"Smoke Wave” photograph by David Orias.

David Orias’s collection of photographs “Reflecting on Waves” will be exhibiting at the Harbor Village Gallery from Wednesday, July 14 to Sunday, August 8, 2010. An Artist Reception will be held on Friday, July 16, 2010 from 5 – 8pm.

Southern California’s waves are shown in their spectacular beauty through David Orias’s lens. “Water is colorless, yet it can take on the colors of the light that is shown through it or reflected upon it.” Orias’s photographs display the complex beauty of waves and their colors, shades, and reflections with a harmonic touch of photographic mastery. He chooses to photograph at dawn, capturing warm comforting colors; while using a slow shutter speed and camera motion, adding a unique and soft touch to his work. His photographs reveal waves in a full range of colors from oranges, reds, blues, turquoises, and more; reflections of the dawn, California’s fires, and other atmospheric wonders.

Orias reminds us that “every day, waves generated sometimes thousands of miles away breaks upon our shore. No two waves are exactly alike. Approaching the shore, they rise from the surface, crest and then extinguish themselves on the sandy or rocky shore. As soon as one disappears, another is there to take its place in this endless cycle of nature.” Waves come and go quickly, but Orias’s work pulls you in to admire “the shape of the wave and the light that reflects off its surface, creating lasting impressions of a subject that we often take for granted.” With the spirit of a true native, all of the waves photographed are from the local Ventura and Santa Barbara area.

A California native, Orias grew up in Santa Barbara, graduating from University of California Santa Barbara in 1980. Primarily artistically self taught, he has been photographing for the past seventeen years, working with subjects from birds, landscapes, nature, surfing, waves, and more. In addition, his work has developed throughout photography trips with other fellow artists. His shoreline photographs have won Best in Show at the Santa Barbara Fair and Expo. Often his work is displayed in Santa Barbara’s First Thursdays. Orias has been a member of the Santa Barbara Association for two years and the Buenaventura Art Association for one year.
David Orias’s work is perfectly displayed in the Harbor Village Gallery, in Ventura Harbor, where one can enjoy his capturing work along side the beach! There is nothing like Orias’s photographs of waves, displaying atmospheric reflections dance with Southern California’s powerful waves.

This is Orias’s first solo exhibit with the Buenaventura Art Association.

The Harbor Village Gallery is located at 1591 Spinnaker Dr., entrance # 3 in the Ventura Harbor Village, next to the big lawn. Open Monday through Thursday (closed on Tuesdays) from 12 to 5 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11a.m. to 6p.m. For more information, call the gallery at 805-644-2750 or visit www.harborvillagegallery.com or www.buenaventuragallery.org