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ART GALLERIES
 
Visit galleries and museums in Fairfield that feature artists from the local community. Celebrate love with the new art showing "Amour" at  the Lawler House Gallery. Now displaying through April 4, 2010. Or top your Friday evening at the Art Explosion Gallery where they host "Art Jams" every first Friday of the month where you will meet artists, enjoy music, and of course gain an appreciation of art. Each event has a different them and artists and guests are encouraged to come in costume! 

Finally, located in downtown Fairfield is the FCCA Gallery (Fairfield Center For Creative Arts) and they offer ongoing exhibitions free to the public throughout the year. The 47th Annual Juried Art Show is already in full swing and lasts through March 27, 2010. Over 250 pieces of art (various mediums) were entered from artists all over Northern California. A jury of three professionals from the Bay Area and Sacramento arts community selected 122 pieces to showcase. The Gala Reception and Awards night already passed, but there is still plenty of opportunity to view the art!

Art Explosion Gallery
821 Texas Street
Fairfield, CA
Hours: Wednesday - Sunday; 11am - 5pm

Fairfield Center Gallery
1035 West Texas Street
Fairfield, CA 94534
Hours: Thursday - Saturday; 11am - 4pm

Lawler House Gallery
718 Main Street
Suisun City, CA 94585
Hours: Friday - Sunday; 11am - 5pm


Upcoming Events

Art on the Vine (AOV) - June 5,6, 2010
Always held the first  weekend in June and open to the public, this spring art festival features original visual art and sculpture pieces from local and surrounding Bay Area artists. Spend a sunny day viewing art, nibbling on delicious food, tasting award-winning wine of Wooden Valley Winery, and enjoying live music. Festival is free to the public.

The Napa Valley vineyards landscape is slowly turning a different color - mustard yellow. That can only mean one thing for locals and visitors in the know . . . The Napa Valley Mustard Festival will be in full bloom in only a couple more weeks! This year's festivities take place January 30th - March 27th and will once again offer visitors a "sensational season of food, wine, and art events".

To kick off the Napa Valley Mustard Festival season is the "Mustard Magic" event on Saturday, January 30th at 7pm hosted at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena. Stroll through art-filled, candelit spaces featuring tastes of food and wine sure to entice at every turn, a gourmet buffet on the 3rd floor, live auction featuring luxurious trips, art, and wine, and of course dancing into the night! Tickets range from $125 to $175. More Details

Things just get better and better from here... see the list of other events below:

Start the new year off to the beat of the drums!

On Saturday and Sunday, January 2, 3, 2010 bring friends and family to the Cave of the Drums performance at Clos Pegase Winery. This annual special event soothes and energizes mind and body at the same time.  Hear the thunder of drums rolling deep down winery cave tunnels and the compliment of dulcimers, flutes, psalteries, and bells from distant times and places. Tickets are $45 with wine available for purchase and the show lasts two hours. (A portion of tickets sales will benefit the Arts Council of Napa Valley). Buy tickets directly online HERE.

About the Artist
What do you call a master of cave acoustics who plays a hundred rare and beautiful instruments, who has performed nearly two hundred winery cave concerts, and who puts us in touch with our ancient roots in ways that are timelessly new, immensely enjoyable and totally creative?

The Improvisator, of course! Your guide to adventures in sound underground at www.cavemusic.com. This is the man who invented the wine country cave concert more than twenty years ago and has lovingly evolved the concept into a fully refined art form, with an array of entrancing shows that cover all the year's seasons with a cornucopeia of imaginative themes: "Cave Of The Drums", "Cave Of The Spirits", "Cave Of The Bells"... and the best known of all, "Carols In The Caves" (ask the locals - they'll tell you it's a real "only in the wine country" holiday tradition!).  READ MORE

Napa has a rich history of supporting the arts and now from the Opera House to the Hess Collection, from public art installations to downtown gallery owners, Napa is fast becoming an art lover's destination. The many active studio artists in Napa are adding to the mix with their annual Open Studios self-guided tour organized by Arts Council Napa Valley.

Linda Cordair of Quent Cordair Gallery on First Street has been very happy with her move to Napa. Quent Cordair Gallery opened on July 4, 2008 after 13 years in Burlingame. The gallery specializes in "Romantic Realism" and has a very strong web presence. Ms. Cordair has found that moving to Napa has given her clientele a great excuse to travel here for their art-buying, particularly as Cordair has conveniently partnered with local hotels. "This is a world class destination more exciting for our clients to visit. They travel from as far away as Switzerland, New Zealand and China for our collections and with the completion of the River Front project we can really see a positive direction for downtown Napa. We want to do all we can to help fill the empty storefronts and bring more galleries here."

Long time public art champion, Harry Price, managing partner of CDI, developer of the Napa River Inn project and Napa Square on First Street, has this to say about the role of art in the community, "Art is an integral component of civilizations; we look back to them and look at what type of art they created. It is a measure of civilization and culture, so we honor our own culture by the art we leave behind."

READ MORE

A Free, Self Guided Fine Art Discovery Tour


Every fall, when trucks bearing tons of grapes appear on the roads of Napa Valley, the sun-drenched trees begin to show their fall colors, and the hottest days of the year roll through the gorgeous valley, it's the season for artists to throw open their studio doors and welcome friends, neighbors, and visitors into their creative workspaces for the annual Open Studios tour. 

Arts Council Napa Valley's Open Studios is a free, self-guided fine art discovery tour that runs during the last two weekends of September.  The 2009 Open Studios Honorary Co-Chairs, Eleanor Coppola and Kathryn Hall, invite patrons to experience this year's tour, featuring 88 of the finest artists and craftspeople in the Napa Valley. 

Whether you are an avid collector or just curious about art, Open Studios is an incredible opportunity to peer into the creative spaces of Napa Valley painters, metal and stone sculptors, mosaicists, photographers, ceramists, printmakers, fiber artists, jewelry makers, glass artists and other fine craftspeople, and to buy local art right from the source.

Napa Valley Open Studios

Sherrell Harper is a Napa Valley watercolor and acrylic artist known for intense color and strong highlights and specializes in still life featuring wine glasses, pairings, and food, exhibiting the essence of Napa.  Her passion for art started late in life after a career in technology and Napa has supported her adventure. She is deeply involved in the arts community and appreciates the gift of living and working in the Valley.

Napa Valley Open Studios

Karen Winograde is a longtime Napa Valley artist whose beautiful pottery is functional for the home and garden.  Her love of the land of Napa Valley extends to more than just the landscape.  "I love earth, dirt, getting dirty, love making things... and my love for it grows and grows and never gets old." 

Winograde first fell in love with pottery in the 60's when she watched clay being made, wedged, formed into pots and fired in a dung fired beehive kiln in Mexico.  "I said... I want to do that!"