Meet Joyce Major, Incline Village water colorist. Joyce combines her passion for the outdoors with an equal passion for creating art.

Like many local artists, she draws her artistic inspiration from being here at Lake Tahoe where she snowshoes, skis, hikes and kayaks. Her backcountry landscape photography has also inspired her watercolor paintings.

Artist Statement:

I attribute the unique characteristics of my work to my lifelong love of the outdoors and my scientific background. I tend to look much closer and longer at things than most people.

The scene captures my initial interest, but it is the flooding of my senses – with light, smell, heat/cold, color, sound, form, composition – that holds me and keeps me obsessed throughout the painting process. So much so, that I always dream about my paintings while I am creating them. Hence, the name Dreamscapes.

Click here to see more of Joyce’s magical watercolors and to contact her for your own Tahoe dream scape.

Joyce Major Studio
923 Tahoe Boulevard
Incline Village, Nevada 89451

Phone: 801-413-9697

And skin, film, stone and cars.

Meet Christie Ussher.

South Shore graphic artist, mural painter and body artist.

As a former pro snowboarder, Christie traveled the world which expanded her appreciation for different cultures and nature.

It also helped to expand her use of different art mediums including oils, water color, graphics and body art.

Most recently, Christie created the illustrations of the little monkeys in “They Both Love You: Two Separate Houses, One Common Love”, a book written by South Shore preschool teacher, Kate D. Moore, about the parents’ love for their children despite divorce or separation.

Christie also created two of the CD covers for local south shore band Lavish Green, and is an accomplished muralist with works gracing buildings and homes in Lake Tahoe, Reno and Carson City and southern California.

To learn more about Christie and to see her amazing range of work, click here.

True Love painting by Christie

Well known by college art students, she is currently featured on Lake Tahoe buses and t-shirts.

Meet Phyllis Shafer.

Her whimsical landscapes are capturing the attention of many in the art world and collectors, who consider Phyllis one of the greatest landscape artists of our time.

We agree.

Most of Shafer’s landscapes are set in Lake Tahoe and the Arizona desert where she gets her inspiration. The end result is a lively painting that dances in rhythm with Phyllis’s obvious deep connection to nature.

Expressive landscapes are punctuated with characteristic soulful movements and animated clouds. It’s a very refreshing twist to the traditional landscape paintings we often see.

“The more time I spend in any setting, the more I become connected to the cycles of nature,” she says. “I don’t just paint in a realistic style. Instead, it’s a marriage between observation and fantasy coming from a felt response to the landscape.” (American Style Magazine, Dec 2008)

Shafer has been an arts instructor at the Lake Tahoe Community College since 1994. She is also the director of the college’s new Art Gallery.

Currently, several of Shafer’s Tahoe landscapes grace the sides of Lake Tahoe buses raising awareness of the environmental programs that will be funded by Lake Tahoe license plates. And, one of her Yosemite landscapes has been selected as part of the Patagonia art series t-shirts. Look for it spring 2008.

Her paintings can be found at the Stremmel Gallery in Reno, as well as Reno’s McKinley Arts and Cultural Center that features her interpretation of the Nevada landscape on a 3-dimensional fiberglass bighorn sheep she calls Lambscape.

To accentuate nature’s interrelationship, she painted her landscape on the entire body of the sheep integrating the subject into her art. It’s an amazing piece of work.

Like Phyllis.

For more about Phyllis and to see her inspired creations, please visit her website at www.phyllisshafer.com.

Featured Artwork:

• Monitor’s Vigil: Oil on canvas
• Autumn Aspens: Gouache on paper
• Lambscape: 3-D Fiberglass Bighorn sheep

Capturing the subtle nuances and glory of nature in a photograph though is a skill, a passion, and an enduring gift for everyone.

Meet Rachid Dahnoun, South Lake Tahoe photographer.

Rachid combines a love of outdoor adventure with a fine attention to detail to create a touching photographic journal of the natural world.

Whether he is capturing breath taking landscapes or gritty action photos, Rachid delivers compelling images through his own freelance photography company, Instant Xposure.

