Paul Kratter

Holton Studio Frame-Makers has been representing East Bay painter Paul Kratter since 2003, gathering an enthusiastic following for his scenes of the state of California, from the Sierras to the seashore. Paul is a highly accomplished artist and instructor who has won numerous awards at Plein Air events across the country. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, after 22 years working as an illustrator and publishing several books, he now paints full time and teaches plein air workshops. He has also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, and Pixar Animation Studios (where his wife Tia Kratter worked for many years in design, animation and as a teacher). Much loved by fellow painters as well as collectors, since 2005, Paul has led the Granite Group on an annual summer painting trip into the High Sierras. The humility and joy that Paul carries with him, along with his brushes, paints and panels, out into the mountains, hills, and to the seashore is directly reflected in the work he produces there. With an eye for color and form, his forthright use of paint and astonishing rendering skills allow him to capture the Northern California landscape with a direct and confident touch earned through long familiarity and devotion to the land and its light. Paul has been featured in several shows at the Gallery, including the Spring 2017 exhibit, “Paul Kratter and Terry Miura: A Language of the Land.” In spring, 2023 the gallery held a one-man show, Paul Kratter: View Through The Trees, celebrating our twenty year relationship with Paul.

Tia joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1993 as a Digital Painter during production of the studio’s first feature film, Toy Story. She subsequently held the Shader Art Director role on five other films, including Pixar’s Monster’s Inc., A Bug’s Life, Brave, and others. As a Texture Art Director at Pixar, Tia was responsible for specifying the color and texture of every object modeled for a film. As the Manager of Art & Film at Pixar University, the educational branch of Pixar, Tia helped to foster the continuing education of Pixar employees; teaching art classes and offering writing, film, and a wide variety of related classes to its 1300 employees.

Prior to Pixar, Tia was a background painter at Disney Feature Animation from 1980 to 1994, where she worked on a variety of acclaimed animated films including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast, Tron, and others.

Her paintings for films have been in exhibits around the world: MoMA, Japan, England, and beautiful Oakland, California, among other exotic locations. Currently Tia is working as a Visual Development artist at Walt Disney Animation. Her most recent project was the feature Wish.

When she’s not at work, Tia spends her time painting watercolors—doing her best to keep computers as far away as possible. She is a signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society and California Watercolor Association.

Tia is a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She currently resides in Moraga, California with her husband (and co-Holton Studio artist) Paul Kratter.

Tia Kratter was featured in our show
“On the Threshold: Ellen Howard, Tia Kratter, and Kim Lordier”
July 22 through August 26, 2023 More here…

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Jane Kriss

Jane Kriss has over thirty years of experience in the visual arts, with a career spanning graphic design, fabric design, fine art, and illustration. She was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome in 2010 and 2012, and is currently an Instructor in the Stanford Continuing Studies Program.

Jane is the author of Next Stop Sausalito, a portrait of the town where the Golden Gate Bridge ends. It’s Jane’s homage to mid-century illustrator M. Sasek, whose work first captivated Jane at age 8 when her parents gave her Sasek’s This is Rome. Next Stop Sausalito features over 85 color illustrations.

Most of the original gouache illustrations are available in the Gallery.
In addition to the examples below, a selection of the available art work may be viewed here…

Learn more about Jane and her work at janekriss.com.

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Richard Lindenberg

Richard’s paintings reveal that winning combination of humility before the natural beauty of the landscape and a unique and inspired response. Having studied art for his whole adult life, his work is nonetheless rooted in a sensitivity and feeling for composition and color that can only be cultivated, not taught. He is continuously pushing himself to study and learn more about painting and grow as an artist.

Richard is an artist member and previous Co-Chair (with Paul Kratter) of the California Art Club — SF Bay Area Chapter. He has enjoyed artist residencies at Banff Art Center and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. He’s exhibited with the California Art Club, and numerous annual shows presented by Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), Napa Valley Art Festival, Laguna Plein Air Invitational, Sonoma Plein Air, Marinscapes, and others. He teaches classes and workshops in Marin County. Information on his classes can be found on his website.

In the fall of 2023, we held a one-man show for Richard. View the archived page for Richard Lindenberg: Quiet Discoveries…

Kim Lordier

Native to the San Francisco Bay Area and a graduate of San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, pastel artist Kim Lordier’s landscapes combine keen sensitivity to quality of light and masterful use of color. She’s happy in all the varied landscapes of her native state, from the coast to the valleys, to the desert and the mountains. She sometimes joins Paul Kratter’s “Granite Group” on its annual summer High Sierra painting trips. With honors that include being a Signature Member of the California Art Club, Kim’s paintings are in private collections throughout the country, and have been exhibited at the Autry Museum, Coors Western Art Show in Denver, National Arts Club NY, Haggin Museum, Forbes Galleries, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Irvine Museum and the Laguna Art Museum. Kim Lordier was featured in our summer 2023 show “On the Threshold: Ellen Howard, Tia Kratter, and Kim Lordier”. More here…

“To me, the ability to portray the convincing effect of true natural light is the noblest calling of a landscape painter. Kim has earned my respect.” –Jean Stern, Executive Director of the Irvine Museum

James McGrew

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, James McGrew grew up making frequent backpacking trips to Yosemite, Tahoe and other beautiful locations in Northern California and Oregon. He fell in love with Yosemite at an early age and often tried to capture the natural beauty through various artistic media including pastels at the age of 8 and using his father’s oils by age 10.

