Ventura County Weekend : ART : Watercolors on the Menu at Gallery Restaurant

Where in Ventura County can one go to in search of the watercolor medium in action? At the Doubletree Inn’s Gallery Restaurant, of course, where the Gold Coast Watercolor Society has been presenting its members’ work for several years now.

This month’s model is a solo exhibition by Michele Beaulieu Weise, a Moorpark-based artist who studied ceramics at Chouinard Art Institute and worked in clay for some two decades, picking up watercolors only recently. In this show, Weise shows landscapes from the county’s backcountry and equestrian scenes--both realistic and fantasy-driven. We also find images of local churches and evocations of Native Americans.

All is well and good in paintings realized with a porous, light touch and with a natural feel for the medium. But the pieces that call out for attention and depart from predictability are her clunky, affectionate portraits of careworn vintage trucks--pudgy and scrappy in the best way--and a dry-witted ode to an Edsel in a carport.

Sometimes, as here, it is the simple, skewed things that capture the imagination.

* Michele Beaulieu Weise watercolors, through Sept. 25 at the Gallery Restaurant in the Doubletree Hotel, 2055 Harbor Blvd., Ventura; 643-6000.