Essential Art Gallery & Fine Gifts | Prichard Art Gallery & Gift Store |
For those of you who have had the chance to visit with my father, I’m going to guess you quickly observed several distinct characteristics about him. First, he was meticulously dressed in dapper clothing with colorful dichroic glass cuff links adorning his pressed sleeves. Second, he twisted any sentence into a pun, and answered any question you asked with a silly joke. Third, his blue eyes lit up with excitement as soon as he could show you the work of an artist we are carrying in the gallery. We are selective about the artists we carry. My father has done hundreds of art shows and has met thousands of artists. During an art show in Los Altos, California, he discovered the work of Sarah Alice Britton. She was busy in her booth making jewelry components by hand while she interacted with customers. Her playful jewelry in her booth intrigued him. Her warm, enthusiastic, personality immediately captured him. On top of all this perfection, she even laughed at his puns. She—and her work—perfectly fit our standard of “playfully elegant”. We have had the privilege of carrying Sarah Alice’s delightful work in our gallery for the past three years. Sarah Alice was born and raised in the small Victorian town of Maine, New York. Britton was formally trained in Jewelry Design from Buffalo State College in New York and has won several awards including: 1st in Jewelry at the Beverly Hills Art Show in 2013, 2nd Overall at Art on the Main in Walnut Creek, CA in 2014, & 3rd Overall at Art on the Main in Walnut Creek, CA in 2015. Now residing in Oroville, California, she creates her jewelry in a sunny studio filled with artwork made by her friends that overlooks her cottage garden. She shares her cozy California bungalow with her husband, Michael, and their golden retriever, Scarlett. Sarah often brings her granddaughters to art shows with her, leaving Michael-- her biggest supporter, home to run their brick-and-mortar dry cleaning business in Oroville, CA. Sarah Alice’s granddaughters are her sheer delight, her inspirations, and her top sales team. They grant her the opportunity look at life from different angles. Too often the whimsy of childhood is lost or neglected as a person matures and embraces adulthood. Sarah Alice has chosen to celebrate the playful and fanciful parts of youth in her designs. In her work you will experience a new twist on childhood games such as jacks, bubble blowing and hangman, combined with the strong influence of the industrial North East. Tactile by nature, Sarah Alice designs her jewelry to invite touch, inspire playfulness, and evoke a memory that results in a smile. She incorporates texture and maximizes the movement in her designs both literally and visually. Provide the following code at checkout to receive 10% off your purchase of Sarah Alice Britton's Jewelry in December: BRITTON.10 | You may have seen Aaron Cordell Johnson with his painting easel alongside the gravel roads surrounding our town. He seeks out beautiful landscapes in the worst of weather to capture dramatic colors and light in order to create his paintings. Aaron received his MFA from the University of Idaho, and he has been a Prichard Art Gallery Gift Store artist for about five years. His beautiful paintings are available for $200 in the gift store. Aaron states: I am searching for the sensation of the subject. I want my work to feel as though if you look away it will change, yet have the familiarity of a place you have been before. I am interested in finding an authentic experience through the act of creation. My work involves physical interaction and passion for the subject. The paintings I create are the result of time, searching for just the right cloud formations, watching the colors, and experiencing what it means to be in an environment. Through these experiences I use color, brushstrokes, drawing and texture to express the lay of the land and its affect on me. My work is all done ‘en Plein-Air’ which is french for in the open air. As an avid outdoorsman and passionate painter, I hope to use my work to heighten our awareness of the significance of our surroundings, such as the way a cloud floats, how a dead trees branches pierce the sky, or the brilliant complementary colors of fall. Each painting is the culmination of absorbing, listening, feeling and observing my surroundings. Provide the following code at checkout to receive 20% off your purchase of Aaron Cordell Johnson's paintings in December: OUTSIDE.ART.20 |