Born on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, as a young adult Rachid moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he graduated from the prestigious Maryland Institute College of Art. After finishing college he found himself bouncing around the west coast of the United States going wherever there was a good photograph to take or story to tell.

Along the way, Rachid has been fortunate enough to explore and photograph some of the most beautiful places on Earth: Lake Tahoe, Morocco, Spain, Big Sur, Yosemite National Park, the American Southwest, San Diego, Baja, Mexico, the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest, and many more.

“Photographs are an endless canvas to explore composition, light, and color, as well as an opportunity to immortalize our most important moments. I always hike over the next ridge and around the next corner, to make that last, extra bit of effort to create a truly precise and compelling image. Ultimately, my goal is, through my photos, to create a personal journal of life that takes us off the beaten path.” – Rachid

Now, based in beautiful Lake Tahoe, Rachid works hard to provide creative images of the area from a different angle.

He is focused on freelance photography, including landscape, travel and vineyard photos. Aside from general photography, his interests include highlighting socio-economic equality and environmental irresponsibility. His work has been featured in art galleries, magazines and commercial products across the country.

In South Lake Tahoe you can find exclusive gift cards by Rachid at Aprés Wine Company on Ski Run Blvd.

Rachid’s photography inextricably links us with nature through the use of natural light and composition.  Following are a few tips from Rachid for those who want to capture that moment:

1. Go out when the light is interesting. Sunrise, Sunset, “the Golden Hour,” Storms, Misty Days, ect…

2. Remember that light makes your picture. If you start to think about photographing light versus the subject you will probably surprise yourself.

3. If you can, always have a tripod and shutter release cable with you. You never know.

4. Pick subjects that are interesting and that get you excited. If you aren’t excited, then your pictures probably won’t be exciting either.

5. If you are going to shoot something that is photographed a lot (monuments, tourist attractions, sunsets, ect…) think about a way that would make the shot different from everyone else’s. Use an ultra wide angle lens, go when the light is especially interesting, take the shot from a unique angle, experiment and have fun.

Learn more about Rachid at www.instantxposure.com and feel free to contact him directly at rachid@instantxposure.com or 530.314.9724

Meet Matt Dodge.

“I create modern images that document contemporary man’s celebration of the eternal earth,” states Dodge. “I blend the excitement of my experiences with a primal urge to create.”

Dodge’s experiences, coming from a mountain existence, are a combination of adventure and awe. His pieces, part punk, pop, and psychedelic, are also part past, present and future.

Dodge’s labor is the exploration of form, based upon natural imagery. Throughout his body of work exists a consistent theme of examining the relationship between man and nature.

Dodge’s unique process, starting with snapshot photographs of the outdoor world, involves several layers of varying art and graphic techniques, resulting in one-of-a-kind hand-colored, hand-etched images, which he terms “sculpted photographs”.

He adds, “I create, somewhat unconsciously, mixing visual imagery taken from my life in the Sierra with the swirling abstractions that reside deep within my soul. Ultimately, the finished creation should translate visually the potency of the life that I lust.”

Dodge resides with his wife and two children in Incline Village, Nevada. A snowboard pioneer and former world champion, he remains an active outdoor athlete and adventurer, using adrenalin to fuel his imagery.

Matt Dodge received the degree Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Matt is participating in the Incline Village Artists Studio Tour, August 5th through 8, 2010. Along with Jennifer Ornburge, Matt invites you to stop by their studio:

Blue Pixie Fine Art Studio & Gallery
120 Country Club Dr, #22
Incline Village, Nevada 89451

Ph: 775-830-6554 (Matt)

www.bluepixie.biz

Shown here is Yasmin’s painting entitled “Peace be Still; in the Heart of Humanity” which was created in her South Shore studio.

Yasmin views art as “A journey towards oneness through the splendor and elegance of painting in partnership with Spirit.”

Her intentions are clear, immortalized through the marriage of her masterful paintings and words that ignite the soul and instill peace for reflection.

“What does it mean to paint with brushes dipped in the love and force of Spirit, or to manifest art to connect Heaven and Earth into the oneness of being? I think it may mean different things to different people with differing cosmological realities; all fusing a single goal of having their art speak to the unification of humanity.” Yasmin Sayyed

The following artist statement and painting above, The Breath of God, illustrates Yasmin’s gift of eloquently expressing our profound connection to heaven and earth.

