The Oak Group on Gaviota Creek, Faulkner Gallery

Nov 7

Nov 7 The Oak Group on Gaviota Creek, Faulkner Gallery

By Kit Boise-Cossart

Slicing through the backbone of the east/west trending Santa Ynez Mountains, Gaviota Creek is one of the most significant southern draining watersheds found between the Santa Maria River to the north and Ventura River to the south.

Sharp, tight, deep and narrow, the creek has cut the infamous Gaviota Pass, an uneasy jumble of crooked and nearly impassable sandstone formations. Over the millennia, what’s been a difficult transportation corridor for humans has provided a rich opportunity for non-humans, including the now endangered Steelhead trout.

*Bill Dewey, “Gaviota Pass Clouds 1/11/19,” photograph on metal*

Times have changed. Attempts to make the passage easier through Gaviota by controlling the creek with concrete features has cut the Steelhead off from their birthing areas upstream.

Enter a few paint-splattered artists (twenty-five at last count), who thirty-four years ago gathered under the banner of the Oak Group with a challenging idea: Make artwork to sell at shows to help raise money for projects like the removal of barriers and restoration of the Gaviota Creek, and give fish a chance.

Not a new idea. In unscientific parlance, if the fish population is healthy, the animals that eat the fish will be healthy, and the balance between humans and non-humans will improve. Call it the Age of Restoration. Other artists around the state and the country have had their hands full with similar restoration and preservation goals, with fundraising art shows as their tool.

*Richard Schloss, “Waves and Light Gaviota,” oil*

*Thomas Van Stein, “Gone with the Wind, Gaviota Wind Caves,” oil on canvas*

*Ann Sanders, “Dos Pueblos Evening,” pastel*

Of the Oak Group artists included in the current benefit for the Coastal Ranches Conservancy’s Gaviota Creek Watershed Restoration project, fifteen have been with the group since 1986, a year after founding with seven members. Since then, they’ve put on over 100 benefits raising support for over twenty environmental groups.

The current exhibition, including some 90 plus paintings, pastels and photographs made mostly in and around the Gaviota watershed (including those by three guest artists) were put up with a collective effort in the gallery, in a whirlwind five-hour session the day before the opening.

*Arturo Tello, “Heritage Headland 2, Gaviota,” acrylic*

Arturo Tello, the hub of the group and master painter/organizer, commented on the results up on the walls: “You can feel the energy,” he said with an obvious sigh of relief.

State of Harmony is on view during the month of November 2019. Opening reception is 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library, 33 East Anapamu, Santa Barbara.