A Show of Faces : * The ‘Portrait’ exhibit features works by community members from 18 months to 81 years old. The curator calls it a way to ‘celebrate people.’

Less than 48 hours after “Fires: A Community Art Show” opened at the New Canyon Gallery to help the community heal from the November fires, the Northridge earthquake rattled through.

The timing resulted in some ironic consequences.

During the “Fires” opening, “Eames Demetrios showed a continuous video time-lapse loop of the firestorm, shot from a vantage point that no longer exists; the earthquake has since tumbled away the palisades bluff where his camera was set up,” wrote exhibit co-curator Barbara King in a recent issue of the Santa Monica Mountains twice-monthly newspaper, the Messenger.

The quake shook artwork off the walls and delayed the New Canyon Gallery’s opening of its next exhibit, the second annual invitational “Portrait Show,” by one week. That show is now on view, covering the walls from floor to ceiling with about 150 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculptures by 56 artists.

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After all the recent traumas, curator Ainslie Pryor says, “I wanted this show to be a celebration. We’re just ready to celebrate people and the human spirit and beautiful paintings.”

Don’t expect to find images of celebrities or popular public officials here. Pryor, a writer and illustrator of children’s books who describes herself as the show’s “judge, jury and hangman,” asked those who wanted to participate to submit work that has some personal meaning.

Twenty-two self-portraits mingle with the faces of family members, pets, students, neighbors, friends and lovers. Among Pryor’s own paintings in the show are a life-size self-portrait that was damaged during the earthquake, and a large canvas of her dog, “Cleveland.”

Like the organizers of the “Fires” show, Pryor emphasized the importance of inviting people from the larger community to join in the “Portrait Show.”

“People get excited about being in the show and do work for the show. I find it very exciting for artists to get together and share the experience of seeing their work on the wall,” she said. Apparently, seeing one’s work in a gallery show was the real motivation for many of these artists. Only about half of the pieces on view are for sale.

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Participants range in age from 18-month-old Danielle Boucher--who has made several line drawings of faces (which actually look like faces)--to 81-year-old Beatrice Welles. Her paintings, “Cowboy” and “Chief Joseph,” express a hearty fondness for the men of the West.

Stu Moskowitz created a cool and colorful neon-like self-portrait with an economy of detail. “It looks exactly like him,” Pryor said.

Jody Roberts’ zany “Co-Zap” is anything but a classical image. This highly stylized individual, with taunting tongue and tough demeanor, almost dares viewers not to get too close. But ultimately, “Co-Zap” is amusing. So is Robin Scott Walker’s ink drawing, “Portrait of a Marriage.” On the floor with their backs to each other, this man and woman seem to be down for the count.

Connie Mississippi has made an affectionate watercolor of Topanga Canyon’s local bread-seller, “Rudy.” Gerard Bourgeois surely warmed the heart of his sister with his loving painting, “Ma Soeur.” Susan Santiago captures the essence of two of her inner-city high school students in her bold composition, “Crenshaw Kids.”

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Messenger editor Colin Penno created the assemblage “Crack in the Canyon,” using a photograph he shot of Betsy Moline in her home after the earthquake struck. The house in Topanga’s Glenview area crumbled during the quake, and it was recently torn down.

Penno surrounded the picture with broken plaster from the house, which is seen in his photograph. Those elements have been mounted on plywood.

At first, 7-year-old Noah Saltman had brought Pryor his drawing of Jiminy Crickett. She asked him to try again with something more personal. He returned with a striking photograph of the family cat, “Felix,” which he shot, developed and printed. Perhaps his mother, K Saltman, who is a photographer, gave him a little help. She is represented here by her 1987 image, “Faerie,” of her young daughter, Erin. Erin, and Erin and Noah’s brother, Elan, also have drawings in the show.

Opposite the Saltmans’ works is Pryor’s “baby wall,” dominated by the Bateman family. Laura Bateman, the mother of five daughters, has contributed images of two of her girls. Her daughters are responsible for the three other images: Camille drew Danielle, Danielle shows us Sally Anne, and Sally Anne presents an image of Annie.

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “Portrait Show.”

Location: New Canyon Gallery, 129 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 6.

Call: (310) 455-3923.