Plaza Design is excited to exhibit paintings by Scott Sween in the Eureka store for the months of February and March.

Scott’s work beckons the viewer to enter a world that became lost with the industrial revolution; a world untouched by the complexities of our modern life. Each painting captures a moment in the everyday lives of circus performers, lives that Scott presents as soft, gentle, sometimes stark, and less chaotic than current times. Inspired by art from the early 20th century, Scott seeks to evoke a timelessness in his paintings.

Plaza Design is excited to introduce a new exhibit in our McKinleyville store for the Months of January and February.  Oil painter Susan Fox is showing her recent wildlife paintings.

From Susan:

“As long as I can remember, I’ve loved animals. That’s usually what I drew as a child and I naturally
gravitated back to them for my main subjects once I started to paint in oils. My intent is always to paint
an individual of a species, not simply a generic representation. Every animal, whether wild or domestic,
is a sentient being with an inner life which is expressed through their eyes, movement and behavior.
It is critically important for me to see animals in their natural habitat as much as possible and I don’t
paint what I haven’t seen myself, so traveling to do the necessary fieldwork is an important part of my
work life. Observation, sketching and photographs provide the raw material for my paintings. I find that over time I have become more and more interested in painting the effects of light, but that sometimes I have the most fun in the shadows.

I work in a traditional oil technique, continually striving towards a personal, painterly expression. I also
love to draw and spend a lot of time doing so to learn what a particular species “looks like” so that I can
capture the grace and rhythm of their bodies at rest and in motion. Placing them in their environment
has also led me into landscape painting, which presents a different set of challenges.
I strongly believe that the natural world has an intrinsic value separate from any that humans might
apply to it. Communicating that value is one of my goals as an artist.”

Jackie Oshiro grew up in the farm country of northwestern Ohio. She wandered the woods and played along the Auglaise River all through her adolescence. She grew to love the quiet meandering of the river, the serene beauty of the woods and every living creature.

She is a self-taught artist who discovered a love of watercolor, pastels and pencil in high school.  Watercolor is her favorite medium. Colors intrigue her and she loves contrasts between light and shadow, or distant vistas against a foreground of trees, cliff, or rock that gives the viewer the feeling of being part of the scene. Her favorite subjects are landscapes and seascapes with water often featured but birds, animals, insects, mushrooms, flowers, plants, fish anything from nature are also subjected to her brush.

Jackie has spent most of her adult life raising a family and working in the nursing profession but she painted on and off over 45 years. Now her family is grown and she has come into retirement and has taken up her brush again.

Born in Berkeley, California in 1957, Joyce Jonte moved to Arcata from the Bay Area in 1974 to study art at HSU. She graduated in 1979 with emphases in life drawing, representational drawing, and watercolor painting. She sustained a focused study of watercolor technique over the years, developing as an artist and showing her work extensively.

Joyce’s paintings are inspired by the exquisite world we live in. Working from her own photographs, she revisits landscapes and gardens from both local and distant travels. She works from the figure in life drawing sessions for several hours each week; often placing the figure in a natural environment. Her paintings speak of her personal experience, conveying her passion for warm light, cool shadow, form and grace.

Each piece of furniture is a found object, waiting to be recycled, reused and reinvented.  Faye looks for pieces that are practical, have strong well-built structures, and have visually pleasing lines.  She cleans, sands, twice primes, and paints on several coats of low V.O.C paint. The design is added, using color and form to create a unique and whimsical piece of functional art. She finishes with multiple coats of varnish to protect and harden the surface. The end result is a truly unique piece of functional art that is ready for years of use in your home.

Faye removes the old glass and putty from the window frames as the first step to create her recycled stylized window mirrors. The next step is to determine how many layers of old paint she wants to remove.  After several hours careful sanding and scraping the frame is ready to be cleaned and oiled with Tung Oil, to help restore the natural color of the wood and protect it from cracking.  The next step is to place the mirrors in the frame. Each pane must be carefully measured as over the years all of the frames have swollen and shrunk with the weather, making each pane a slightly different size. Once the mirrors have all been put snugly in the frame they are all fixed in place with glazier points. In the final steps Faye adds a piece of plywood on the back to finish and protect the mirror, and finally the hanging hardware is added.

Plaza Design carries a wide variety of gabbeh rugs made by Yayla Tribal Rugs.  The Yayla rug company was founded in the 1980s by an anthropologist and linguist who found a need for vegetable dyed rugs.  Working with native rug weavers in the Far East, he produces the best rugs and the best prices.

Gabbehs are made by the Qashqai people, who are of Turkic origin. They are woven of the fine wool that comes from Zagros Mountain sheep. The thick pile not only cushions the feet but makes them longer lasting.  Yayla rugs are spirited, vibrant, and affordable.  There is even the possible appearance of funny little critters.  For example, the giraffes on a rug in the McKinleyville store.

Best of all, Yayla donates a portion of their proceeds to help refugees and rug weaving peoples. They help build schools, health care centers, as well as help with re-forestation projects.

Plaza Design is proud to help support a company that exemplifies the best in East-West business cooperation.

Come see the colorful collection of dichroic glass made by local artisan Laura Wellman. Dichroic glass contains multiple layers of metal oxides such as gold, silver and titanium.  This allows Laura to create glass treasures that are vibrant with colors and textures. Her collections include bottle stoppers, letter openers, key rings, pendants, and purse hangers. They brighten up any room, and are a perfect gift and keepsake in both function and form.

Come see the dazzling display of Mirador glassware at Plaza Design in Arcata. Locally made, this elegant glassware is hand blown and designed by artists/owners Bryan Raskin, Wesley Hodges, and a handpicked team of talented glass blowers. All collections are made from Duran, a German made Borosilicate glass superior to Pyrex, and are dishwasher and microwave safe. The designs are colorful, uplifting and distinctive, making it a wonderful addition to anyone’s glassware collection.