Art Fare

When most people think of a county fair, certain stimuli spring to mind. Sights and sounds vie for attention--in the exhibition areas, the mad swirl of rides and the arena, where Peter Frampton and the Beach Boys are holding court this year. Smells abound, too, whether the barbecue sauce, livestock cages or floriculture displays.

Some of us--oddballs, perhaps--also think art. Every year, diverse artists show their stuff in exhibition spaces set apart from the corn dogs, the vertigo-inducing amusements and the sows.

You know you are in the art zone this year when you venture into the outdoor sculpture garden. There, in a rough-hewn, sometimes rusty menagerie of constructions, are works by Michael Chapin, Bill McEwen, Teri Sanchez-Sims, Eric Richards and TryonneMcGrath, as well as Keith Aubochon’s kinetic, eye-catching “Spinning Guitars,” a sort of totem of guitar lore.

In the adjacent Professional Arts Building are more audacious three-dimensional concoctions, such as Peter Justin’s “Egg-Zol-Ta-Shon,” a madcap found-object piece with artist’s tools, wood scraps, an abacus and other whatnot, assembled into a bird-like shape.

An otherwise familiar example of Duane Simshauser’s abstract style is literally thrust into three dimensions via Styrofoam blocks, placed between the stretcher bars and the canvas, in the cheekily dubbed “Origin of the Universe Upholstery Theory.”

The inquiring, bovine-minded art lover wants to know: What’s with the lack of cow paintings this year? Animal art just makes good sense at the fair, but it’s a rarity this year, an exception being Katy Wright’s “Studly,” a fine, empathetic watercolor portrait of a horse.

Betty Buckner’s “California Vista” is an abstract oil painting with a few ragged strips attached to the surface, for texture’s sake, and the melange of dry color streaked across the composition alludes to a desert landscape. William Scarlott’s “Desert Sunset” finds its own offbeat means of nature-oriented expression, focusing on the drama of cloud formations overhead.

Though landscape themes abound, some of the most striking works deal with presumably “trivial” subjects, elevating the commonplace. Donna Clark’s “Caps Times Three” lovingly depicts stacked baseball caps, with a sharp eye. David James Smith’s “Crisscross” trains its eye on the tightly cropped, linear structure of a ship’s design, and Norman Kirk’s “Abandoned in Carpinteria” celebrates the desolate wonder of a decrepit structure.

Many of the artists who show their work in the Professional Arts Building are represented in local galleries throughout the year, which makes the humbler stuff over at the Amateur Fine Arts Building almost more intriguing for viewers seeking fresh ideas.

There, we generally find spirit over technical skill, and a surfeit of images of celebrities--from Clint Eastwood to Bugs Bunny to a replica of the Joni Mitchell-as-Van-Gogh image found on her “Turbulent Indigo” album.

But there are also pleasant little surprises, as with Helen Gettner’s fine, sparse watercolor paintings--particularly, an understated image of a man reading a book.Nothing earth-shattering, just a tranquil, pretty picture.

Rebecca Stone shows skill in her charcoal portraits, and Johnny Altstatt’s pencil drawing of a cluttered garage workbench becomes an unconventional variation on a still-life subject.

Brute charm can be its own reward, as with Beverly E. Wilson’s image of a postcard and assorted bric-a-brac on a table.

This quirky still life has a life all its own and is probably invested with more meaning to the creator than to the outside observer.

It’s the kind of small wonder you hope to find, like a little jewel, in the sensory sprawl of the county fair.

It happens every year. You just have to have eyes wide open.

DETAILS

Ventura County Fair, Seaside Park, 11 a.m.-10 p.m., through Aug. 15.

* Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com.