Artists in Focus – to see all, click HERE.
This is a selection from the current collection of Focus On The Masters artist documentation. Click on the picture or artist name to view the portrait, biography, media presentations and website of the artist.
All artists’ portraits are by Donna Granata. The photographs and artworks shown on this website are copyrighted by the artists and may not be reproduced without permission from the copyright owner. By entering this website, you agree to these conditions.
James Graca
Creative Director/Designer/Illustrator
Highly acclaimed graphic artist James Graca discussed his extraordinary work and career. Graca is an award-winning creative director / designer / illustrator with over 30 years of...
Jonny Kwan
Creative Director, Walt Disney, Inc.
Kwan was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Oxnard. He has been drawing for as long as he can remember. While attending Channel Islands High School, his art teacher, Mr. Don Burrows, encouraged him to further develop his...
Adrielle Rose
Surrealist
Adrielle, daughter of renowned realist painter Carol Rosenak, displayed exceptional artistic talent as a young child and drew tremendous attention from experts in child art. She spent...
Hiroko Yoshimoto
Painter
Hiroko Yoshimoto was born and raised in Japan and moved to Los Angeles when she was a teenager. She received her undergraduate and Masters Degree from UCLA, graduating with the highest honors. Her work has been...
Elaine Unzicker
Chain Mail Jeweler
When does jewelry become art? Is important jewelry made only with precious metals and gems? How does jewelry transform the wearer? Elaine Unzicker, a member of the Ojai Studio Artists, holds a Bachelor’s degree...
Susan Tibbles
Assemblage Artist/Illustrator
She has the unique ability to take unassuming objects, merge them with a concept and present a thought-provoking artwork that combines both symbolic and intellectual results as well as an aesthetic experience...
Lorraine Serena
Assemblage Artist
Lorraine Serena is the Artist/Founder of Women Beyond Borders, an unprecedented, cross-cultural exhibition which celebrates and honors women's voices and...
Richard Schloss
Painter
California, with its every-changing seas and rugged mountains, has long attracted plein air painters. A movement of landscape painters known as The Oak Group has done more than chronicle our state’s...
Phil Salazar
Musician
From jazz to bluegrass, Phil Salazar has explored a world of violin and fiddle music over the last 50 years. The son of former Ventura County Symphony Director and Conductor Frank Salazar, Phil started playing violin...
Frank Romero
Painter/Muralist
As a pioneering figure in the rise of the Chicano Art Movement, Frank Romero is best known as a muralist but now spends most of artistic energy in his studio practice. In...
Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo
Fiber Artist
When Leslie Freilich’s name was changed by a Tibetan lama to Rinchen-Wongmo it was not done to deny...
Duncan Regehr
Painter
Duncan Regehr is a prolific figurative painter whose enormous body of work is profoundly and distinctly poetic. His work revolves around images suggested to the artist through his relationships, his dreams and his many interests...
Sylvia Raz
Assemblage Artist
Her assemblages do more than delight the eye. Consider, for example, “¡Mamí, los tíos llegan!” Yes, Auntie and Uncle are arriving, heads held high, dressed for the occasion, bringing gifts. After the first...
Richard Rackus
Painter
Having studied under some of California’s foremost teachers and artists – Frank Tolles Chamberlin, Laurence Murphy and Sam Hyde Harris – it was natural for Rackus to remain in the school of the California plein air painting...
Keith Puccinelli
Assemblage/Performance/Installation Artist/Draughtsman
In a world that is increasingly chaotic, is it the role of the artist to eliminate chaos? Or, is he simply to pick up the pieces of a shattered world...
Bob Privitt
Sculptor
Visiting with Bob Privitt is like gliding through a history of civilization on roller skates. His conversation is peppered with references to Plato, Icarus, Langston Hughes and Countee...
Sandra Price
Tatto Artist
Rock stars and celebrities sport them. A tattoo can be decoration or can express solidarity among those who have served overseas. An exquisitely colored song bird may be a way of overcoming...
Len Poteshman
Painter/Sculptor
Len Poteshman‘s dreams of being a concert violinist came to an end due to injuries sustained in World War II. He pursued an arts education at the Chicago Art Institute, the American Academy of...
