Mixed-Media Exhibit : Work of 2 Artists Contrasts Pier Life

Howard Warner, a photographer, and Roger Camp, who works in acrylics, colored pencil and clay, are longtime Huntington Beach residents who’ve spent years documenting the changing seasons and populations as seen from the city pier.

The result is “Two From the Pier,” an exhibit at the Golden West College Fine Arts Gallery through Nov. 25, that reflects what Warner calls “that joy of a life style that we have in Huntington Beach.”

Warner, who recently retired from the Golden West fine arts faculty, has been using the pier as vantage point and subject matter since the early ‘70s. Well versed in traditional, single-figure drawing, he has applied a more narrative style to his beach scenes, telling stories through the figures’ positions and interactions.

“You discover certain types of personalities on the beach that you can identify every time you see them,” he said. “For example, in the junior lifeguard groups, you can always spot the loner, the one who’s pulled away from the crowd and stays aloof. I identify with that character, and I search him out in my painting.”

Camp sees what he likes to call “the five distinctive pier groups . . . each with its own, unique behavior pattern. Cultural anthropologists could probably have a lot of fun with this,” he said with a laugh.

“At the beginning of the pier, there’re the kids on the skateboards and bikes. Then as you move towards the waterline, you find the ‘heavy metal’ contingent, the pasty-faced kids with (huge radios) all playing at once. Then as you get closer to the water, you find the family groups and the general public, then the junior guards. And at the waterline, there’re the surfers.

“The surfers seem to have an especially predictable behavior pattern. They go through certain rituals--certain ways of waxing their board, then roughing it up with sand. You see some of them say a prayer before they go into the waves, others will do stretching exercises. Whatever they do, they’re consistent. I’ve tried to document that in my work.”

Though they use many of the same subjects, each artist represents them in his own way. So the exhibit, as Camp points out, “lets the viewer see similar images from two different viewpoints, using completely different materials.”

Camp’s photographs have been featured in books and in dozens of arts and literature magazines and have been shown at more than 40 colleges and museums in the United States and abroad, including the Gallerie Calvet in Paris. Locally, they’ve been shown at the Susan Spiritus Gallery in Newport Beach and the Laguna Beach Art Museum.

Warner’s work has also been exhibited across the country. He began teaching in 1955 and has served on the arts faculties of California State University, Long Beach, the University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, University of Washington and California State University, Fullerton.

“Two From the Pier” runs at the Golden West Fine Arts Gallery through Nov. 25. Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Admission: free. Information: (714) 895-8134.