Abstracts + Love, Tibbles
Exhibit Dates:	February 10th - March 3rd, 2012
Artist Reception:	February 10th, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Gallery Hours:	8:00 am - 9:00 pm Daily

Melissa Mahoney
Santa Barbara based artist, Melissa Mahoney, series of paintings are inspired by this sense of energy. A thought or idea sparks a creation that starts the transfer to a two-dimensional surface. Each piece is intended to convey a sense of motion and an energy that captures, and then transcends, the particular subject matter. Energy in its raw form, feeding the canvas with paint and modeling paste, utilizing color with shades of dark and light. In turn, the completed work expresses this dynamic force, inviting the viewer to receive the energy if they choose to. Melissa earn a BFA at the University of Georgia. She also completed graduate work in Cortona, Italy, where she studied calligraphy and art history.

Sara Lytle
Local artist, Sara Lytle’s abstract paintings are sparked by a fascination with auras, chakras, universal energies and the beyond. Soul exploration is her current interest, with concentration in the intersections and the connections between lives and beliefs. Sara, recently returning to painting, from years as a fiber-artist, works with mixed media on canvas, in her Riviera studio. She prefers to work with palette knives over brushes; likes texture and mixing mediums; loves working spontaneously while listening to music that stirs her, and to her inner self.

Peggy Ferris
Peggy Ferris was formally trained in art and design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Holland and at  Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her return to the fine arts followed on the heels of a long and successful career as a graphic designer.  

Breaking free of the regimentation of graphic design, her work is loose and unplanned, but the designer’s eye for color and composition prevail. Inspired by the energy and vitality of the urban landscape and the designed world, she uses architectural forms as a structuring compositional device. Spontaneous gestural strokes and organic forms interrupt and punctuate these forms, and add an unexpected element. She currently works in acrylic and mixed media on a synthetic paper called yupo, and on canvas.  Peggy’s work is shown throughout California and was recently featured in the Los Angeles Art Show, the Bakersfield Museum of Art and the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art.. Her work is held in public and private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Susan Tibbles
Susan Tibbles once again shoots an arrow to the heart of the matter in her latest series of Valentines for 2012,tugging at all the strings with her visual celebration of the affairs of the heart. These petite works of art range from the romantic, mysterious, and sublime to the downright silly, proving that like love, cupid has a delicious sense of humor. In this annual Love, Tibbles show, she lets fly a quiver of wry and potent new works aimed to delight those new to or flirting with becoming art collectors.