Saturday reception to launch ‘In Bloom’

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Benicia In Bloom, the Benicia Main Street event that celebrates spring with flowers and open house events along First Street, seems tailor-made for Benicia Plein Air Gallery.

In the past, plein air — or “open air” — painters took part in the event with paint-outs outside the downtown gallery.

This year the gallery is going a step further, launching an exhibit that explicitly ties in with the Main Street celebration.

“One of the most fun things that we’ve had at the gallery is in the past Benicia In Blooms, where we get out and paint outside the gallery,” said Dixie Mohan, this year’s exhibit facilitator at the gallery.

“This is the first time we have done a spring group show that ties in with the Main Street event, and we’re very excited about it.”

“Benicia in Bloom” features works by many of the gallery’s plein air painters, with a feature wall covered in paintings of flowers, Benicia land- and waterscapes and those of nearby areas, too.

“We wanted to take a theme of what’s blooming in Benicia. The challenge was you could paint either a spring scene in Benicia, or some kind of local scene,” Mohan said.

“We normally have a rule that, it’s a plein air gallery, so the work has to be plein air. A lot of our artists do figures, still-lifes and other things, and this was a time for some of those artists who love to do still-lifes and flowers. They had their heart’s desire to paint flowers.”

Mohan made her own contribution to the feature wall, a painting of sunflowers in a vase. “It was actually done at the last Benicia In Bloom. We had a pot of sunflowers on the brick wall outside,” she said.

To complement the feature wall, many of the gallery’s artists added a painting with flowers to their own wall space.

The opening reception for the “Benicia in Bloom” show will be Saturday at 5 p.m., coinciding with another downtown event: the Art Walk. One of the gallery members will be at the gallery painting flowers during the event, Mohan said.

Members of the Benicia First Tuesday Poetry Group will also return for their “poets on the patio,” congregating in the courtyard of Joyous Spaces, the micro-garden next to the gallery.
Spring, according to Mohan, is when the city comes to life.

“You get the farmers market, more people are walking, there’s more people on the street. Open Studios is coming. It’s a good art time,” she said.

If You Go
An opening reception for “Benicia in Bloom” at Benicia Plein Gallery, 307 First St., is Saturday from 5-7 p.m.