May 25, 2013 – July 28, 2013

This exhibition featured recent work by two master Mendocino County artists, Catherine Woskow of Ukiah and Larry Thomas of Fort Bragg. Both use abstraction and action painting techniques to create their engaging art. Each work shown was a response to a personal encounter–whether looking inward to the imagination or experienced in the natural landscape.

Points of Encounter took its name from a quote by Larry Thomas in the catalogue for his 2012 one-man show, Larry Thomas Coastal Echoes, at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. There he refers to his regular coastal walks near his home:

Whether it’s a walk along the ocean or a hike in the mountains or adrift on a river, each encounter with the landscape is unique even if repeated on a regular basis. These to me are points of encounter–moments to be savored and remembered, moments of dramatic sensation to be recorded and remembered….

In his studio, Larry creates his personal response to environmental qualities of the encounter which “filter into the work consciously and unconsciously.”

In viewing the Head Series by Catherine Woskow, the viewer is exposed to a similar, but totally internal methodology. Her point of encounter is the idea for a portrait and her exploration of the subject involves the painting of 10 to 20 underlying heads before reaching the final image. The act of painting is a primal message of the work. As she revealed in her artist’s statement, to achieve all this she too relies on the conscious and unconscious:

I am acutely conscious of the different sources of my inner dialogue: From my head? From my body? The head: chaotic thought, most often directed by violent contradiction. The body: intuitive guidance, more or less relief from thought.

This exhibit was organized by the Grace Hudson Museum.