Patti Post
Painter
“The arts exist, so that we might give voice to what we cannot say any other way. I am amazed and inspired by the profound insight and awareness that our students realize through their images and their willingness to...
Elisse Pogofsky-Harris
Painter
Dreamy and surreal images, ripe with symbolism, gradually reveal to the viewer a world of multiple possibilities. Elisse Pogofsky-Harris worked mostly in oil on canvas. She spent 11 years...
John Robertson
Painter
John Robertson is a self-taught, primitive, impressionistic painter, whose paintings are much more than a visual, realistic copy of the subject. Full of movement and depth...
Margaret Nielsen
Painter
The canoe, encased in golden vines, floats in darkness, illuminated by stars, anchored by vein-like roots. Is the canoe waiting to take you on a journey through the unknown? Through memories? Will it navigate a...
Jane Mulfinger
Technology/Installation Artist
Using site-specific installations, performance and sculpture, Jane Mulfinger offers commentary on the human condition. Of her work Jane says: I act as archivist and archaeologist, an analyst of...
Gail Pidduck
Painter
“There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor.” The quote is Oscar Wilde’s and the words have a special significance for Gail Pidduck. She has, with paint and the eye of a discerning...
Michael Pearce
Painter
Neolithic man aligned massive stones with the sun, building places of worship and ritual. Alchemical philosophers distilled elements to find pure essence, creating allegories and symbols to express their...
Bill McEwen
Sculptor
A major, universal principle of nature’s construction is that the greatest most intense activity and emphasis occurs at transition points. “I make theoretical, absolute experimental art objects as an...
William McEnroe
Painter/Pastel Artist
With his wonderful wit, playful sense of humor and quotes of wisdom, Bill McEnroe shared with FOTM how, in 1950, he was plucked upon graduating from Stanford University to develop the...
Viq McCaslin
Ceramist
Ojai ceramist Viqui McCaslin is a Native American Yaqui Indian respected for her public art. Her work, which encompasses historic and environmental themes, is explored primarily through ceramic tile. McCaslin's...
James McCarthy
Wood Craftsman
Jim McCarthy creates fine furniture inspired by the California Arts and Crafts movement and Asian design. His works range from single pieces of furniture, to custom woodworking and cabinetry in historic...
Richard Matzkin
Sculptor
In a very real sense, Richard Matzkin’s life has come full circle. He showed an early talent for the arts but in the 60s his interests changed to music and psychology. Some 20 years later his wife enrolled him in...
Alice Matzkin
Painter
In a society obsessed with youth and the fleeting beauty of perfection, Alice Matzkin has always looked at the positive side of growing older painting lines and wrinkles as the story of women’s years. The “Women of...
Frank Massarella
Ceramist
Frank Massarella was drawn to pottery because he loves the feel of the clay and the independence of the work. His state-of-the-art kilns provide him with more versatile ways to fire ceramics. He sees ceramics as...
Sherry Loehr
Painter
Award-winning Ojai artist Sherry Loehr is best known for her still-life compositions inspired by nature done in a unique aesthetic style she calls “Contemporary Realism.” The painter unexpectedly combines subjects...
Douglas Lochner
Sculptor
“A minimalist, I strive to create art that touches people on a primal level, exploring universal themes that circumvent the limitations of language and culture.” Ojai sculptor Douglas Lochner thus describes in true...
Paul Lindhard
Sculptor
Paul Lindhard, is the founder of Art City, a unique artists’ enclave located in west Ventura. Primarily a stone sculptor, Lindhard founded Art City so that it would serve as a constant artistic stimulus to enhance...
David A. Leffel
Painter
“Every mark, every brushstroke one registers on the canvas requires the utmost taste and sensitivity to produce a beautiful painting. This quality of caring and consideration is what makes the art of the discipline so...
JoEllen Lee
Beader
When does jewelry become art? Is important jewelry made only with precious metals and gems? How does jewelry transform the wearer? Master beader Jo Ellen Lee earned a Ph.D. in Medical Genetics and worked...
Jordon Laby
Inventor
Credit for much of the vibrancy of our arts community can be traced to a pool vacuum. How is that possible? Jordan Laby, dyslexic and partly color-blind, knew from an early age how to take things apart and put them...