Ranches & Rolling Hills

Landscape Art Show

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Since 1998, artists from Marin County and from Santa Barbara's Oak Group have participated in Ranches & Rolling Hills, a landscape art show and sale to benefit Marin Agricultural Land Trust. United by their admiration of the working landscape and their desire to help preserve it as a source of both human sustenance and artistic inspiration, the painters, photographers, and printmakers have created an exceptional collection of work which is available for sale just one weekend a year. These paintings and prints depict farms protected by MALT easements, ranches located in Point Reyes National Seashore, and other private farmlands—all of them reflecting the human and natural history that make West Marin such a special and beloved place. Fifty percent of all sales go to support Marin Agricultural Land Trust's work of preserving Marin County farmlands. Pictured above: Marcia Burtt, Winter Estuary, 24" x 36"

Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) is a private, member-supported, nonprofit organization created in 1980 by a coalition of ranchers and environmentalists to permanently preserve Marin County farmland. MALT eliminates the non-agricultural development potential on farmland through the acquisition of conservation easements in voluntary transactions with landowners. MALT also encourages public policies that support and enhance agriculture.

Some of the Bay Area's most highly acclaimed dairy products and organic crops, including Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, Straus Family Creamery dairy products, and Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese are produced from farmland protected by MALT conservation easements, which total more than 40,000 acres on 61 family farms and ranches.

See the art for the 2008 Show
Ranches & Rolling Hills: Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust
Our new publication featuring images from 10 years of the art show
How artists are selected
Ranches & Rolling Hills collection of full-color art greeting cards

When

The 12th annual Ranches & Rolling Hills landscape art show and sale will take place in 2009 on Saturday, May 16, 2–5 P.M., and Sunday, May 17, 10 A.M.–4 P.M. There is no admission charge.

Where

The Druids' Hall is located on the village square in Nicasio, California.

Directions

From the Golden Gate Bridge or the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge:

Take Highway 101 north to Lucas Valley Road which is just past the Marin Civic Center. Go west on Lucas Valley Road for 10 miles. It ends at the intersection with Nicasio Valley Road. Turn right on Nicasio Valley Road which winds into the village of Nicasio. The Druid's Hall is located on the south side of the village square. Public parking is available all around the square. Limited handicapped parking is available at the Druid's Hall.

From Santa Rosa:

Take Highway 101 south to Lucas Valley Road. Go west on Lucas Valley Road for 10 miles. It ends at the intersection with Nicasio Valley Road. Turn right on Nicasio Valley Road which winds into the village of Nicasio. The Druid's Hall is located on the south side of the village square. Public parking is available all around the square. Limited handicapped parking is available at the Druid's Hall.

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Gary Smith, Above the Fir, 10" x 15"



How Artists are Selected

Part of what makes Ranches & Rolling Hills an experience that artists like is the camaraderie that is created before, during, and after the show. Artists selected for the show assist in hanging the exhibit, staffing it during the weekend event, and/or taking the show down.

The application period for the 2009 show is closed. Artists interested in being considered for the 2010 show will be reviewed from September 1, 2009, until November 30, 2009. Artists selected for the 2010 Ranches & Rolling Hills show will be notified in January, 2010. Artists should send a letter of interest and a CD with a selection of six to eight digital images (at least 300 dpi) of their paintings, prints or photography of West Marin's ranches and rolling hills to:

Elisabeth Ptak
Associate Director/Director of Outreach
Post Office Box 809
Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
415-663-1158 ext. 302
415-663-1099 (fax)
eptak@malt.org

Participating Artists 2008

  • Meredith Brooks Abbott
  • Whitney Brooks Abbott
  • Martha Borge
  • Ralph Borge
  • Marcia Burtt
  • Chris Chapman
  • Russell Chatham
  • John Comer
  • Dan Cooper
  • Christin Coy
  • William B. Dewey
  • Willard Dixon
  • Michael Drury
  • Michael Enriquez
  • John Francis
  • Karen Gruszka
  • Susan Hall
  • Glenna Hartmann
  • Dana Hopper
  • Timothy Horn
  • John Iwerks
  • Lerry Iwerks
  • Jeanette Le Grue
  • Manny Lopez
  • Dan McCormick
  • Zee Zee Mott
  • Ane Carla Rovetta
  • Rick Schloss
  • Wendy Schwartz
  • Suzanne Siminger
  • Gary Smith
  • Skip Smith
  • J. Thomas Soltesz
  • Nancy Stein
  • Arturo Tello
  • Millicent Tomkins
  • Sarah Vedder
  • Ward Walkup
  • Thomas Wood

Press

Information on the 2009 Ranches & Rolling Hills landscape art show and sale will be posted here in early 2009.

Ranches & Rolling Hills:
Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust

Marin Agricultural Land Trust is pleased to announce the publication of Ranches & Rolling Hills: Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust. This hard-cover edition contains more than 135 full-color works of art selected from Ranches & Rolling Hills, our annual landscape art show and sale. The elegant 160-page large format book published by Windgate Press of Sausalito, contains essays by MALT's Associate Director Elisabeth Ptak, by Jean Stern, Executive Director of the Irvine Museum, and by Michael Whitt, the show's co-founder and curator.

During the era of America's westward expansion in the mid-nineteenth century, countless artists were inspired by the luminous beauty of California. Prominent painters who visited the state at that time included Albert Bierstadt, William Keith, and others who illustrated both the native beauty and, later, the agrarian life that became an integral part of the landscape. This book is a collection of contemporary artworks in that tradition, but the images also stand on their own as representative of a new tradition, that of the artist as conservationist.

Read the book review published in Bay Nature Magazine.

Click Ranches & Rolling Hills: Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust to order a copy for yourself. The book also makes a wonderful gift.


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