In its 11th year, YoloArts’ Art and Agriculture Project continues to celebrate farms as art, and art created on farms. The Art Farm Exhibition features work cultivated on Yolo County farms during the February – October season of artist visits.
This year’s exhibition opens on October 5 at Gallery 625 in Woodland and showcases 121 works of art by 84 local and regional artists in a collection of original art that includes oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel paintings, mixed media, photography, ceramic sculpture, fused glass reflecting the beauty and bounty of Yolo County.
Northern California artist, Paul Kratter, is the guest juror of Art Farm 2018. Paul is a highly accomplished artist and instructor who has won numerous awards at Plein Air events across the country. He is co-chair of the California Art Club and has taught at San Francisco Art Institute.
“I thoroughly enjoyed jurying this exhibit with its theme of nature and farmlands. Yolo County is so well represented by a great group of creative people,” Kratter stated recently.
Some exhibition awards will be announced by Kratter at the opening reception and will include Cream of the Crop, for highest artistic merit, Farmers Pick, for originality of theme (co-selected by Tami Ochoa, Klein Farms of Woodland) and new this year, the Plein Air Award, for artwork painted on location or from a location sketch. Additionally, the Top Ten Honorable Mentions will be announced. The public will be able to vote for the People’s Choice award at the reception and throughout the month of October at Gallery 625. This award will be announced at the Art Farm Gala on Nov 2.
The show’s opening reception will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5. Awards will begin to be announced at 6:30 p.m. Hosted by YoloArts board members Debra Gonella and Beth Jackson, the reception will also feature desserts from Farmland Street Catering and local wines donated by Todd Montgomery, YoloArts board member.
Two recipients of the Dorothy Peterson Arts Grant – a program for Yolo County teachers seeking funding for projects fusing the arts and agriculture, healthy eating, and sustainability created to honor the art and agriculture education legacy of the late Dorothy Peterson of Davis will be announced during the evening’s reception festivities.
In the upstairs gallery, the artwork of the winners of the Yolo County Farm Bureau’s National Ag Week Art Contest will be on display. Yolo County students in grades K-6 competed for four prizes at each grade level. Students from all five Yolo County school districts participated.
Art Farm will run through October 31 at Gallery 625 in the County Administration Building, 625 Court St. in Woodland, after which the show moves to Hotel Woodland, 436 Main St. in Woodland, where the exhibit reopens for the Art Farm Gala fundraiser on Friday, November 2.
Tickets for the gala are on sale now at yoloarts.org. Gallery 625 is located at 625 Court Street in Woodland and regular gallery viewing hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For more information, call YoloArts at 530-309-6464.