By Libby Lancaster
It’s been a busy couple of months for Beyond the Lines Gallery. It opened at Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica in October and will be hosting its third exhibition Saturday, December 3.
Brittany Davis had been producing pop up group art shows for the past two years, however, now she is glad to have a new home at Bergamot Station. “I love the great artist community at Bergamot Station,” Davis said. “All the galleries bring such a wide variety of artists work together. Old masters to new emerging artists today.”
When Davis first started searching for a gallery space, she was open to all areas of L.A., but, as she put it, “Santa Monica kept calling to me. I had always loved Bergamot Station and the great galleries that where in it. When a space came available it felt like the perfect fit.”
The December Group Art Show will feature an eclectic group of artists. Stephanie Visser is one of the talented painters set to be featured. “Stephanie’s abstract paintings bring great color combinations together that create unique balance in her work,” said Davis.
“I am very excited to be showing back at Bergamot Station again with the new gallery Beyond the Lines,” Visser told The Mirror. “Bergamot is such a great location for art and to show there is an honor. I’m looking forward to ending the year on this wonderful high note.”
Visser’s new series is entitled Lay Lines, and was first inspired while traveling back and forth to the midwest to visit her family (after she first moved to California). The view that she enjoyed from the airplane window amazed her…the patterns on the ground, which looked like grids and circles from above brought back fond thoughts of her family.
“I have a vague memory from childhood of my grandfather using a forked branch to look for underground waters and talking about the energy lines in the earth that allowed him to find water,” Visser explained. “My father built a home in a rural area for us and it was my Dutch grandpa that located where we would drill a well which he did with great success.”
Visser said that while flying, she spent a long period of time just gazing down at the ground and sensing those very lay lines under the grids and patterns.
“In my family those kinds of metaphysical phenomenon were a part of daily life and conversation and made even greater sense to me as an adult once I had more life experience to fall back on,” Visser added.
Floyd Strickland has been making art since he was a child and continues to create on a daily basis. “I started creating realistic drawings when I was in grade school, and I’ve been painting since college,” said Strickland. He has exhibited with Davis before in one of her pop-up group shows. He said he is excited to show at the new gallery.
Opening details: Dec. 3 from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m., at Beyond the Lines Gallery, Bergamot Station, G #8, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, 90404. There will be a closing party on Thursday Dec. 29 from 5 p.m – 8:30 p.m. beyondthelinesartshow.com
