"Studio Interior" - Nancy Whitman. Photo by Roger Conrad.

"The Arcade" - Nancy Whitman. Photo by Roger Conrad.

Whitman Studio Detail. Photo by Myrna Cambianica.

Nancy Whitman Artist’s Brushes. Photo by Myrna Cambianica.

"Nancy Whitman Self Portrait" - Artist's Collection. Photo by Claire Hill.

Nancy Whitman. Photo by Myrna Cambianica.

The Ojai Valley Museum is pleased to present, “Nancy Whitman: A Retrospective,” as its premier, solo exhibition for a local contemporary visual artist, in the museum’s forty-five year history. The one-person show, spanning forty years of the creative works of the Ojai artist, opens on June 28th and will run through September 2, 2012. The museum will host an opening reception on Saturday June 30th from 5 to 7 p.m.

Nancy Whitman was born in Chicago, earned a Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin, continued graduate studies at the Chicago Art Institute, and then spent a year painting in Paris, France. Highly influenced by Matisse, Jawlensky and the Fauvist movement, Whitman’s paintings explode with color and line, inviting the viewer to enjoy her avid love of life: nature, architecture, the human form, and everyday objects.

Whitman has received many awards in juried shows and her artworks are in numerous private, public and corporate collections nationwide. Her retrospective at the Ojai Valley Museum is her first one-person museum exhibition.

Claire Hill, a member of the museum’s Exhibition Committee, and a close friend of Whitman, is the primary curator of the exhibition. Museum Director, Michele Pracy, mentored Hill’s selection of artwork-by-genre: i.e., landscapes, places, figurative, and interiors. Approximately 30 major paintings will be on display exploring these subjects. Many of the paintings are from Whitman’s private collection and have not been seen by the public. Most of the artworks are available for purchase. Hill, aware of unique pieces in other private collections, arranged to borrow additional pieces for this show, including a major seascape never seen publicly before this exhibition.

Nancy Whitman will also be represented with a vignette of her working studio space on a raised platform in the center of the gallery. Museum visitors will be transported into her daily creative workspace, where easels and brushes, still lifes and works-in-progress can be viewed in the round.

The Ojai Valley Museum, established in 1967, is generously supported in part by Museum Members, Private Donors, Business Sponsors and Underwriters, the Smith-Hobson Foundation, Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, City of Ojai, Rotary Club of Ojai, and the Ojai Civic Association.

The museum is located at 130 W. Ojai Avenue, Ojai, CA. Admission: free for current 2012 members, adults - $4.00, children 6–18 - $1.00 and children 5 and under – free. Gallery Hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10 to 4 pm; Sunday, noon to 4 pm. Tours are available by appointment.

For more information, call the museum at (805) 640-1390, ext. 203, e-mail ojaimuseum@sbcglobal.net or visit the museum website at: Ojai Valley Museum.org Find us on Facebook Ojai Valley Museum