See this show, and I mean it…
I met an old friend at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz on the first friday this November. After hugs and a little catching up, she confided in me that she’d just seen a show of exquisite pastels around the corner that changed her world. I knew exactly who she was talking about because I’d just been there myself. The artist is Erika Perloff, and the show is up through the end of November at the Artisan’s Gallery. If you do anything in November, please see this show.
Erika’s pastel paintings of the area are so inspired there is really nothing to compare them to. She’s an excellent with drawing, and the forms are crisp when they need to be and vague when they need to be. Subject matter is mostly the cliffs and beaches of the coast, and some rural landscapes. In this company, the painting of a bright red motorcycle next to a gigantic fuchsia bush stood out in a delightful way. Immediately this work draws attention to Erika’s considerable drawing skills. My two standouts in the show were a large pastel, Passages, of Tivoli Gardens and a beautiful sunset on the bay called Fire And Water. in Passages, she was able to contrast the beauty, precision, and cruelty of the formal garden with the wild world that will take the formal garden back in a second. The wild forest peaking out behind the imposing square hedges makes this a painting that has longevity. A smart collector will pick it up quickly. Fire and Water shows her considerable skill as a colorist. The color of the water is an orange/turquoise mix that is so often handled poorly by lesser artists. Don’t bother to look at these on-line. The paintings must be seen in person to get the full heart-stopping wow, so get down to the Artisan’s Gallery and see them before it’s too late, because I said so.
