics
Geraldine’s ceramic art is influenced by her innate love of all flora and fauna. A native of New York City, the close proximity too many wonderful museums and parks nourished her love of art at an early age. Birdwatching, a favorite past time, is reflected in many of her ceramic pieces. All of these have been an inspiration for my work and the show “Bold Botannicals. Imagery on clay has been an exciting addition to her current work which includes techniques such as underglaze decals and overglaze luster . She permanently fires the applied decals at a low temperature; the luster firing is a third firing process over an already glazed surface. All her pieces are handmade and one of a kind ceramic art.
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Mirto GolinoMixed Media
My eyes love to wander over the paths limbs of trees and plants take. The two works I have submitted to this show are based on calendar pages which featured beautiful botanical photographs. Although these pieces are 2-D - I have added some 3- D surprises to them.
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Chuck HarlinsPhotography
My passion for this art lies primarily with Landscapes, Seascapes, Street Photography and candid Portraits. My goal with my landscape/seascape photography is to share the beauty without you having to be there. And for some to realize that they too can explore and capture beauty no matter where it is or who they are. It is my desire for you, and me, to witness the beauty over and over again, and hopefully it will bring you to a place of calm, peace and tranquility.
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Kevin HarrisTextiles + Watercolor
I am a ACCI Member; a watercolorist, printmaker, and cutter of paper shapes. I love to garden too. I also love, while hiking, to stop and draw my surroundings, which inevitably includes flowers. What great shapes they come in. A lot of my flower drawings are just abstract forms, some are just based on a feeling of the forms I see, while others are realistic-ish.
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Michele HausmanFine Art
I am a gardener as well as a painter. Over the last 30 years of living on our property in Soquel, I have planted many natives and ornamentals. My favorite time to paint in my garden is springtime, when the first to show bloom are the narcissus, followed by the Calla Lilies, and the Magnolia Bloom. The various forms of daffodils come soon after. Now that we finally have sun, after weeks of rain, the blue forget-me-nots are covering the ground, along with gold calendula. I paint in the garden and collect bouquets to paint in my studio. “Unfurling” 24”x24” is a combination, started plein air between rains, and finished from bouquets in my studio. Since it is national women’s month in March, focusing on the calla lily’s unique twists as they unfurl was a joy and a way to honor Frieda Kahlo, who painted them as well. The yellow tulips were bountiful in the grocery, so I bought several for my studio, enjoying their bright light during the rainy weeks.
I have been painting in oil for over thirty years. This medium has a slow drying time, allowing for soft edges and a more abstract background. I like to create a dreamy effect with my florals, making few hard edges just to emphasize depth or shape. The oil paint also has a creamy texture which reflects the nature of the petals of many flowers. Participating in an exhibit that celebrates botanical art, motivates me to create new paintings from my garden. Even though I may paint the same flowers again, each floral portrait is its own unique creation. 
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Jeannie HaydonJewelry
I have been designing jewelry and sculpture for almost 40 years. In my new piece Moonlit garden I was able to indulge the creative process to the utmost.I collaborated with my friend,and she cut the acrylic pieces for me. This allowed me to use new and different materials in my work. I played with metal in new ways by experimenting with with patinas, stone settings and textures. I chose a botanical theme for this piece because I was inspired by a recent trip to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. One of my favorite places to visit in San Francisco. I am so happy with this piece and the creative journey I experienced while making it.
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Jennifer JohCeramics
The organic forms I create become a three dimensional canvas for a drawing of a nature. I depict mountain ranges, waters, birds and flowers.
My ceramic work becomes a landscape painting. On each piece, I carve patterns on the surface and fill them with slip. I do not glaze my pieces because I want to show the texture and the color of the clay. My aim is to create a piece that are earthy and natural. 
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Kathy KearnsCeramics
I am a potter and maker of useful objects, and I especially love making containers for botanicals. My submissions for this year's Bold Botanical Show are more unusual than my normal flower vases. My quail vases are intended to hold fine stems of dried grasses or weedy plants. In this image they contain dock, a common California native. My quail vases are thrown and altered on the potter's wheel, then fired collaboratively with other artists in a huge "anagama" kiln that is fired exclusively with wood. The work goes in mostly unglazed and the resulting surfaces come from melted ash and flame markings. Each piece is unique, and I was quite pleased with my quail family that emerged from the latest firing which took place in Lake County at Cobb Mountain Art and Ecology. Another form I have been experimenting with is the flower brick, pictured here holding daffodils. This piece is also wood fired and is an elaboration of some experimental pieces that I made at a summer art residency in Crete. There I made a variety of flat, woven coil shapes with an open grid. Back in my studio I used the gridwork idea as the top of the flower brick and added the sculpted container beneath.
