SANDSTONE GALLERY

BIO:

With degrees in both Fine Art Design and Biology/Chemistry  Linda Brooks is a mixed-media artist whose work bridges a lifelong engagement with the arts and sciences. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Linda pursued a career in clinical laboratory science after relocating to Southern California. Throughout her professional life, she remained deeply connected to the visual arts, exploring drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and jewelry making. Now working full-time as an artist from her home studio in Tustin, California, Linda creates mixed media abstract works that incorporate a range of printmaking techniques and layered materials. She has exhibited in local galleries and many juried shows.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I am drawn to the interplay of perceived opposites. My work often begins with an initial shape and evolves intuitively from there. I gravitate toward a neutral palette and subtle textural details, with movement playing a central role. I explore transitions, tension, and connection—captivated by the push and pull between subtlety and dynamism, the organic and the geometric.

I love surprises. I love creating art in the moment. I’m energized by juxtaposing ideas and discovering smaller compositions within a larger emerging piece. Each work is a conversation between intention and spontaneity.

www.LindaBrooksArt.com

https://www.instagram.com/lindabrooksart

Bio

My visual life began in Cleveland, Ohio with visits to its museum and drawing classes in its galleries and in a house in whose basement my mother began to paint late in life. After finishing college in Boston I took drawing and painting classes in the evening programs at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Mass College of Art and worked on large, abstract canvases in a studio in a warehouse building in Somerville, MA. I found my way to printmaking with a group called EES Arts in downtown Boston where I experimented with traditional etching and aquatint techniques and simultaneously created a series of three-dimensional pieces I called “Twentieth Century Reliquaries” from Styrofoam packing shapes in an homage to Joseph Cornell. Moving to Irvine, CA in 1998 I found the Irvine Fine Arts Center and thanks to classes there I was pointed back to printmaking on a smaller scale and introduced to the techniques I use today in my studio.

Artist Statement

The practice of art in any medium I have tried has always been non-verbal – in general I do not start with the aim of depicting a specific narrative. With each new piece I explore the basic elements of composition and color with the goal of creating a whole to draw the viewer from a two-dimensional surface into a three-dimensional space. As a printmaker my imagination is stirred by many stimuli - the expanse and subtlety of the palette in landscape, aerial photography, industrial and mechanical shapes and textures, the physicality of decay, translucence, reflections, the ambiguity and depth of space, and the transformative quality of light.

I have found that using two printmaking techniques, silk aquatint and collagraph, provides rich color, subtlety of edge and intersections, and the means to create and depict layers which when combined convey mystery.

My plate creation is very deliberate, juxtaposing various textures, shapes, disparate materials (glue, textured papers, modeling paste, sand, matte varnish, photo negative strips among others) all set on an underlayment of prepared polyester silk. I have recently started experimenting by using corrugated cardboard as my plate surface or inking cardboard shapes which I add to a print in a subsequent reprinting. These are the aspects of the printmaking process which I can organize and control.

Against these are the aspects of the process which are outside my complete grasp – the intensity and degree of inking and wiping, the interaction among ink layers, the dampness of the paper, the slow degradation of the plate surface as the plate is repeatedly inked, printed, washed, and the degree of penetration by the roller into the collage and the silk on each plate. That tension between control and surprise in the printmaking process continually rewards and challenges me.

All of my prints are unique. I am able to obtain multiple slightly different prints from each plate in a series, but each individual print within a series is inked differently.

https://www.Lesliearnoldart.com

https://www.Instagram.com/Leslie.Arnold

BIO

As long as I could remember creativity has been a big part of my life. Early classes in music and painting ignited a life long journey and opened up a pathway that I continue to explore. Wanting to blend art and business, I graduated from California State University of Long Beach with a BFA in Illustration and Marketing. I chose the business end of the art industry and I have been fortunate enough to represent some of the most talented commercial artists in the business. Their talent has contributed to the visibility of some of the most iconic Brands. Covid created “unexpected’ free time which enabled me to rekindle my passion for creating. Experimenting and playing with various mediums and techniques lead me to to abstract work with a particular affinity for Pastel work. I love the freedom to express myself. Living in Southern California for the majority of my life enjoying ocean, desert and mountains has a huge influence on my life and ultimately my art.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“My work reflects my internal response to the natural elements that surround me from the shifting light to pieces of nature that draw me in…leaves on the ground, kelp washing up on the shore, pedals that lay on the concrete.  

