Being surrounded by water is one of the great pleasures of living in the San Francisco Area, and Bay Area boosters are in for a big treat this winter with a colorful painting show featuring 100 views of San Francisco Bay and its watery environs.
Being surrounded by water is one of the great pleasures of living in the San Francisco Area, and Bay Area boosters are in for a big treat this winter with a colorful painting show featuring 100 views of San Francisco Bay and its watery environs.
Published: December, 2011
Being surrounded by water is one of the great pleasures of living in the San Francisco Area, and Bay Area boosters are in for a big treat this winter with a colorful painting show featuring 100 views of San Francisco Bay and its watery environs.
On the Waterfront—Shipyards, Docks, Coves, and Beaches, 100 oil paintings by Bolinas artist Judy Molyneux, opened in mid-November and will run through January 7 at the Gallery of the Bay Model Visitors Center in Sausalito. Molyneux, who has been painting Bay Area landscapes for 40 years, has been shown at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, the Alan Stone Gallery in New York City, and many other prestigious venues.
Her painting, representational but sometimes verging on abstract, is characterized by bold use of strong color and thickly textured impasto paint. Marian Parmenter, former director of the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, has described her as “an artist of enormous strength and individuality. Her passionate love of color and texture dominate her paintings so profoundly.” The current exhibition, though focusing on the waterfront, is very diverse in subject—ranging from the dinosaur-like cranes looming over shipyards and the nearby buzz of freeways to the rocky wildness of the West Marin coast and the colorful beach life of surfers, sun-bathers and romping dogs.
Molyneux frequently shows solo, but she is also part of a highly regarded group of plein air painters, the Outsiders, who boast direct lineage from the historic Society of Six. The Six were a group of Bay Area painters who drew upon the French fauve school, introducing adventurous use of color into California landscape painting. Two of the Outsiders studied with the Six, roaming the coast with the likes of Seldon Gile and Louie Siegrist.
Painting five days a week, Molyneux also religiously hikes every day—often with her composer husband—on the trails and beaches of West Marin. In one of her published books of her paintings, Molyneux gave the following advice to young painters: “Paint as if there are no tomorrows. Give it your all with no concern for cost or waste. Somehow the universe provides for lovers, lunatics and painters. If not, use your credit card. Paint, not to separate yourself from others, but to remind them that we are here to dance the dance electric. Paint for the same reason that cats purr and coyotes howl at the moon.”
Bay Model Visitors Center location and hours: 2100 Bridgeway, Sausalito. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, contact Dale Polissar or Judy Molyneux, (415) 868-0782.