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Nyya LarkJewelry
Metalsmithing for jewelry designs is my medium. I work with sterling silver metal in sheet, wire and clay form. I consider sterling silver to be a canvas for my nature inspired designs.
My current body of work’s focus is trees. More specifically, the branches and twigs of trees. Why? Because of the strength and time honored beauty that they display and inspire. They are the carriers of new life, and the bearers of protection. You will find that I also use semi precious stones mined from the earth for a center focus and accent of color; again inspired by nature. 
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Karen MasonFine Art
Spring is a wonder, with the vibrant colors of flowers and foliage. Be they bamboo dancing in front of the light or reflecting it, or brilliant poppies that have been plucked for a vase display, each cast their shadow, presence, and beauty. We are lucky to have such surroundings and to constantly remind ourselves of the little delights as well as the larger grandeur. I use layers of paint/ink covered in clear resin to provide depth and dimension in my paintings, and have added imitation gold leaf to my recent bamboo series to provide an elegance as I balance nature’s splendor in my Italian heritage and Asian Wabi Sabi approach to painting
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Margaret NormanCeramics
I am primarily a functional potter and I throw most of my work on the potters wheel. However I have always loved making pinch pots, as well. And this method feels particularly appropriate for organic, botanical forms.
I am inspired by various seedpods and acorns, and by the rich, earthy colors of various clays. 
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Jon OakesJon Oakes is a renowned glass artist from Huntington Beach whose work is displayed in over 30 galleries across the country. Although he was trained in ceramics and still creates beautiful raku art, he was attracted to the translucent beauty of glass. The possibilities and variety of art made from molten glass was fascinating and provocative to him and before long, glass became his main focus. Designers commission installations for his elegant chandeliers and groupings of colorful fluted wall plates. All of his wall art is bold and unique. From dazzling floral displays to towers of stacked globes, with the option to be lit from within, Jon Oakes Glass is popular in all of its shapes and sizes.
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Gina PapenPainting
Spring Lilacs (left) is a 12" x 16" watercolor, done from life. I enjoy the challenges of rendering nature in a realistic way, adding additional color tones to highlight the composition. Over the years, I have done watercolor in various places, as the materials are so portable.
Three Golden Oranges is a 24" x 24" oil painting on canvas. The original inspiration for this work was from a smaller still life of three oranges, which I expanded upon. By adding more color to the work I was able to create an effect that extends past the original representational view. 
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Susan PressSculpture
I've been working with clay for many years as I find it to be the medium that allows me to bring into focus the often humorous characters that populate my imagination. Being drawn to the beauty of flowering plants, I've adorned the work I've made for this botanical exhibit with flowers and greens in colors that I find very pleasing. Topping the heads of these ceramic figures with a variety of greenery complete my need to add humor
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Judy RosenfieldGlass
My garden and mosaic work testify to a common passion for vivid color and a balance of order and playfulness ... whether the subject is leaves, flowers, vegetables or other organic elements. Glass is a spectacular medium with amazing textures and patterns forged from natural elements as well
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Russell RyanFine Art
I’m an oil painter working in the Bay Area. I’ve been painting for over two decades. Over the last few years my main focus is on flowers. I love to paint them in all their glory. I endeavor to capture their fragile essence with every painting.
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Suzanne SaulFine Art
My image making throughout the years has become more abstract. I approach the canvas with an open mind and a playful attitude. Composition and color relationships are foremost in my mind as I lay down my early brushstrokes. The layers are deep and textured. Shapes emerge, then disappear, often to reappear until the whole painting seems to be complete.
I prefer acrylic paint on canvas or board, but sometimes work with watercolor or mixed media. In these paintings for Bold Botanicals, I am interested in the patterns of nature and light dancing on the surface of the imaginary flowers or objects I am painting. 
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Arbel ShemeshJewelry
My work is influenced by nature and fantasy; I seek not to copy nature but to grow my own version of it. This piece is made with a metal mesh called WireKnitZ, and Kato polymer clay. In my imagination, it naturally formed an exotic flower from somewhere, Pandora perhaps? It can be worn as a necklace or a belt, maybe in other ways too.
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Mary K. ShislerPhotography
I am a botanical person. I have always noticed plants. For years I created large botanical prints that were joyous expressions of color. These pieces are more meditative. They are protective shields - one is for the Live Oak which protects so many species and the other is the California Poppy.
These are part of a continuing series of shields that I am making. All concern the planet and the living things on it, although I do think I may go forward with other objects as time goes on. I make them with cyanotypes because I love the medium and the serene contemplative blue. The history of cyanotypes make them particularly effective with botanicals because of the early work of Anna Atkins ( seriously, one of my major heroes). The topic of the shields clearly derives from a huge concern about the future of the earth. I also find that we are so egocentric about climate change - not enough respect or concern for the other living things we have destroyed or disrupted. And we so desperately need them. I want to participate in this show be cause my work uses botanical images both as topic and as a way of bringing more attention to climate change. 