Although he took every art class available up to and throughout college, in effort to learn more about his favorite place and artistic subject, he earned degrees in Biology, Chemistry and Geology then went on to study Environmental Education in Graduate School. James relies on his background in science with art as a vehicle to communicate the natural beauty that inspires his work.

James hikes/backpacks several hundred miles each summer, always with a tripod, pochade and cameras. He uses his plein air paintings as references for larger studio works. James has worked as an interpretive naturalist in Yosemite for over 15 summer seasons.

James’ paintings hang in collections around the world and have been shown in numerous solo shows, national and international exhibitions and plein air invitationals, receiving many awards. He is an artist member of the California Art Club and a signature member of both the American Impressionist Society and the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association. His work has been featured in many national publications and has been in several films. He loves backpacking with his family.

James’ website is jamesmcgrewfineart.com.

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Terry Miura

Terry Miura is a graduate of the Art Center in Pasadena and has a professional background in commercial art, having worked in New York as a freelance illustrator for magazines and newspapers. Originally from San Diego, while in the Big Apple his paintings naturally turned their focus to cityscapes. Now that he’s returned to his native state, settling outside Sacramento, he’s once again delving into California’s rural landscapes for inspiration. He uses a wonderful tonalist palette, reflecting his gentle vision of rustic California as well as a humbler approach to the role of painting as just one of the arts contributing to an architectural interior. His loving depictions of northern California’s rustic scenery, executed in his distinctive and beautiful palette, celebrate the land with an extraordinary sensitivity.

Terry’s work is a part of the collections at the California Museum of Fine Art, Los Angeles, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA to name a few. He has also been featured in print in the June 2015 edition of Plein Air Magazine, and in Southwest Art, and American Art Collector, among others. As a very popular teacher, Terry holds painting workshops across the country, and information on his workshops can be found on his website.

Terry has been featured in several shows at the Gallery, most recently in the spring 2017 exhibit, “Paul Kratter and Terry Miura: A Language of the Land,” and spring 2018 show, “Terry Miura: Landscapes, Cityscapes, Figurative, & Still Life Paintings.”

See Terry’s website, terrymiura.com. An avid blogger, Terry reflects on his work at terrymiura.blogspot.com.

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Robin Moore

Robin Moore was born in Manhattan in 1956. Her parents were both accomplished classical musicians. Her family soon moved upstate, where she immediately took to the streams, the lush woods, the farms, dairies, and orchards tucked in the folds of the Catskill Mountains. Shortly before her teens, her family moved to the heart of downtown Los Angeles. The culture shock formed a lasting nostalgia for nature that is in much of her work. During high school she then moved to Northern California, taking up photography, but also exploring interests in music (guitar and vocals), beadwork, drawing and painting. Later she studied film and creative writing. Ultimately, though, Robin settled into painting and drawing, graduating from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1980, with a major in both fields. Each medium she’s undertaken, however, has influenced the others, and much of her painting centers around photographs she’s taken, or is related to the songs, stories, films, or actors that have inspired her.

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Ernesto Nemesio

Ernesto Nemesio is a first generation Mexican American born in Riverside, California, in 1978.

Demonstrating a diversity in both subject and genre, Nemesio’s talent has been showcased in prestigious galleries and museums throughout California and the East Coast. In April 2004, Nemesio was selected as one of eleven artists to participate in an exhibition organized by American Artist and Forbes, Inc. The artists spent ten days in London at the Old Battersea House, producing work which was then shown in The Next Generation of American Realists at Forbes Galleries.

Upon graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, with a BFA in Illustration, Nemesio was introduced to the historical California Art Club. Through activities hosted by the organization, he gained a profound appreciation for painting outdoors. He also had the privilege of being mentored by Peter Adams and Dan Pinkham.

In 2002, Nemesio moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to become a digital painter at Pixar Animation Studios. He has worked on acclaimed films such as Coco, The Incredibles, Cars, Cars 2, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Brave, and many more.

Nemesio finds inspiration in a variety of genres, which is reflected in his realist impressionist style of work. He approaches his portraits and figurative paintings with a sensitivity echoing traditional French 19th century academic methods and ideals. Through his travels abroad Ernesto has been exposed to and fascinated by the French Naturalists and Orientalists.

His landscapes, on the other hand, embrace a more impressionistic feel that celebrate color and design. These paintings, which capture an ephemeral moment of light and space, are cherished experiences in his life. Many of these include his travels throughout Europe, Mexico and across the American landscape. In August of 2009, he spent an unforgettable month in Madrid, studying the paintings of Joaquin Sorolla during his retrospective at the Prado and the Sorolla Museum. It was a wonderful source of inspiration for Nemesio to paint in the footsteps of Sorolla and many other amazing artists before him, capturing the same glorious Spanish light.

Nemesio is a mentor member of the California Art Club and currently resides in the Bay Area.

See Ernesto’s website, ernestonemesio.com

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