Anne & Walon Green Gift to the County Arts Commission

The paintings range from the powerful 1959 Horse and Man (Study for Don Quixote Mural) oil on canvas, to a 1985 energetic abstract gouache on paper, Cosmic Pathway. The Green Collection represents a broad survey of artist Channing Peake’s works and is valued at $148,400.

“We are extremely grateful to the Greens for their generous gift to the County Arts Commission and the legacy it creates,” said Rita Ferri, Visual Arts Coordinator /Curator of Collections for the County Arts Commission, who coordinated the acquisition.

“This magnificent gift is significant to the County, not only because the Channing Peake Gallery bears his name but because Peake is a living link to the golden days of Santa Barbara,” explains Ms. Ferri.

Peake’s Fiesta mural is featured prominently at the new Santa Barbara Airport Terminal due to the County Arts Commission’s long-term loan of this iconic work to the City. The downtown Santa Barbara Public Library features a large Don Quixote mural, painted by Channing Peake and other Santa Barbara great Howard Warshaw. The Green’s gift of 10 paintings will serve to increase Peake’s presence and legacy throughout Santa Barbara County and beyond.

Peake’s name is linked with those of Pablo Picasso, Rufino Tamayo, Rico Lebrun, Man Ray, and Diego Rivera, among other friends and artists with whom he shared thoughts on the arts. He is well known for his paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints and his works are in major museums across the country. Channing Peake was a founding member of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and a member of the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission from 1979 to 1989. Although he lived and worked in Europe, Mexico, and New York, Peake, who was also a cowboy and rancher, called Santa Ynez Valley his home.

Doreen Farr, Third District Supervisor and chair of the Board said, “This generous and unique gift from Anne and Walon Green of works by Channing Peake, a long-time Santa Ynez Valley resident not only speaks of our regional culture and history, but now proudly belongs to all the citizens of Santa Barbara County in perpetuity.”

The recently gifted Peake paintings will be on view in an exhibition at the Betteravia Gallery in Santa Maria in 2013 when the current remodel of the County Administration Building is completed.

This is the second significant gift of art to the County Arts Commission. In 2005 the late Barry Berkus gifted a collection of more than 75 contemporary works of art all by regional artists and artists with a link to Santa Barbara County.

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The Arts Commission is a division of the County’s Community Services Department. Formed in 1977, the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission is a 15 member County Commission appointed by the County Board of Supervisors, with three members from each of the five supervisorial districts who make recommendations to the Board on cultural arts policy. The Arts Commission serves as an umbrella for county arts projects, assists communities in raising funds for art programs and provides technical assistance and coordination to arts organizations, artists and local government. The Santa Barbara County Arts Commission is the regional cultural development agency, a State and Local Partner of the California Arts Council and manager of the County Percent for Art Program.

For information on the programs and resources of the Arts Commission, click here.