Textures and patterns invite me to interpret them using mediums that I love including paint, inks, water soluble pencils and the irresistible colors and textures of pastel. My work is a spontaneous process starting with a loose idea and moving in present time laying down intuitive marks, brush strokes and color themes; each mark and brush stroke leads to the next intuitive expression. Dark, light and movement are often a recurring theme in my work, showing the depth, tension and diversity that often reflects are complex lives.

csperlow.com

Instagram.com/Carrieperlow

Facebook.com/carrie.perlow.5

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Gretchen Beck, MFA

For the images I produce as an artist, I have conducted research in Niger, West Africa, where I lived for three years. My art involves an exploration of the Nigerian landscape, the Djarma and Fulani cultures and the art forms they create. This abstract work portrays ritual and tradition in Nigerien culture.

To create my imagery, I work from a variety of references. Relationships among color, shape, and texture come together to form fluid and grid-like compositions. Color dominates the images and dictates the media employed to produce them. This exhibition combines painting with oil on wood, drawing with oil paint, collage, ink drawings, mixed-media works and graphite on paper.

Gretchen Beck served as Professor of Art, Chair of the Art Department, Curator and on the faculty at Concordia University, Irvine, CA, for eleven years. She also served in the Peace Corps for three years in Niger, West Africa and has conducted artistic research there with undergraduate students for her art production. Currently, she is a professional exhibiting artist.

She exhibits and discusses her work in juried group and solo exhibitions in galleries, on national and international levels. Her recent juried exhibitions include: Emotions, MVA Art Gallery, Bethlehem, PA, June – July 2025; Passage of Life: Aging 2025, Exhibizone, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May – July 2025; 2nd Annual Abstraction: Forms, Lines, Colors – 2025, Gallerium Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Canada, April – June 2025; The Surreal Spectacle, Art Scene West Gallery, San Diego, CA, April – May 2025; Identity, Livermore Valley Arts Center, Uncle Credit Union Art Gallery, Livermore, CA, March – May 2025; Colorful Symphony 2025, Exhibizone, Vancouver, Canada; February – April 2025; and SoloS 17th International Online Solo Exhibition, Exhibizone, Vancouver BC, Canada, January – February 2025.

She also is a represented artist at the NoonPowell Fine Art Gallery www.noonpowellfineart.com in London, England and at the Sector Seven Contemporary Art Gallery https://s7cag.com/ in South Pasadena, CA. For further information about her work in the visual arts, please contact her at gretchenjo.beck@gmail.com and you can view her art at

www.gretchenbeck.com

I think of the process of painting as an activity in meditative expression.  When it works, the lines, shapes, texture and light become the media that capture an emotional state of mind on canvas.  As forms and colors connect and become something that could be a figure or an object, they create a new pivot point for the story to unfold.  I’ve been using a process where I follow the cues that emerge in the art to dictate what comes next.  It sounds simple, but it’s far easier said than done.

Something I’m learning in life is that there’s such a thing as trying too hard.  Sometimes the more we want things to be a certain way, the bigger the obstructions we place in the path to that destination.  So I try harder in a different way.  I try harder to let go… of fear, judgment and doubt.  I remind myself that my art is a medium for telling a visual story.  The freer I can become, the further out of that controlled comfort zone I can venture, and the truer the art becomes as a reflection of the journey in my mind.

And sometimes I regress and wonder, is this a formula for producing the type of art I want to produce?  And then I remind myself, for me as an artist, the answer is not actually about removing the obstructions, but rather realizing that the destination is unknown and that’s the way it should be.      

www.Jongroart.com