Buenaventura Art Association announces a Call for Entries for a Collage & Mixed Media Open Competition, to be held at the association’s Harbor Village Gallery in Ventura. The exhibit will run from May 15 through June 10, 2013. Deadline for entries is midnight May 4, 2013. Cash prizes and membership benefits will be awarded at a reception and ceremony on Friday, May 17 from 5 – 8 pm. Artist Peggy Pownall will be the juror.

A mixed media painter, Pownall has been an Artist-in-Residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo since 2008. With an art degree from Pepperdine University, she has also studied in Italy. Pownall taught art for a number of years, is active in the Los Angeles Art Association, and exhibits her work in various venues.

“I am interested in a visual expression of themes such as identity, longings, personal mythology, iconic memories and the relationship between our interior and exterior existence,” says Pownall. “My paintings are as much about what is buried as what is revealed.”

Using the histori¬cally female art of stitching as an iconic symbol, Pownall’s recent work incorporates pieces of old sewing patterns into frag¬mented parts of paintings that she has disassembled and sewn back together. Pownall explains, “My process parallels the lives of women I admire – labor-intensive, torn apart, rearranged and stitched back together into layered, complex, yet cohesive tapestries which hold together disparate parts in sometimes beautiful, always practical ways.” To see Peggy Pownall’s art go to www.pegpownall.com.

The competition is open to all artists in central and southern California. A prospectus may be downloaded from the Buenaventura Art Association’s website at www.buenaventuragallery.org. Please read all rules and policy information carefully. Entries must be submitted electronically and uploaded online at the same website.

The Harbor Village Gallery is located at 1591 Spinnaker Dr , Suite 117C, (before the big lawn) Ventura. Phone: (805) 644 – 2750. Hours are noon – 6pm. Closed Tuesdays. For more information visit the website at www.BuenaventuraGallery.org.

About the Buenaventura Art Association
Buenaventura Art Association (BAA) is a non-profit arts organization in Ventura – a 58-year-old institution devoted to sustaining Ventura County’s cultural and artistic identity by developing visual artists in all stages of their careers. BAA was started in 1954 by a group of Ventura community, civic and business leaders who recognized the importance of the arts in all communities and wanted to encourage and foster Ventura’s cultural growth. BAA runs two galleries – the Buenaventura Gallery in downtown Ventura at 700 E. Santa Clara St., and the Harbor Village Gallery, 1591 Spinnaker Dr., in the Ventura Harbor Village. BAA also collaborates with Community Memorial Hospital to exhibit art in its ground floor public corridors.