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Valerie SobelMixed Media
I grew up observing my mom doing her magic around the garden. She did not bestow me her green thumb, but I certainly inherited her love for plants. As a painter, my work relies abundantly on my observations of nature which I am very fortunate to be surrounded by.
I see our human species intimately and essentially interconnected with its natural environment. I tend to anthropomorphize the blooms I paint, as a reminder that we depend on them: not only are some of them feeding us, vital elements of the ecosystems that make life as we know it possible; plants also fill our senses and our psyche, with amazing shapes, colors, and smells. The idea for this particular series first came to me a little while back, in my parent’s garden. They have a beautiful magnolia tree, which was shedding its fruit while I was there. Always the collector, I gathered a bunch of them and started grouping and positioning them as people standing by each other, so their stance would communicate how they relate to each other. Later on, I came up with a string of sketches that I made into a kind of story board depicting various moments in the development of imaginary plants transposed into the cycle of human life. The childhood and adolescence, preceding the moment when two specific plants start feeling an attraction for each other, their union, and result of that union, the birth of new plants projected in to the air. For that particular detail I was inspired by actual "plants that disperse their seeds with high pressure bursts," such as the poisonous squirting cucumber, the viola, and the impatiens capiensis. I must say I had a lot of fun painting this collection, from designing the plants, bringing to life the silly visions that had taken shape in my head, to deciding how the plants would be connected to their background. 
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Jacqueline ThompsonCeramics
I have been making ceramics for over 30 years. I am inspired by the work of William Morris.
I love to weave flowers and foliage as my design motif for my ceramics.I never get tired from the inspiration nature gives me. 
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Rachel TiroshMixed Media
My paintings are usually abstract. However, I find nature to be a great source of abstraction. My paintings in the show were inspired by a collaborative project with fellow artists called Art Tag. Art Tag is a way to explore new topics, try new ways of art making, and be inspired by other artists. We needed to create art within the subject ‘In the Garden’. I created some mixed media paintings, collage and drawings depicting the sense of being in the garden, surrounded with nature.
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Xan Blood WalkerXan Blood Walker was born in Seattle Washington in the heat of the summer. She learned print photography in high school, and went on to obtain two BFA's, one in printmaking and another in painting from the University of Washington. Many years later when pursuing graduate studies in counseling she obtained a Masters certificate in Art Therapy. Prior to her higher education she attended the school of hard knocks in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as an 80's street punk at the height of the punk rock scene. With over 20 years in recovery she finds a way to blend her varied experiences into a unique and personal style.
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Kim WebsterGlass
I moved to the Bay Area from Canada over 20 years ago and revelled in the year-round colours of the landscape here. I became a plant junkie and started a maintenance gardening business which in turn inspired my glass work (although I had always made fruits and veggies). Now I make succulents and sunflowers that light up from within using LEDs so my sculptures transform from day to night.
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Melissa WoodburnSculpture
I am inspired by using a variety of media to express statements about the rhythms and cycles of living. The creative nature of the universe excites me and I filter this through my lens of female experience. I view my creative process as big interlocking circles, connecting life experiences from different points along my path.
I grew up in the country in Iowa, closely attuned to the change of seasons and constantly inspired by patterns in nature. When my husband and I moved to Novato, we replaced our lawn with a low water pollinators’ garden. I can view its constant action from my studio window as hummingbirds and butterflies visit in a steady stream all day. Most of my work here is ceramic, where I use under glazes and glazes to paint with bright garden colors.During the pandemic lockdown, I also started experimenting with creating digital fine art by manipulating photos I had taken in botanical gardens. Fun to see the inner workings of complex blossoms in a new way. 
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Eko WrightJewelry
My Botanical Collection is made up of organic shapes inspired by the Japanese concept of wabisabi, the imperfect simplicity of nature. Sterling silver is the perfect medium for my jewelry to express this aesthetic since silver represents the simple, subtle and unobtrusive philosophy of beauty found in Japan. Although my style is basically minimalistic, these pieces are bold and large, so they make enough of a statement.
I often apply fold-forming techniques and hammer work to create these three-dimensional natural forms. Foldformed pieces often resemble elements found in nature, such as flowers and leaves, and each shape is unique. The basic steps of foldforming are to first fold a metal sheet like origami, and then forge it with a hammer. Between these steps the silver sheet must be annealed to become malleable. Once it’s opened, an organic shape emerges. Many of my botanical pieces are oxidized to give a rustic feel. Some are embellished with red garnet to add a touch of color in the dark background to give a contrast. Viewed individually, each piece is a contemporary interpretation of a natural shape. Presented as a group, these pieces evoke the rustic elegance of a hidden garden, one that I’ve been growing for over 10 years. 
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