Hung Up on Local Artists : Ojai collector’s show lets public see the broad canvas of regional talent.

People who wind up as art collectors come in all sizes, shapes and income brackets, and with all manner of motives and inclinations. Some are concerned with the bottom line and the speculative aspects of their investments, others are driven--sometimes obsessively--by knowing what they like, and others are nudged by the philosophical imperative of buying art to support artists and the art-making process.

Whatever the psychological profile, the collecting instinct, once there, is hard to get out of one’s system. That appears to be the story with the voluminous collection of Ojai’s Bill Kaderly, who has been quietly, steadily amassing the work of artists in the region for years.

For the first time, Kaderly has made his holdings public, unveiling some 300 artworks in the G. Childress Gallery and the garage out back, and in Kaderly’s own Upholstery and Gallery space next door.

In effect, taking in Kaderly’s meandering collection of works from Ojai and elsewhere in Ventura County amounts to a sort of leisurely stroll through the art scene in this neck of the woods.

Any Ojai art collection would seem incomplete without nods to the late matron saint of the Ojai art world, Beatrice Wood. Wood’s death a year ago, at age 105, has, in a way, only served to emphasize her importance. Certainly, from a collector’s viewpoint, her work has gained in value, emotional and otherwise, now that we know no more will be coming out of her studio.

Kaderly’s collection includes two pencil pieces, “Beato, R.P. and Stephanie” and “Why,” with her trademark lean, linear style and Cubist-like faces. Completing the Wood corner of the collection, we find several of Wood’s ceramic vessels, graced with her famously exotic glazes, and photographer Robert Hale’s sensitive portrait of the artist herself, looking pensive but content.

Elsewhere in the gallery, variety is the spice. Francis Johnson’s loosely rendered pastel landscape is a freely drawn blend of trees, wind and spaciousness, and Nancy Whitman’s Post-Impressionist nude subject is awash in sensuous, Whitman-esque pink. “Drummer,” painted by Sartuse, a musician himself, conveys a rough charm, a view of a drummer in the heat of the musical moment.

Kristina Grey’s “Boats” is a pleasing Impressionist painting, leaving just enough to the imagination to engage it. In sculpture, Theodore T. Gall’s tangly, mythic steel figure contrasts sharply with Frank Lauran’s sinuous and rounded figures.

Head to the garage behind the gallery, stop to pet the friendly resident cat and dog, and find another dense group of paintings. Western-themed works are gathered here, including Native American-inspired imagery by Bert Collins, best known now for her landscapes. Another artist now associated with a distinctive landscape aesthetic, Jane McKinney, is represented by her three-part “Stumbling in Eden,” depicting a faceless nude couple cavorting in natural settings, dancing between grace and sin.

Other Ojai artists of note make an appearance in this ad hoc garage gallery: Alberta Fins’ meditation on ambiguous objects and energy sources, manifested in the form of vigorous squiggles; and Mick Reinman’s bold, rugged paintings of a bull and a hog, respectively, looking curiously similar in form.

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Meanwhile, yet more of Kaderly’s collection can be found in his own space next door, generously stuffed with three-dimensional works on the floor and paintings on the walls. The exhibition continues back into the bathroom, its walls layered with paintings and bric-a-brac and the mirror an elaborate forum for one of Christine Brennan’s fantastical vignettes.

It is in this space that the collector also creates. In the past two years, Kaderly has channeled his artistic energies into a disarming, appealing medium--carving faces out of citrus peels. These tiny, detailed beasts, having been fashioned from organic material that hardens and weathers, are subject to change, which is part of the works’ peculiar charm.

Kaderly’s peel artworks, usually mounted in wooden display boxes in small families, have been represented in several galleries, and have reportedly sold enough to keep him carving and peeling. The collector, among other things, is collectible.

DETAILS

Bill Kaderly’s art collection, through April 1 at G. Childress Gallery, 319 E. El Roblar, Ojai. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday; 640-1387.

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