Six award winning artists now on display at Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation

The Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation (MTRP) is pleased to present an exhibition featuring six award-winning artists: Jeanne Abriel, Linda Lepeirs, Beth McClellan, Lois Madeline Nicholls, Denise Strahm, and Kathi Vargo.

"Art Telling ~ It's All In A Word”

The Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation (MTRP) is pleased to present an exhibition featuring six award-winning artists: Jeanne Abriel, Linda Lepeirs, Beth McClellan, Lois Madeline Nicholls, Denise Strahm, and Kathi Vargo.

"Art Telling ~ It's All In A Word”

As a group we select a word every month to inspire new work to share with our fellow Art Tellers. Art Telling has helped us grow as artists and find new ways of interpreting our art. This way of making art is new for most of us and helps break boundaries and in some cases push the envelope. It's all in a word. Six artists interpret six words in their own way…Airy, Balance, Lush, Nature's Edge, Passage and Tethered.

This exhibit will be on display in the Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center Art Gallery July 15 – August 11, 2017.  The public is cordially invited to a reception in honor of the artists on Saturday, July 22, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

About the Artists:

Jeanne Abriel

Jeanne Abriel is an enamellist who studied several art techniques, including drawing, ceramics, and silk painting, before discovering the transparent qualities of enamel. She has explored many enameling techniques but her focus is on cloisonné, an ancient technique used for decorating metal. She creates jewelry on fine silver using transparent Japanese enamels. Jeanne is influenced by the natural world, and the work of many artists, including Japanese enamels and prints, Art Nouveau, Paul Klee, and Wassily Kandinsky. She has participated in a number of exhibitions and art shows, and currently serves as Vice-President of the San Diego Enamel Guild.

Linda Lepeirs

From realism to abstraction, Linda Lepeirs developed a diverse style of oil painting. Nature's colors and peaceful settings inspire her paintings. Her photographic repertoire evolved from her extensive travels. It is eclectic; from straight shots, computer enhanced digital photography, to hand manipulated photo emulsion film. Linda's seemingly limitless possibilities of photographic techniques and the pure color of oil painting give her the deep joy of creative expression.

Beth McClellan

Beth McCellan has been a resident of San Diego since 1975, moving here from her home state of Kansas. Since 2014, she has been a member of Spanish Village Art Center (SVAC) in Balboa Park. In the spring of 2014, Beth juried into SVAC with the medium of polymer clay. Following in 2016, she was accepted with her papercutting art.

She is presently a partner in Studio 32 displaying her paper cutting and polymer clay art. She is a member of the Guild of American Papercutters (GAP) and a member of the San Diego Polymer Clay Guild (SDPCG).

Lois Madeline Nicholls:

Lois Nicholls is  a Southern California Impressionist and abstract painter. Her signature work features a bold use of saturated colors and techniques. She is a prolific artist and a natural talent. Her first painting was done as a two year old on the sidewalk using a big oat weed as a brush dipping it in a hose water run-off. Lois's subject matter is "All Things Natural" based upon a lifetime of observations. Painting is her passion as is teaching. Her work can be seen in collections throughout the USA, Japan, China and Europe. Lois is a juried artist in Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park, San Diego.

Denise Strahm:

Drawing from her 25+ years in graphic design, fine art photographer Denise Strahm, is best known for capturing the romanticism of a scene in simple graphic contemporary compositions. Denise prefers texture-rich architectural subject matter devoid of human presence and frames her images in a way that appeals to one's own sense of design.
It has been suggested that Denise might be called a Digital Secessionist, a likeness to the Photo Secessionists of the early 20th Century. The Secessionists went to some pains to make photographs look more like paintings, and to give their images a feel of something more than a simple record of a scene.

Kathi Vargo:

As a self taught mixed media artist, Kathi Vargo works mainly with collage and assemblage. She enjoys putting the puzzle together whether it is painting paper or upcycling found objects. To grow as an artist, Kathi continues to study mixed media and enjoys bringing her new skills and ideas to the forefront. As a full time artist, she has been a juried member of Spanish Village Art Center since 2006. Her art can be seen in Studio 8.

The MTRP Visitor and Interpretive Center is located at One Father Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego, CA 92119, and it is open daily from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.  Admission is free.

The MTRP Foundation was formed in 1988 as a 501(c) (3) non-profit public benefit corporation.  For more information about the MTRP Art Program, please contact Vicky DeLong, Art Coordinator, at 619-286-1361 or Maggie Holloway, MTRP Foundation, at 619-668-3280.