Artwalk Visitors Take Colorful Variety of Mediums in Stride

THOUSAND OAKS â€”  At $2,800 a pop, painter Robin Branham didn’t expect a rush of eager customers with checkbooks in hand. She just wanted some exposure.

And with more than 10,000 people expected to attend the weekend-long Thousand Oaks Artwalk, the Malibu artist said she couldn’t have picked a better event.

“I’m not at all used to this sort of thing,� said Branham, who usually displays her intricately textured paintings in galleries from Munich, Germany, to Scottsdale, Ariz. “But I really just want to be better known in the area, so this is great.�

She brought more than a dozen of her works, most of which were richly textured portraits of women arranged from abstract shapes of multi-layered paint.

“Some of the artists walk away muttering that it’s not paint, but it is,� she said.

Branham was one of more than 160 artists participating in the 11th annual Artwalk being held this weekend in the parking lot of The Oaks mall.

The event continues today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Organized by the Conejo Valley Art Museum, the event features artists, each picked by a jury of event organizers, displaying everything from paintings of South Pacific seascapes to decorative kaleidoscopes inlaid with glass trinkets to polished wood carvings of mirthful sea otters.

“I am amazed by the quality of the art here,� said Michelle Wilson of Thousand Oaks.�

Although the Artwalk includes a competition in categories ranging from photography to sculpture, most of the artists said they were attracted by the chance to expose people to their work and maybe earn a little money.

“This has been sitting on my front porch for 15 years and the first time I brought it to a show, some guy commissioned me to make him one,� said Ventura sculptor Richard Swift as he patted the head of a totem pole. “Who knows? Maybe that’ll happen again today.�

Swift, who hopes to make sculpturing a full-time job, stayed busy Saturday talking to passersby about the delicately carved pieces on display.

One, a breaching whale carved from a solid block of Missouri black walnut, was one of his most prized.

“It’s all one piece, except for the fin,� he said. “That would have been hard to carve because there’s such a curve to it.�

And it was a steal at $475, he said.

Animals seemed to be a favorite subject of most of the artists, particularly the sculptors.

Santa Barbara sculptor Britt Vanderlei’s voice had grown hoarse after spending most of the morning explaining how he creates and colors his detailed bronze sculptures of whales and dolphins.

Each of the sculptures is carefully cast in bronze, he said, then bathed in a rich chemical mixture that corrodes the metal, leaving blotchy circles of blue and turquoise.

“It’s a pretty intensive process,� he said. “But it’s something that really seems to give the pieces life.�

One of the more popular exhibits was graphic artist Nelson De La Nuez’s mixed media display, which featured renowned pieces of art like Edvard Munch’s “The Scream� humorously juxtaposed against other scenes.

One piece, titled “Van Goghs to Disneyland� depicted the 19th-century painter wearing a one-eared Mickey Mouse hat.

“That’s pretty good,� said a chuckling Clint Fallow of Newbury Park as he examined the display.

Although event organizers said the Artwalk is aimed at giving area residents a taste of high culture, it also raises funds to help build a home for the museum’s collection.

At present, the museum’s works are being stored until the group can raise about $10 million to build a new center.

With just $28,000 in the bank, the organization has a long way to go, museum President Maria Dessornes said.

“We’re going to have to have a few more of these before we get home,� she said. “But that’s all right. . . . Everybody has a really good time, and that’s really what we want.