Yasmin talks about her painting, “The Breath Of God”

On the breath of the Divine rode the call for peace to remain still so Heaven and Earth might connect in conjoint efforts for the physical and spiritual thriving (and survival) of our species.

The wind blew fiercely one summer evening and there was talk of tornadoes in northern Nevada, not but a short distance from the mountains of my California residence. I opened windows and skylights so the fierceness of her howling messages could have more direct access to my being, so she could roll up and down the walls and in, and out and around the corners of the rooms to find and settle in my spirit, in my awaiting paint brushes, my eager palette, the tarrying bench of my psyche on which poet’s words have lain a thousand years.

Fierce is her call for peace-be-still, for hope, instilled, for indignation to rise to the forefront of quieted tongues, for joyfulness to dance, and character to bow in deference to the force of breath before us.

Be still the peace that eludes us through strife and needs to be right and egos toxic in intent or result, be still the peace stalled by beliefs of deservedness more than others and disregard for the land that supports and nourishes us. Peace-be-still.

In slow crescendos swirling breaths blown directly into our hearts and psyches, directly into our fiber and bone marrow, instills hope. Hope clings in lingering joy knowing the innate goodness of nature including our own, hope garners people of like minds, called to lead movements of oneness, and justice, and creativity to heal and unify. In the grooves of howling winds hope is seeded.

In the swells and abrupt turns ride indignation –relentless in her condemnations of that which harms through assaults on the soul. Peace knows not stillness in the face of wrongdoing; breath upends a mask of deception and clears a path for character related to the spirit of unity and egalitarianism; breath upends so peace can be still, can linger, can spread her wings, lie motionless on immense bodies of water, and bend gently over the contours of mountain ridges to bask in the sun of meadows. Peace-be-still.

The breath of God seeks to connect and interconnect that which is familiar and that which is stark in its differences, those whose patterns overlap in contiguous texture and tension and design, and those that stand crisp in colour definition and hue and value. Breath connects and seeks to connect Heaven and Earth with the divine character within each distinct and similar design.

Enjoy their complexity and juxtaposing simplicity. May the images gently rock our souls like a body without a back, unfix our gazes that we might have vision and untie our tongues such that truth has a clear path riveted in personal courage and character.

Click here to read more about the Heaven to Earth Art Project.

To learn more about Yasmin and to view her art, please visit www.yasminsayyed.com.

Featured paintings:

- Peace be Still; in the Heart of Humanity (top)

- The Breath of God (above)

- Connecting Heaven and Earth (left)

Cathy McClelland has lived and created on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe for many years. Her love for Tahoe is shared with her love for painting Tahoe’s environment, as well as many other magical themes in life.

At Lake Tahoe Cathy has freelanced as an illustrator, art director, graphic designer, muralist and painter. Her art interests have gone in many different directions from handmade paper creations, watercolor/dye illustrations, paintings, hand painted tapestries and murals. While painting murals she developed her own technique combining acrylic paint, using both airbrush and hand to enhance and detail her work, giving her creations a feeling of depth and the soft magical beauty of nature. She also incorporates glazing into her acrylic painting, which compliments the technique further. As time has evolved, painting became the priority and focus in her creative life.  Her imagination is where she creates her art.

Lake Tahoe’s magical summers were a whole new experience and fall was especially delightful. When winter came, a new love developed – skiing, which is still is a strong passion for her. Lake Tahoe’s beautiful environment is always a constant inspiration for Cathy, bringing her close to the heart of nature. The mountains, water, forest, moon, animals and stars feed her creative spirit. One of her fondest themes inspired by living at Tahoe are the animals, especially the bears. Her intention is to create the magical and innocent qualities of the bear, before his environment was interrupted by development.

The spirit and plight of the wild mustangs is another subject that speaks to her heart. Other themes and inspirations come from her journeys to sacred and mystical places which result in paintings about stone circles, fairy glenns, dream temples, meditations, animals and nature spirits, angels and messengers. Whatever speaks to her heart and soul comes through her on to the canvas or board that she is painting.

