‘Holiday Reflections’ show shines brightly
Beauty comes in small packages at this year’s “Holiday Reflections” show at the Rancho Santa Fe Art Gallery. The exhibit, designed to promote affordable art for holiday gifts, runs through Jan. 3. The show offers miniature works, including original paintings in a variety of media, including photography, jewelry and mosaics.
According to Cindy Klong, the gallery’s publicity chair, pieces in the show had to measure no larger than 80 square-inches and unframed.
“There are probably about 100 pieces to choose from,” Klong said. “Some artists have as many as four pieces in the show and works sell for as little as $125 each.”
Former scientist masters mosaics
Mosaic artist and president of the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild Dr. Tim Lueker is showing two 8-by-10 inch pieces in the show. One piece depicts a dove, another work features two fish that he modeled after an ancient Italian mosaic.
Lueker, a former Scripps’ scientist studying climate change, is a self-taught artist. He began making mosaics three years ago and has created more than 70 pieces to date.
Creating mosaics is a time-consuming art form. Using a tile saw and tile nippers, Lueker often cuts individual pieces as he goes along, so there can be literally thousands of pieces in one of his works. Lately, he’s been cutting granite, marble or stone tile into thin bars, as thin as one-fourth of an inch, before clipping them into tiny cubes, which he uses in a style seen in ancient Roman mosaics.
“It’s a challenge to represent images with these materials compared to doing them in painting or photography,” he said.
Lueker is currently working on a large mosaic depicting Calypso from “The Odyssey.”
His work is online at positivereframing.com.
Watercolor, printmaking
Watercolorist and mono-printmaker Pat Dispenziere is showing several pieces in the show.
Her watercolor “Waiting” features a girl sitting at a table. Her miniature piece “Testing the Surf” is a monotype depicting a small child with her hand in the water. Dispenziere is also showing two monotype floral pieces and a watercolor embossment, “California Coast.”
“I do printmaking and made a plate out of zinc and ran it through the press to make an embossment, and then I hand water colored it,” she said.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Dispenziere has been painting watercolors since 1968 and has been creating mono-prints since 1976. She studied at the Cleveland School of Art and then moved on to Ohio State University where she earned degrees in fine arts and art education.
Dispenziere shows her large watercolors nationally. She has signature memberships in five watercolor societies: Watercolor West, Rocky Mountain National, California Watercolor Association, San Diego Watercolor Society and Arizona Aqueous.
She has been a member of Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild for four years.
She is currently working on a watercolor gouache painting featuring figures by the fountain at San Diego’s Old Town.
The Rancho Santa Fe Gallery is located at 6004 Paseo Delicias. For more information, visit
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