Desert Light Gallery Archives

KELSO, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- The Desert Light Gallery, located at the Mojave National Preserve's Kelso Depot Visitors Center presents "On the Mojave Road," a solo exhibit of paintings in watercolor on paper by nationally celebrated painter and National Park Service Artist in Residence, Emily Silver. The Visitors Center is at 90942 Kelso Cima Rd, Kelso, CA 92309 and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday - Monday.

Inspiration for Emily's Residency and her captivating exhibit of 22 paintings came from Emily's long walks on portions of the Mojave Road, which has been described by Desert Journalist Len Wilcox as a place where the "uncommonly beautiful" meets a "peculiar form of hell." Silver hiked 92 miles (out and back) of the Mojave Road's rutted dirt tracks in 3 - 4 mile stretches.

"Walking," she says, "provides an opportunity to slow down and experience first hand the qualities that imbue this route with its powerful presence."

Raised in a family of geologists and artists whose ancestors took part in the settling and mapping of the American West, Emily developed a deep affinity for its geography, cultural history, and the history of migrations, which drives her walking and painting practices. "During my walk, I create plein-air sketches and makes notes, which I use when I return to the studio. I focus on creating paintings that investigate the role painting plays in our psychic understanding of specific places, as well as the inverse: the idea that our relationship with land influences the process of painting."

She describes her work as abstract, with a deep topographical connection based upon maps, and her paintings express an emotional response that captures the mystical and spiritual values of Mojave National Preserve. Emily points out, "My visual vocabulary includes flows and aggregates of watercolor, pigment, salts, and sediments, geometric patterns suggesting temple floors and cracked mud, and relics of native textural materials. These are often superimposed over cartographic skeletons derived from satellite photos and digital maps. I'm interested in documenting abstract sensations such as light, ghosts, patterns and textures, silence, aridity, and gravity, as well as the emotions, associated with specific locales."

"On the Mojave Road" is engaging and deeply revealing collection of paintings that examine the mystery and contradictions involved in making art about the Mojave Desert. Each work builds upon another, and as you tour the exhibit, you may find yourself with new ways of exploring Mojave National Preserve places.

Emily Silver resides in Ferndale, Calif. After acquiring a degree from Stanford in Visual Design, she began painting seriously in the 1980s, eventually earning an MFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007. Her work has enjoyed wide critical acclaim with numerous solo and group exhibits. Individuals and institutions collect her work, and she has been featured in numerous art publications.

Emily recently retired from the faculty of College of the Redwoods, after a 40-year career teaching art to college students, Nevada schoolchildren, and inmates in prison art programs in Washington, Nevada, and California. You can see more of her work at: http://www.emilysilver.com/

Information on the Kelso Depot Visitors Center: https://www.nps.gov/moja/planyourvisit/kelso-art-exhibition.htm

The Desert Light Gallery, located at the Mojave National Preserve's Kelso Depot Visitors Center presents "On the Mojave Road," a solo exhibit of paintings in watercolor on paper by nationally celebrated painter and National Park Service Artist in Residence, Emily Silver. The Visitors Center is at 90942 Kelso Cima Rd, Kelso, CA 92309 and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday - Monday.

Related link: https://www.mojaveair.org/

KELSO, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- Mojave National Preserve is presenting "Earth Through Time: Providence Mountains and the Mojave National Preserve," a solo, mixed media exhibition of paintings, etchings and installation art at the Desert Light Gallery, Kelso Visitors Center, by nationally celebrated National Park Service Artist in Residence, Britney Penouilh.

The Visitors Center is at 90942 Kelso Cima Rd, Kelso, CA 92309 and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Monday, March 29 - June 30, 2019.

Penouilh's work is a captivating series of visual monologues embracing the dynamism of a changing landscape as viewed through "geologic time." Based in Los Angeles, a trained geologist, an accomplished artist and a Magna Cum Laude graduate of New Orleans University, Britney's exhibit references 650 million years of transmutation in the Mojave's Providence Mountains. Her paintings feature environmental tropes that associate land changes with surface techniques that are additive and reductive.

"Her creative process is engaging and mimics the earth processes of deposition and erosion," notes Bob Killen, Mojave National Preserve Artist Foundation President. "As you traverse the gallery, each piece provides a compelling visual narrative that illustrates the history of the land and man's early and current intersection with Mojave geology."

Britney Penouilh invested a year exploring the backcountry of the Mojave National Preserves' Providence Mountains. "I developed the exhibit through exploration," she explains, "research with park service staff, and while hiking with my camera during golden hour, I journaled each day and concepts evolved into sketches. Over the term of my residency, I worked on translating how the Eastern California Shear Zone shaped the Mojave, and the Mojave shaped man (and woman)."

The diversity of the exhibit artwork exceeds the term, "Mixed Media." For example, the process of her paintings include selected pages from Michel Digonnet's book "Hiking the Mojave Desert" - she oiled, burned and collaged the pages on to wooden panels - paint and plaster are layered, applied and removed mimicking erosion of the land. Areas of her exhibit that would be appreciated only as complimentary texture are something more- it is the thing itself. Other visual monologues include strips of fabric that hang from wall-mounted hands and the ceiling, gracefully casting shadows as it draws from a space of sinister stalagmites and stalactites within the Mitchell Caverns.

Britney also created plaster hands, which gesture uplift of the land, while grated sheet metal in a hidden wall mount bisects impressionistic mountains, indicative of the intrusive bodies of hot granitic magma that once formed ore deposits of iron, gold, silver, and lead. It is these ore deposits that are responsible for producing the most profitable mines in Eastern California. Other sculptural works include a wall installation of naturally occurring minerals cast in polymer gypsum and a set of hands holding silicone cast bird feathers in a piece that signifies the Mojave people as a people of Dreams.

"Mixed Media is a challenging art discipline," says Gabe Thorburn, who Directs the Artists in Residence Selection program. "Britney's art achieves a cohesive resonance between each piece to create a whole experience," he says. "Visitors to the Desert Light Gallery and the Mojave will find themselves deeply engaged in this show because Britney's introspection and talented hands have created a deep appreciation for the Earth Through Time for all of us."

Event information: https://www.mojaveair.org/artist-in-residence/the-desert-light-gallery/

Learn more about the Mojave National Preserve Artist Foundation at: https://www.mojaveair.org/

Follow on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mnpartistsfnd/

Mojave National Preserve is presenting "Earth Through Time: Providence Mountains and the Mojave National Preserve," a solo, mixed media exhibition of paintings, etchings and installation art at the Desert Light Gallery, Kelso Visitors Center, by nationally celebrated National Park Service Artist in Residence, Britney Penouilh.

Related link: https://www.mojaveair.org/

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Tag Archives: Desert Light Gallery

Emily Silver’s ‘On the Mojave Road’ opens at the Desert Light Gallery – Sept. 6 to Dec. 31, 2019

Mixed Media Art Exhibit Captivates Mojave National Preserve Visitors – ‘Earth Through Time’