Life Cycle

Three area women will present widely diverse painting styles and subjects under the umbrella title “Life Cycle” in an exhibition that runs through Oct. 1 in Buenaventura Art Association’s Studio 99 at Bell Arts Factory, 432 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura.

They are Bonnie Quan of Ojai, with “Tiny Paintings: A Mini-retrospective”; Tamiko Jordan of Ventura, who titled her show “Ebb and Flow”; and Michelle Nosco of Ventura, who chose the theme, “Portals: Sacred Sites and the Circle of Life.”

Quan will have about 28 oil paintings done on board, each 4 by 6 inches to 8 by 8 inches (most are 5 by 7 inches). She began painting in oils at age 12, she said, and recently has been creating abstracts and abstract landscapes using palette knives rather than brushes.

“I like to suggest landscapes, rather than attempt to reproduce reality,” she said. “These are little paintings that I’ve done over the last five years. I love seeing what the paint and palette knives cause to happen on the surface.”

Jordan, who has “been doing some kind of art since I was 13,” plans to show a dozen pieces, all acrylics on canvas, ranging in size from 12 by 12 inches to 30 by 40 inches. For the past five years she has used a “fluid acrylics or pour painting” technique.

“My favorite subject is waves because their shapes are constantly shifting, so when you look at a static image of one, you just automatically assume the shape it would take next,” Jordan said. “ ‘Ebb and Flow’ brings to mind the cyclical nature of the tides and of life.

“Working with fluid paint is inherently unpredictable: You can’t know exactly what you are going to get in the end,” she added. “You pick the colors and the technique but you have to let go at some point, watch what is developing, and work with what you have.”

Nosco’s portion of the show will display oil paintings on canvas that she said convey “sacred sites and native wildlife impressionism influenced by indigenous design. The driving force behind my concept is to find balance between the vitality of the sacred geometry that creates coherence in Earth’s vibration and the destructive incoherent abuse of its resources.”

The grassroots Ventura arts group, founded in 1954, also has an outlet at Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts at Ventura Harbor, and artwork displays at SpiceTopia and Very Ventura, downtown shops on Main Street. BAA directors, staff and volunteers are seeking additional business partnerships to expand exhibit space and artist exposure.

For more information about BAA and its programs, call the gallery at 805-648-1235 or visit buenaventuraartassociation.org.