Art at the Fair: Amateur Surprises and Familiar Pros

The Ventura County Fair--ensconced through this weekend--means different things to different folks, offering entertainment, exhibitions of all sorts, livestock and, lest we forget, art. As usual, the fair divides its visual art into categories, the most democratic being the amateur art exhibition. Here is where most of the surprises lurk, with art made for its own sake, sneaking into one’s awareness for various reasons.

Local sympathies color the effect of Larry Durham’s black-and-white rendering of the late, beloved Ojai guitarist Larry Nass, who died too young but left many fond memories in town. Nancy Wright’s tipsy painting of “Dandy’s Donuts” pays homage to funky vernacular architecture in Southern California, and Cecilia Uber’s painting of an abandoned car in dry, overgrown grass by a decrepit shack exerts a strong atmosphere of chic desolation.

The professional gallery features many names that will pop up in galleries around the area during the rest of the year. On the lawn outside the professional gallery is a makeshift sculpture garden, its unofficial theme being rusty metal critters. Proving that there are many ways to envision animals in junk metal, Tesi Sanchez-Halpert’s crocodile, made from “found steel,” is as roughhewn as Thomas Flores’ buffalo is a more realistic, rust-flecked concoction.

Inside the gallery, Edward K. Hudson’s “Swimming Hole” is a high-contrast vignette that seems to blend Rockwellian wonder and media experimentation. Rex Kochel’s “Waiting on the Shelf” is a pleasant still-life of pickled foods on a shelf, looking much like the real thing in the the preserved foods exhibition across the way.

* Ventura County Fair, Seaside Park, 10 W. Harbor Blvd., Ventura. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Ends Sunday. $7 general; $4 ages 6-12; free 5 and younger. (805) 648-3376; www.seasidepark.org/vcfair.

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Soul Man Returneth: Velveteen sandpaper soul man Michael McDonald has his share of relatively local connections, having lived in the Valley and then the Santa Barbara area before heading to the more songwriter-friendly climes of Nashville. Next Thursday, McDonald returns to the region, bringing his blue-eyed soul to the Oxnard Performing Arts Center.

McDonald’s latest efforts may have gone little-noticed on radio, where his voice used to appear regularly as a session singer, solo artist and member of the Doobie Brothers. But as heard on his latest album, “Blue Obsession,” he continues to make good music on the sidelines.

* Michael McDonald, next Thursday, 8 p.m., Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way. $36-$41. (805) 486-2424.