State of the Art Presence Art Center – February 2024

GREETINGS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ART PRESENCE, Jacksonville’s own nonprofit art center! I’d like to introduce myself as the new column composer and board member for the gallery: I’m Mike Gantenbein. Many readers may know me from my years as the marketing director for Britt, which I retired from this past summer…. Now I’m helping with marketing for our wonderful community art gallery!

Before sharing the exciting events happening at AP, the gallery and its board would like to thank Paula Bandy for sharing her wonderful words and knowledge here and at the gallery throughout the past year! I can only hope to match her wit and wisdom in this and future columns.

Special February Show: The Mary and Dick Martin Collection—To start, we are excited to offer a special showing this month in place of our regular Guest Artist presentation: The Mary and Dick Martin Collection. New residents of Jacksonville, Mary & Dick are retired National Park Service Park superintendents who spent their careers supervising countless well-known national parks in the western US such as Olympic, Death Valley, and Yosemite National Parks. Throughout their many travels from Alaska to the National Park Service headquarters office in Washington, DC, their passion for collecting art blossomed, and they filled three houses with an amazing collection of diverse art by several artists.

Now settled into a single residence, downsizing has resulted in more artwork than they could possibly display and they are passionate about sharing their collection with people who have a similar appreciation for nature and art. We are excited that they are showing their collection at Art Presence throughout the month of February, including works by Stephen Lyman, an artist from Idaho who worked in Yosemite and Alaska, and Robert Bateman, a Canadian naturalist and artist, just to name a couple. We invite you to explore this remarkable collection. The opening reception with Mary & Dick Martin is Saturday, February 3rd, from 1-4pm.

Winery Art—Also this month three of our artists continue to show their work at several local wineries. Come out and enjoy a glass of wine while checking out more artwork by our member artists.

  • Caleb Salvadori at Awen Winecraft
  • Sharon Wesner at Hummingbird Estate
  • Spence Platt at Dos Mariposas Vineyard & Lavender Farm

Winter gallery hours—Friday, Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5pm. We hope to see you at the Art Presence Art Center and Gallery this month!

Artwork “The Deep Grass Valley,” Stephen Lyman print – photo by Vivian McAleavey.