Art to see in SLO County this winter

By Monica Fiscalini

Richard Phipps sounds like the kind of guy you’d like to talk to at an art opening. He once interviewed for ad agency jobs in New York City but decided to go back to Los Angeles and drive a meat truck. He served in the Army during the Cuban missile crisis working as an intelligence analyst. He left Montecito for Baywood Park.

After you talked about that kind of stuff, you’d find out that he’s the artist, that those are his large abstract paintings hanging around the room.

“What do they mean?” you might ask.

Here’s the answer he gives on his website: “I have need of poetic ambiguity and have no intent that a painting convey meaning.”

However, I’m guessing that face-to-face, he’d simply tell you he wants to invoke an emotion for you when you look at his paintings.

He’ll show his work Jan. 24 through Feb. 21 at Cuesta College Art Gallery. Born in Los Angeles and formally educated at UCSB and UCLA, Phipps has taught drawing and painting at UCSB, Santa Barbara City College, College of Creative Studies and Cal Poly and has taught drawing at Cuesta College since 1990.

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Studios on the Park in Paso Robles has an interesting theme and some unexpected jurors for its only juried exhibition for 2014.

“Eat Your Heart Out A Locavore Love Affair!” will run Jan. 30 through Feb. 23. Jurors are local chefs Chris Kobayashi of Artisan, Santos MacDonal of Il Cortile and Laurent Grangien of Bistro Laurent; they welcome submissions dealing with the theme of love and food.

Up to 70 works will be selected; work in any medium can be dropped off for consideration on Jan. 26 and 27. Download the prospectus for the full scoop at https://studiosonthepark.org/pdfs/eat_your_heart_out_prospectus.pdf. Awards will include restaurant gift certificates.

The reception will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Feb. 1 during Art After Dark. In the meantime, check out “Three.” Paso Robles Art Association members are exploring balance, proportion and form. Studios on the Park is also featuring a number of artists for the second annual “Lighten Up!” exhibition of handpainted lamps and complementary artworks. Both run through Jan. 26.

Area artist Tom Shultz has painted sports murals and 1950s cars; these days he favors coastal landscapes. Take a look at his “Emerging Soulscapes” at Castoro Cellars in Templeton through the end of the month.