Adobe Days to feature work from 12 local artists




The works of 12 local artists will be showcased at the Art Scene during the fifth annual Reyes Adobe Days Oct. 2 through 4, announced Amy Brink, director of Agoura Hills’ Department of Community Services.

Joe Wertheimer
, 64, started drawing at the age of 7. After a career in television and film art production and design, he began working with architects and developers on “things that are more permanent.”

“I like things that you can go back to and look at,” Wertheimer said.

Wertheimer launched his career as a sculptor in 1970 and has worked on myriad projects, including the Palace Hotel in South Africa and the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.

Werthheimer’s life-sized animal sculptures include grazing sheep and horses, a Texas longhorn and an American bison. The life-sized long-horned bull and sheep will be showcased at the Art Scene.

A resident of Agoura Hills for two years, Werthheimer’s artwork will be a permanent fixture in the city. Corporate Ridge, an office complex under construction at Reyes Adobe and Agoura roads, will feature his life-sized mule, deer and fawn on one knoll, and on the right-hand ridge, a sculpture of a life-sized California mountain lion. The artwork is part of the city’s “art in public places” program.

Wes Van Dyke
, 24,
says beauty can be found anywhere, from the local mountains and beaches to mysterious seascapes beneath the ocean—even golf courses.

Van Dyke said he’s honored to have been chosen to show his work at the Art Scene. “I love being a part of it just because I believe in what they are trying to do, bringing the arts to Agoura and the community.”

Van Dyke has been a serious artist for 15 years and has sold more than 50 original pieces across the country. An avid outdoorsman, Van Dyke incorporates his love of surfing, camping, and fishing into his paintings and will display paintings of Malibu Creek State Park, Malibu Pier and other local sites.

Artist Carol Henry
has been exhibiting her work in galleries around the world for 20 years. She is part of a group of people working to turn Whizin’s Market Square into a Southern California art destination. Henry creates photographic art without a camera by using light transmission in a darkroom.

Most recently she opened the Obama Painting Project at her studio (Carol Henry Studio) in Agoura Hills. The exhibit features lifesized folk art paintings of President Barack Obama.

Jean Claude Louis
left his career in biomedical research in 2007 to pursue his passion for fine art and documentary photography. His work has since won numerous international awards. In the 2007 National Geographic photography contest, Louis’ photo of Tibetan children earned first place for the People category in the United States. An avid traveler, Louis said his images “explore people, their culture and their relationship with their environment.”

Jim Rule
, publisher of the Acorn
newspapers, is a newcomer to the Conejo Valley art scene but has been dabbling in art since high school. For the past two years Rule has focused his creative side on forging masks in copper and bronze. In his first juried art competition in Newbury Park, he won a top prize for his bronze mask, “Melting Face.”

Although he can manipulate both media, Rule says copper is lighter and more flexible to work with.

Tim Bartley
has been showcasing his art at Reyes Adobe Days for many years. Like Louis, Bartley turned his sights from science to the arts. He creates wheel-thrown stoneware and porcelain in classic forms and says he experiments with texture and distressed surfaces.

Perry Castellano
says his metalwork is inspired by nature. Castellano calls his fluid-moving pieces “kinetic sculptures” that move “with the whimsy of the wind.” His garden sculptures have been sold to collectors on both the West and East coasts.

Douglas Tharalson
works in many mediums, including crayon, chalk, oil paint and metal. A native of the Cornell area of Agoura, Tharalson considers himself a “bohemian” artist. He says his “modern cubism style captures the storytelling of his past with the warmth of his spirit.”

Helene Oppenheimer
will showcase two “DeafArt” sculptures at the festival that represent American Sign Language folk art. Currently, Oppenheimer is in the midst of creating a cultural “Hebraica” series of sculpture that represent Israeli cultural art.

Ali Golkar
is a painter, poet and philosopher. He said his “painting provides him with a model for ordering his dreams, desires and visions: a way of putting them in visual terms that can be grasped by others.”

Steve Stein
, an artist who creates paintings with acrylic and oil pastels, and Morgan Ross
will also showcase their work at the Art Scene during Reyes Adobe Days.


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