Ojai City Gallery features Childress
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Gayel Childress, “Ojai River Bottom,” mixed media painting.
Gayel Childress will be the featured artist at The Ojai City Gallery and with a companion show at The Ojai Valley Museum March 18 through May 31.
In this exhibit, “Ojai Landscape Through the Eye of the Artist,” Childress showcases her expressive and innovative use of color while combining several media to capture the spirit of Ojai. Her substantial body of work ranges widely from landscape to figurative and from still life to abstract, but always includes a touch of whimsy that gives her work a sense of the mythical.
Lobel: Have camera, will travel to Kent Hall
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"Snowy Sunday Morning" by Sharon Lobel
The Ojai Photography Community will host award-winning travel photographer Sharon Lobel in a presentation entitled “All About Travel Photography and More” on March 19 at 7 p.m. in Help of Ojai’s Kent Hall, 111 W. Santa Ana St., Ojai. The The Ojai Photography Community welcomes the public to attend these free events.
Ojai’s 3rd Friday bound to evoke ‘inner force’
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“Floating Lena” pastel painting by Lynn Byrne Simon.
Ojai’s Third Friday downtown stroll Friday, March 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., will again include Ojai Valley Artists’ Gallery, Human Arts Gallery and the Ojai Valley Museum as well as restaurants and shops in and around the Ojai Arcade. This is the monthly free event offering conversations with local artists, light refreshments and live music at many venues. OVA Gallery will highlight the work of jeweler Laura Giordano, painter Lynn Byrne Simon and ceramicist Julie Wellings. Music will be provided by local favorite Patricia Cardinali.
McKay shines as matriarch in ‘Night Must Fall’
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Sindy McKay plays Mrs. Bramson in the Ojai Art Center production, “Night Must Fall,” which has its last run March 8 through 10.
Emmy award-winning writer Sindy McKay plays the role of Mrs. Bramson in the Ojai Art Center Theater production of “Night Must Fall,” which comes to a close with the last three shows this weekend. McKay has quite the acting résumé, performing in plays all over Ventura County.
Praise for ‘Crazy for You’
Photo by Mary M Long
The cast of “Crazy for You” goes crazy over Director Marty Babayco, anticipating this opening weekend, after many months of rehearsals to show the Ojai community “a world where people spontaneously break out into song,” said Jem Ruf, who plays the lead role of Bobby Childs and who does that in real life, too. The play is now open and runs Thursdays through Sundays through March 17.
John Hankins, Special to the Ojai Valley News
“Crazy for You” is a Gershwin Best Musical that soars to the genre’s pinnacle, and the Nordhoff High students are right up there: excited, proud, grateful and hard work rewarded. The cast crew are simply crazy about it, especially now that it’s open to the public through March 17.
Just ask them.
Guy Webster’s studio open through March
The late Guy Webster’s studio will be open for visitation through March on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. at 416 Bryant Circle, Unit D.
Webster’s photos of rock icons and famous actors and models will be for sale and limited signed prints are available. The signed prints are the last ones ever to be signed by Webster. Webster was an acclaimed photographer who captured iconic photos of celebrities and shot album covers for The Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Doors, among others. His work has been entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Webster passed away on Feb. 5 at age 79. His life of photography and adventure will be memorialized March 23 at 2 p.m. at Oak Grove School, 220 W. Lomita Ave., Ojai.
For more information about visiting the studio, call 805-680-3587.
Featured artist for March: Cindy Pitou Burton
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Photograph of mushrooms by Cindy Pitou Burton
Photographer Cindy Pitou Burton will be showing new work as part of the Ojai Studio Artists Second Saturday Tour on March 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “I’m displaying powerful photographs of the fires and aftermath, but turning again to daily life in its smaller detail,” she says. “Subjects vary from a grape and vineyard series to water scenes from my travels, a mix of photojournalism and fine art using various printing choices.” The tour also features seven more OSA artists, all with East End studios: Richard Amend, Susan Stinsmuehlen Amend, Wyatt Amend, Sherry Loehr, Marta Nelson, Devin Oatway and Sylvia Raz. The tour is free and self-guided. Visit http://www.ojaistudioartists.org for a tour map and more information.
Sumeau performance at Beato Center March 9
Photo by Eric Peterson
Band members of Sumeau
SUMEAU (pronounced sumo), a Southern California band with a distinctive sound, will perform March 9 at 7 p.m. at The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Road. Tickets are $12.
Founded by Chris Sousa ("Su") and Kat Primeau ("meau"), the Los Angeles-based indie pop band creates melodic mantras reminiscent of ’60s psychedelia and surreal soundscapes of surprising simplicity and scope.
Auditions for Villanova Prep’s spring musical
Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai will hold auditions Wednesday, March 13, from 3 to 5 p.m., at the school for its April 11 through 14 performance of “The Music Man.”
Auditions are for the role of Winthrop and five to 10 extras. Boys ages 10 to 13 may audition for the role of Winthrop. Girls and boys ages 10 to 14 are welcome to audition for roles as singing extras. Students should prepare one minute of a song to sing, either a cappella or with a backing track.
To schedule an audition, for more information, or if you cannot attend the auditions on March 13, contact Sloan Hoffmann at 805-646-1464, extension 220, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. (Be sure to spell Hoffmann with 2 Ns or your email will not go through.)
Rocks, textiles, ceramics on display at Beato Gallery
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Oddity & Curiosity #1 by Martha Moran.
A reception for artists Martha Moran, Michael Rohde and Beth Tate will be held March 9 at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Upper Ojai, from 2 to 5 p.m. The exhibit runs through April 20.
“I’ve always felt something magical about coming upon a rockstack along a trail,” said Moran, commenting on her art in this exhibit. “The idea of using more varied stone intrigued me — combining gem-quality geodes, agates and concretions with boulders and other inherently sculptural ‘found rocks.’”
Porch Gallery presents artists Takeda, Hatano
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Sumi ink and handmade washi. Paper on wood.
Souun Takeda and Wataru Hatano will be featured in their joint exhibit entitled “Awareness” that runs through April 21 at Porch Gallery Ojai, 310 E. Ojai Ave.
As one of Japan’s foremost calligraphy artists, Souun Takeda is highly praised for his innovative, yet traditional way of expressing the beauty of the Japanese language and spirit. Wataru Hatano is renowned for his innovative process of blending the beauty of the washi paper with stationery products, furniture and interior spaces such as wallpaper and flooring.
Partnering for the first time in the United States, “Awareness” features Takeda’s drawings produced on Hatano’s washi paper-based canvases that were created to enhance the depth of Takeda’s signature brushstrokes.