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The calm and color of nature is on full display in the new lobby exhibit at the Firehouse Arts Center in downtown Pleasanton.
Spotlighting the work of Christine So, “Time Spent Among Trees” features five acrylic paintings and eight hand-painted original landscape cyanotypes by the Oakland-based artist. The solo exhibition opened last weekend and runs through April 27.
“So’s art features the beautiful Monterey pines, which have been a source of comfort for the artist since losing her husband in 2022,” Firehouse officials said. “Recurring themes in her landscapes are the journey, the bend in the road, the unknown, sunrise and morning light.”
An artist known for working in all sorts of mediums during her career, So has used painting, printmaking and photography with great effect for her art – which is “always nature-inspired and nearly always monochromatic,” Firehouse officials said.
Creating the cyanotypes is a particularly complex process that leverages darkness, sunlight exposure and water, along with photography chemicals, watercolor paper and glass, to create images first popularized in the mid-19th century and often referred to as photograms, blueprints or sun prints, according to the exhibit organizers.
“Each piece is an immersion in a single color, an ode to that shade. Having only varying shades of one color in a picture exudes a calm, balance and focus the artist finds soothing, and less noisy,” Firehouse officials added.
The So exhibition can be viewed from Wednesdays to Saturdays, as well as around performances, at the theater and gallery venue at 4444 Railroad Ave. in Pleasanton. Learn more at firehousearts.org.