“Nature and the mystery of the universe play a big part with my inspiration. I like to weave the two together in my creations, hoping to inspire others to enjoy the beauty of nature and the wonderful creatures around us. Our world is full of miracles and magic. We just need to recognize the beauty and truth of this, and bring it into our lives and into our hearts. I hope that my artwork can be a contribution to others in that direction.” – Cathy McClelland

McClelland grew up in the northern California town of Fairfield, which at that time was surrounded by fruit ranches and farms. Her love for animals, nature and the seasons grew from this place. Throughout her childhood, she drew and painted her daily experiences with a magical flare. She studied illustration at the Academy of Art College, in San Francisco for 3- 1/2 years. In 1979 she moved to the north shore of Lake Tahoe for the summer and never left.

Cathy has been involved in many art exhibits including six successful one women shows. She has exhibited in Nevada and California and is collected nationally and internationally. Her murals grace walls coast to coast. Most all of her work is available as greeting cards and some pieces available as limited edition gilcee prints. Whether it be a mural or painting, her artwork reflects her love of nature and mythical subjects. You can visit her website at CathyMcClelland.com

Cathy is participating in the 2009 Tahoe ARTour and invites everyone to stop by her studio July 10, 11 and 12 and July 17, 18 and 19, 2009.

Cathy McClelland Art Studio
8491 Brook St. (upstairs)
Kings Beach, CA 96143
530/546-2210

Featured Acrylic Paintings by Cathy:

Coyote Reflection
Size: 12” x 18”

Spirit of the Mustang
Size: 8.5” x 12.5”

Star Medicine Pouch
Size: 8” x 10”

How did he do that?

Meet Malcolm Tibbetts, segmented woodturning artist from South Lake Tahoe.

Well known by many as Heavenly’s mountain manager in the 1980-90′s, Malcolm’s real passion has always been wood working. He started working with wood as a child and fell in love with segmented woodturning 20 years ago.

Segmented woodturning or polychromatic woodturning has been around for a very long time. As Tibbetts explains in the introduction of his book, The Art of Segmented Wood Turning, “Someone probably had the need for a bowl that was larger than their piece of wood and thought, ‘I’ll just glue two pieces together.’

However, segmented wordturning is much more than gluing pieces of wood into a bowl. “It is about creating exciting objects that challenge you and stimulate the interest and enjoyment of others…. This type of craft can be a real opportunity to express oneself with very few limitations. This activity requires extremely precise woodworking skills and often requires a little inventiveness.”

Inventiveness is putting it mild. Malcolm’s work shouts ingenuity.

Click here to view his amazing gallery.

Malcolm uses a combination of domestic and exotic woods from around the world. He uses no stains or dyes. All the colors are natural. He is also very careful not to acquire wood from endangered trees or woods that are responsible for destruction of the South American rainforest.

Malcolm is known as a master in his field, and can be commissioned to create that one-of-a-kind piece.

Artist Statement:

Segmented woodturning is an art form with few limitations. By combining components, I can create just about any shape or size and by arranging different wood species, I can create just about any type of surface design. There are few art forms with this much freedom. This lack of restriction keeps my mind engaged contemplating the possibilities. Long before I have finished one piece, my mind is busy designing and solving the technical challenges of my next project.

I have always loved working with wood and this art form gives me the opportunity to work with woods from around the world. It thereby gives me the opportunity to share these wonderful materials with many people. Beautiful wood is almost a magical substance; gallery visitors experience an uncontrollable urge to touch the surfaces that I have created using these treasures of nature. Many designs require innovative assembly solutions, much like puzzle solving; and just like the joy of solving a puzzle, there is great joy in inventing assembly techniques. I do what I do because “it’s fun” – the designing, the joy of working with wood, the puzzle solving, and the inter-action with other people.

Kit Night, South Lake Tahoe oil painter, has an extraordinary gift.  She can take the ordinary like fruit, a table glass or dessert, and bring it to life with an injection of dramatic color and poetic lines.

