ArtQuake !

Oceanside welcomes New York 

Chuck Thomas

    

I remember when the City of Oceanside was described in a story as a Cultural Wasteland by the Union Tribune Newspaper. Yes, that was in the 90's and wow, now look at us! Our Oceanside Museum of Art has for the past 25 years brought National and International art to our City with exhibitions of exceptional merit.

Last Saturday, New York came to town. Chuck Thomas a New York artist has created the Art Center TECHNE.

TECHNE. “Afterburner” is the title of the Exhibition, the first opening for this most glamours gallery in the North County of San Diego. The Exhibition is April 27^th to July 20^th.    The Gallery is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 1 - 6 PM. Thomas has a studio in the upstairs loft of this most vast vaulted space.

Chuck Thomas and Jack Henry

This event marks a new dawn of what the cultural sensibilities for Oceanside and North County could be. The excitement was palatable, the very air explosive with new possibilities. Many of the Artists are from the east and were there in attendance. I spoke with one of the young artists who was so glad to be here in this City by the Sea, and was eager to make an artist to artist conversation. 

Jack Henry

 Jack Henry artist from New York, is a maker of light filled constructions small and large work, is telling his story of concern for our Earth's environment. His youthful energies welcomed exchange with this person of many years, and yet our common concerns about our planet's future made us immediate allies in the fight for using our art to tell a story.

This night of celebration with hundreds in attendance was what I would describe as an ArtQuake. For this kind of bridge building of exchange of art from New York to Oceanside is without president. I have had this vision and hope for many years, and now, it seems to be happening. A new Story is emerging, one that has opportunity for regional artists to access the sensibilities of the East Coast Art and can interact with our West Coast vibe. Our Oceanside Champagne Air is indeed intoxicating...

       View from the artist's loft studio

 

The Art of the Sea

Monet

and the Seashore of Oceanside CA

Claude Monet 

A Love like no Other

The Sea. It is what holds our existence together in an embrace of life. We owe our being to this wondrous body of sustaining compound H20. It is timeless, in motion and emotion to us watching this miracle of movement. This, draws us to it over and over. We enter it, with childish pleasure becoming one with our origins of the dawn of life's existence.

Claude Monet 

Through out the history of man, we have created images of the Sea. For me, it has always been my muse, becoming an essential element of being. When teaching so long ago, the music of La Mer by ClaudeDebussy was a way to introduce my students to the origins of our planet's evolution and the emergence of life forms. With watercolor I started painting the white page with the pale gold/blue sunrise as the music went through the changes of the Sea, the colors became the storm, the sunset, and a final burst of brilliant color...

Claude Monet

                                                              

As I walk the Seashore of my Oceanside, I think of how someday I will once again be one with the dolphins dancing in the waves of forever, and so thankful for this coming existence. 

For now, the coming of Summer here on the North Coast is one of happiness and smiles. With the Children of tomorrow, I see and seek their company. Today is blue, and clear. The waves small and singing.

This love like no other is for the Sea, Life, and Tomorrow. My Oceanside is the embodiment of all of these.

The New Small Wave...

ART OF THE HORSE

LEONARDO

AND THE SAN LUIS REY VALLEY

OCEANSIDE CA

                                        Leonardo's Horse Milan Italy

In 1992, I was new to the San Luis Rey Valley in Oceanside. One misty morning as I was driving to the Library, I happened to look up the hill and there, was a beautiful white Horse at the top looking very much like a story out of Camelot. Stopping the car I walked up the road, and stopped at a very old ranch. This was the Davy Jones Ranch and later I was to meet Mr  Jones. He told the story of the White Horse of the Valley. “He keeps the Valley” Mr Jones told me, he was never ridden, but was allowed to run free and now, the Valley is his in our memories.

My fascination with Horses began reading the Black Stallion Horse books by Walter Farley when I was nine years old. These books were my doorway into the Horse World. Drawing horses behind my book in class was a way to keep the boredom afar, and did get me into trouble. When older, my passion took me to the classical arts and I found Leonardo.

Leonardo was a giant of invention, writings, painting, and sculpture. His most ambitious sculpture concept was to create a giant bronze Horse. For twenty years he toiled on the impossible dream, and it was not to be. For the technology of the day was not able to cast a solid form as gigantic as was the plan. His Horse* was cast in America and today stands in Milan Italy. Replicates are found in the United States. 

The passion for the White Horse was a driving force for me in the following years. I spent many days sitting next to the great White Horse, Kublai Khan. He was the last of a herd of white Arabians which ran across the Valley. I sketched many images of his beautiful head, the large soft eyes glowing with the intelligence and wisdom of his age. People all over the Valley knew the White Horse and loved him as did I. He died one day after the climb up the high hill of the valley, he was thirty six years old. They buried him there with the Century Plant that still stands there today. 

Farewell to Khan

I still see him, high on his hill, remembering him through the morning mists of that day so long ago. A painting of his spirit, Farewell to Khan is in the collection of a dear friend in Oceanside.The challenging spirit of the Khan is in my private collection until I find my friend on the High Hill and stand with him in the San Luis Rey Valley in Oceanside.

The White Horse of the San Luis Rey Valley

                                                  

The White Horse was honored to be in the Ocenanside Museum of Art's 25th Celebration of existence. Twenty Five years of Art,  Exhibition for the Arts in Oceanside CA.  OMA is located in the downtown Cultureal Arts District on Pier View Way.

* For more detailed history of da Vinci's Horse you will find that his model was based upon the life image of the Friesian Horse. He named his horse which was discribed as "jet black" Cicciolino.