Landscapes Hone In on Life’s Little Things

Karen Lewis is not just being coy when she describes her large paintings, now showing at Ojai Center for the Arts, as “almost landscapes,” or when she calls the enticing exhibition “Private Property and Stolen Views.” Other landscape painters, an abundant demographic in Ojai, take heed of nature’s fruits, blossoms, leafage, and sweep. Lewis is after the little things, writ large.

Take, for instance, plastic lawn chairs, viewed from a tilted angle in “Patio/Chairs” or stacked as in “September Song,” transfigured into a strange sculptural persona. Rusty, decommissioned tools frame a warm, orange wall in “Old Tool.” Lewis creates paintings that celebrate the periphery, bringing what might seem irrelevant or utilitarian into the center of attention.

Lewis’ process begins with a camera, as she snaps images that she will exam later in the studio. These scenes, sometimes snapped surreptitiously through bushes or over fences, give the scenes a voyeuristic air. “Stolen View” depicts a thicket of foliage, through which we catch glimpses of a car and a swimming pool.

The eeriest work in the show, however, is that which takes on the wistful subject of old toys. “Garden of the Dolls” is the strongest of this lot. The cramped, close-up view of previously owned children’s things could be from a yard sale, but is transformed into a new context, with an “Alice in Wonderland”-ish surrealism and a sense of faded naivete.

Toy heads appear as both quaint and disturbing in “Talking Heads. “ They are, after all, decapitated. “Toys R Ust” directly addresses innocence fallen into disuse.

Whatever readings are possible in these paintings, Lewis takes care to paint simply and with a cheerful palette. At face value, they’re just pretty pictures of unusual things. Of course, it’s the unusual part that leads us to interpretation.

* “Private Property and Stolen Views,” paintings by Karen Lewis, through June at Ojai Center for the Arts, 113 S. Montgomery St. in Ojai. Gallery hours: noon-4 p.m., Tue.-Sun.; 646-0117.

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Going Public With Art: Last weekend, Ojai hosted a denser crush of visitors than usual, thanks to the Ojai Festival. Because of the scheduling of concerts, festival goers could be found milling around downtown for hours on end. What better time for the art forces to gather energies and organize a Gallery Walk?

The captive music audience is always treated to an outdoor art exhibit, which lines the pathways of Libbey Park, the festival’s home. “Art in the Park” celebrated its 20th anniversary this past weekend, with the usual gamut of mostly mild-mannered, salable art, but more of it.

Highlights included Don Lazo’s realist paintings of a sun-baked landscape, Gretchen Greenberg’s serpentine wooden sculptures, and the almost-garishly colorful entanglements of paintings by Aurelie Villalonga.

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Photos From Far Shores: You can see Donna Granata’s photos of European art landmarks in the downstairs, Irish-oriented gallery/shop known as A Druid and Her Troll. Granata casts an admiring eye and lens on Monet’s garden and the adjoining headstones of the Van Gogh brothers.

Also in this four-photographer show, with an accent on photographs from far shores, Hope Frazier presents compassionate images from Guatemala, and Deborah O’Brien shows photographic mementos from Ireland. Bianca Dorso is the anomaly in this company, showing manipulated Polaroids, including a quivering image of a store promising customers both “ICE” and “AMMO.”

* “Four Directions, Four Women, the Far Country,” photographs by Donna Granata, Bianca Dorso, Hope Frazier and Deborah O’Brien, through June at A Druid and Her Troll, 321-A E. Ojai Ave., Ojai. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Mon., Wed. and Thur.; 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Fri-Sat.; 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun.; 646-7469.

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Musical Mission: Down the road at the Sweet Art Gallery, Diane Fabian Fabiano is exhibiting a timely bunch of works with a direct link to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Last fall, when the L.A. Phil traveled to Paris to participate in the Stravinsky festival, Fabiano tagged along and got to know some of the musicians. Her project was to create a series of visual impressions of music and the people who make it.

The results are mixed, in media and purpose. She uses a variety of approaches, including paint and collage elements, and figures are sometimes clad in scraps of music manuscript paper or presented, featureless, in a silhouette.

* “Paris Sketches and Paintings,” by Diane Fabian Fabiano, through Sun. at Sweet Art Gallery, 602 E. Ojai Ave. Gallery hours, noon-5 p.m., Thur.-Sun.; 646-5252.

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Whimsical Dreamscapes: L.A. artist David Serrano is showing some fascinating work at Milagro’s Nest this month. He concocts dream scenes where the whimsical and the bizarre join forces, with mutant figures intertwined with animated plant life or alien landscapes. Everything seems to be melting or metamorphosing.

In “The First Note,” a contorted man is wrestling with a serpent/harp. Biblical references crop up, as in “Playing Hide and Seek with Baby Jesus.”

His small, strange paintings are the main attraction here, but Serrano also shows a 3-D component, with curious white figures in shadow boxes. Through it all, one gets the sense of an artist who dwells comfortably in a weird, mythical realm of his own.

* David Serrano, through June at Milagro’s Nest, 307 E. Ojai Ave. Gallery hours: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Tue.-Sun.; 640-1453.