Kit’s delightful oil paintings are influenced by Jazz and her love of color. Bright color. Bold color.  Color allows her to play with light, while the sweet sound of Jazz inspires her to push the limit adding dimension and animation to her Citrus Jazz and Glass Harmonies paintings.

Most recently Kit has been busy painting desserts, including a tantalizing series of ice cream sundaes with names like Harlequin Romance and Sundae Baroque.

And, her four-part Goodbye Kiss is a wonderfully playful romantic study of our love affair with this decadent little treat.

With a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Kit has won awards from Maryland to California including the National Orange Show, is in collections across the country, and is licensed by Grand Image in Seattle. Kit is a member of the Tahoe Art League and an avid outdoor enthusiast.

Kit counts herself fortunate to have received praise for her work from art critic, essayist and Pulitzer Prize winner John Updike, jazz composer, pianist and creator of NPR’s “Piano Jazz”, Marian McPartland and best-selling author of “Art & Physics”, Leonard Shlain.

So, how did she get her taste for painting the obvious, sprinkling it with Americana culture, right here in Tahoe?

“My work is influenced by Jazz. Miles, Coltrane, Dizzy, Evans, Brubeck and, as Count Basie used to refer to him, “Oscar Pete.” I love listening to the old guys tell their stories and talk about their struggles. Listening to Jazz Profiles on NPR, it’s like hanging out with them late at night. The music is alive, always changing. They push space. They push themselves to take risks. This is what I try to do with my paintings.

What else inspires me as an artist? Color, of course. I get endorphins from it! I love creating radiant light with color. And, space. I like to push the envelope by shoving flattened abstracted space up against “realistic,” deep space. It’s like riding the edge on a sailboard or skiing downhill fast.

The thrill is enjoying the ride and not knowing if you’re going to crash. Some of the artists I admire and continue to learn from are the innovative Japanese Ukiyo-e printmakers like Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utagawa, and painters of Persian miniatures. Also, painters such as Diebenkorn, Hockney, Bonnard, Giacometti, Jacob Lawrence, and Matisse, always Matisse.

I’m interested in the cross-pollination of the arts. There are great parallels between what makes a good story and a good painting, between what makes spatially dynamic dance, music or art: strong characters, tension, advancing the plot, surprise, tempo, dynamic range, the pieces distilled to their essence.

And, of course, one can’t do better than to spend time in nature. My motto: when in doubt, go out.”

All of Kit’s paintings are oil on either wood or canvas. See more of Kit’s paintings at www.KNightFineArt.com.

Kit can be reached at her studio in South Lake Tahoe by calling 530-544-8949 or via email at embracebeauty@knightfineart.com

She’s an avid rock climber and athlete.

Sound familiar?

Meet Shelley Hocknell Zentner, South Lake Tahoe climber, artists and entrepreneur.

Here is Shelley’s story:

My New Life: Rhythm, Cycles and Balance

I trained as an artist in England and Wales, under the famous Welsh landscape artist Peter Prendergast. My work is informed by the rigorous discipline of drawing from life, as I started drawing from the nude figure aged 12. I take my inspiration from the artists Rodin and Michelangelo, as they both used muscular movement to render inner feelings, and I strive to achieve the same sense of emotion and passion in my work.

My work is mostly representational, inspired by my environment, people and life. Even the most unlikely subjects, such as Kokanee Salmon, or young vines growing in a winery are metaphors for how I am feeling at the time, so can be regarded as a visual fusion or observation and experience.

Although I have lived in the US for over two years now, my work still bears the hallmark of the Welsh style – the bold use of black is particularly noticeable in Welsh art, probably due to the amount of darkness in our native landscape, as slate and coal were the major industries in Wales until relatively recently.

I regard my work as an expression of energy, movement and light. I strive to achieve this through colour, bold brush strokes or charcoal lines, and through the subject’s own momentum on the picture plane. I work in a broad range of media, but particularly love oils for major pieces. I am working on a collection of large, heavily textured oils right now, which I anticipate to complete next year. They are inspired by Turner’s use of light, and will be centred on the theme of ‘Home’.

Click here to visit Shelley’s website and to see a listing of her upcoming shows.

To contact Shelley, please send an email to art@shelleyhocknell.com