Santa Ynez Valley Community Art Showcase

Local Artists Featured in Show in Buellton the Month of March

Opening Reception is March 7^th from 4 to 6 pm

in the Friends’ Room at the Buellton Library, 202 Dairyland

The public is invited to a curated art show featuring 4 local artists to be held in the Friends of the Buellton Library Room at the Buellton Library from March 1^st  – 31^st.  The artists will be present at the opening reception only. On other days, the show will be available for viewing during the hours the Friends’ Room is open: Mondays 10 am – Noon; Tuesdays 2-4 pm, and Saturdays 11 am – 1 pm.

Although no sales of art pieces will be done during the show, all of the artists will have their information available there, so interested buyers can contact them directly to make a purchase or see other pieces of their work.

Below is information about these artists as well as what they have to say about the show and their craft.

SUSAN BELLONI of Solvang

After graduating from UCSB with a degree in art and later raising her family in Santa Barbara, Susan started to exhibit paintings at local juried, invitational, benefit and solo shows in galleries, libraries, museums and businesses.

She has a painting in the permanent collection of the Main Library at UCSB.  Her work is in local corporate offices and private collections around the country.  Susan sells original oils, acrylics and charcoals, as well as, Limited Edition prints on canvas and paper on her website.

The paintings in this show are all acrylic on canvas, started on location, and are about a serene place I love.

“For me, painting is a matter of setting out to choose a composition and something that attracts me and seeing what happens next.  I have one idea, and the weather, painting or canvas may have another.  I like that the known and unknown somehow mysteriously work together.”

LAURA SCANDALIS CROSS of Solvang

After retiring, Laura took an art class at Esalen, after which she began painting in earnest and selling her works at art fairs, one painting, of which, is now hanging in the reception room of a film producer in Paris, France.

Laura painted in a representational style until she attended an Esalen Institute workshop — a 2010 birthday gift — where she accessed the freedom to create joyously whimsical abstract works.

“When creating art, I feel I’m diving into that realm where I put into a visual mode that which before only feelings could touch.”

GINNY SPEIRS of Santa Ynez

With a lifetime dedicated to the practice and mastery of oil painting, Ginny Speirs has cultivated a distinctive voice in capturing the ephemeral beauty of nature.

Ginny’s paintings reflect decades of observation, patience, and a deep reverence for the subtle interplay of light and form. Each painting is an invitation to pause and discover the extraordinary within the ordinary, the delicate curve of a petal, the play of light across a surface and the quiet poetry of nature’s design.

My paintings reflect decades of observation, patience, and a deep reverence for the subtle interplay of light and form. Each painting is an invitation to pause and discover the extraordinary within the ordinary, the delicate curve of a petal, the play of light across a surface and the quiet poetry of nature’s design.”

SHERRY UYEDA of Buellton

In 2018, Sherry learned to sketch in charcoal in the “Fundamentals of Drawing” class at SBCC taught by Stephanie Washburn.  In 2022, she attended Irina Malkmus’ class, “Introduction to Painting with Acrylics/Oils,” at Buellton Rec. Center.  In 2023, she began her series, “Loving Connection”, in oils and charcoal, featuring portraits of sister with brother, aunt with niece, daughter with cat, culminating in a family reunification oil painting inspired from a 1972 motion picture film “Sounder.”

“As my own strong emotions arise, so does a deep desire to channel them through imagery by the oil paint application of color on blank canvas or by the surprising subtleties of charcoal smudges on paper.”

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