A Woman Defined

Featuring: Peter Blake Gallery | 435 Ocean Avenue | Laguna Beach, CA 92651 | http://www.peterblakegallery.com

Laguna Beach loves Peter Blake. He is the story of resilience, presence, and success. He has brought the sophistication of Chelsea, New York to the beauty and easy-living style of Laguna Beach, and we all know here in Orange County that when we visit his gallery, we have visited culture .

I have read the story of his life and his success told in so many different ways in the media, but I think there is mainly one version which is the most accurate to explain the magic of Peter Blake and his gallery: that he is a man who found and followed his calling; a man whom the god of art chose, found, and embraced, and, as a result, so did Laguna Beach.

I went to the the twentieth anniversary party of the Peter Blake Gallery in Laguna Beach this past Saturday. It was one more day of a real, hot California summer day, and the place was packed with beautiful people who were all there to celebrate this very special day with Blake. On the cool, white walls of the gallery hung the paintings of Ed Moses, Gregg Renfrow, Robert Sagerman, and Hadi Tabatabai, to name a few amongst many others. Their works hung there like splashes of concentrated colors. It was as though there were a powerful magnet installed and implanted in the walls that pulled you into the works as soon as you stepped into the gallery. I think abstract paintings are so simple, but in creating art, simple is always so much harder and difficult. When you only have shapes and colors to work with, there is nowhere to hide – no details to distract you from what you really mean to say, no story to tell. There are only the colors that have to do the job of communicating and revealing themselves to the viewer. Colors also possess a lot of power; they can get into you, as a viewer, and affect you in really deep level. They are the soul and the living life essence of a painting, which are revealed on the background of a canvas so openly.

It was a beautiful afternoon. I loved the exhibition. I had a great time there, and I brought some of the reds, the blues, and the greens of the paintings home with me in my my mind.

Peter Blake Gallery, congratulations on your twentieth anniversary !

Since 1993, the Peter Blake Gallery has been a definitive source for modern and contemporary art in Orange County. The gallery’s program is focused on monochrome, concrete, modernist, post, color-based, radical, minimalist and abstract painting.

Tags: Art, Art Galleries, Galleries, Gallery, Laguna Beach, Orange County, Peter Blake, Peter Blake Gallery

Posted in Art Reviews, Reviews |