SIGHTS : Patients Benefit When Shoppers Choose Their Art : In fact, buying creative work from any artist has a positive ricochet effect on the buyer and the seller.

By JOSEF WOODARD

Nov. 24, 1994 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

To trot out a twisted adage--and what are the holidays for if not trotting out adages?--art makes for a gift that gives more than once. Buying art benefits both the beholder and the creative forces behind making the art, as well as nurturing the artistic process. Gift-seekers, take heed.

One such appreciation and acquisition opportunity comes via the Art Therapy-Fine Arts Discovery Program at the Camarillo State Hospital. From Dec. 10 through 15, there will be a holiday show, the third annual art exhibition and boutique. The periodic displays of art by the patients can make for rewarding viewing, a chance to see art from fresh and often unadulterated perspectives.

Art-and-crafts-as-gift potential is the theme at the Conejo Valley Art Museum, which is hosting the holiday-oriented multimedia show “Gifts for the Discriminating Tastes.” Among the objects for sale will be pottery, weavings, woven baskets, special paper, dolls, glass, jewelry and artwork, including traditional, representational, abstract, watercolors, oils, mixed media, glass and sculptures. An artist’s reception will be held on Dec. 3 from 6 to 9 p.m.

GALLERY CROSSINGS

The sign remains, but the venue has changed. These days, you’ll find the kindly signage on Santa Paula’s Main Street promising “Mr. Nichols,” but there’s no one home. But, have no fear, Mr. Nichols is back in business directly across the street.

John Nichols has long stoked the flames of art exhibition in Santa Paula, with a special emphasis on fine art photography. Four months ago, Nichols moved across the street, to the ample and stolid neoclassical quarters of what was originally the Farmers and Merchants Bank, built in 1921.

Nichols’ first official art exhibition in the new space, of serigraphs and ceramics by Parmlee Duke, is a modest but enjoyable outing. Duke takes a quirky, endearing path to expressiveness, and her work is appropriate for family viewing--a fine thing in this holiday time.

Among Duke’s art-related activities are teaching young children and illustrating children’s books, and a sense of wonder--without smarminess--characterizes these pieces. A gently loony imagination and a flair for bent logic also comes through.

Central to the charm is the idea of casual meetings of disparate creatures and objects. The subjects of “Brunch Time” include a hefty walrus, a parasol-toting squirrel and a breakfast tray.

Llamas appear matter-of-factly, for no apparent reason other than a flexing of fantasy. A humongous sunflower and a looming ostrich head invade the picture planes. Kids cavort with a giant sea horse and a rabbit on the beach. We don’t flinch.

In “The Pretender,” an artist at her easel faces a penguin with a beanie and a hula hoop. Another day, another daydream.

ART TAKES OVER LIBRARY

Meanwhile, down the road, the Santa Paula Public Library is presenting the large “Santa Paula Art and Photography Exhibit,” sponsored by the Santa Paula Society of the Arts. Close to 200 works in various media stage a benevolent takeover of a fair portion of the library space.

Evocative street scenes account for some of the better paintings, from Ben Abril’s pulpy ode to a Los Angeles intersection, “Pirate Radio,” to Eugene Marzec’s view of a row of vertical Victorian houses and Henry Richards’ rural “Hwy. 1 Thru Pt. Reyes Station.”

Tony Jankowski shows an attractively desolate and precision-rendered farm scene with “In the Heart of Ventura.” Katherine Rhoads shows a strong painterly touch, with the loopy charm of her “Ostrich Parade” and the ruddy sea-swept realism of her Winslow Homer-esque “The Fisherman.”

Perhaps predictably, landscape painting gets a lot of play here, but with some unpredictable turns-of-convention. Patti Robinson finds a way to energize what is potentially homely kitsch in “Pumpkin Paradise at Faulkner Farms.” The representational image dissolves in seeping, dripping rivulets of orange paint.

Betts Waite portrays droopy sunflowers in “Flowers of the Sun” with an air of mortality and melancholy beneath the yellow glitz. Sherry Loehr’s “Composition 3” is less about plant life, per se, than it is the result of a photorealist’s foliage fetish.

Among the photography, Terry Schuller’s “Underwater Paradise” is a retinal-prickly, hyper-vivid undersea garden scene. From another mind-set entirely, Andrew Glover’s droll, mock-antique images from a trip to Scotland take the role of strange travelogue entries.

If ever there was a doubt about the abundance and variety of art activity in Santa Paula, let this be a lesson to the wise.

MOSAICS AND SILK

Splitting the difference between 2- and 3-D work, Helle Scharling-Todd is showing both her mosaics and silk-screen prints at the County Government Center. Her handiwork with mosaic can be seen in a dramatic form at the Ray D. Prueter Library in Port Hueneme, spilling under the front door.

Here, small mosaic pieces demonstrate a color-sensitive flourish. Her silk-screen pieces favor vegetables as subject matter. A curveball irony informs pieces such as “What About the Carrots?” and “Orbiting Avocados,” in which vegetable icons are pitted against the follies of NASA.

In the self-described battle between the expensive exploration of space and fundamental tilling of dirt, the artist’s earthy bias comes clean.

Details

Holiday Show ‘94, art exhibition and boutique

* WHERE: Camarillo State Hospital and Developmental Center (staff conference room) 1878 Lewis Road, Camarillo.

* WHEN: Dec. 10-15.

* CALL: 484-3661, Ext. 4216.

Gifts for the Discriminating Tastes

* WHERE: Conejo Valley Art Museum, 193-A N. Moorpark Road (in the Janss Mall).

* WHEN: Nov. 25-Dec. 24.

* CALL: 373-0054.

Santa Paula Art and Photography Exhibit

* WHERE: Blanchard Library, 119 N. 8th St., Santa Paula.