Work of new Plein Air member now on display

A RECEPTION WILL BE HELD Saturday for artist Samantha McNally at Benicia Plein Air Gallery, 307 First St.
Courtesy image

Samantha McNally joined Benicia Plein Air Gallery in late 2014. This month she became the gallery’s featured artist.

An opening reception for McNally’s show, “Bay Area Color,” is Saturday. The exhibit, now on display, features about 13 watercolor depictions of Bay Area vistas, all painted “en plein air,” or in the open air.

McNally studied art at the Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J., Ridgewood School of Art in Ridgewood, N.J. and The School of Visual Arts in New York City.

She started painting in oils in college, then tried out acrylics for a while. But when she participated in art shows where most of the artists painted in watercolors, she said the effects were so beautiful that she had to try it.

Courtesy image

She took classes in watercolor in the 1990s and has been painting in the medium ever since. “The way the paint reacts to water is like magic. Sometimes you are surprised at what happens when the colors mix with each other and with water, but with practice you can predict and plan for the magic to happen,” she said.

A member of the California Watercolor Association, McNally has won several awards for her work over the years: in 2010 her “Sea Lions” won the People’s Choice Award in the CWA’s National Exhibition. The El Sobrante resident also belongs to several Plein Air groups in the Bay Area, including Da Group, formed by local artist Gerrold Turner. She paints with Da Group “whenever I have a chance,” she said.

In 2012 McNally founded the Artist Getaway, a vacation for plein air painting open to all levels of experience that she described as “an adventure for artists who want to have an art trip without instruction.” Artist Getaway paintings are currently on display at aRt Cottage in Concord through July.

For Saturday’s opening reception, Benicia Plein Air Gallery landlord Phil Joy “will be handling the grill and we will have plenty of hot dogs for the art lovers who come by to see the show,” McNally said.

If You Go
An opening reception for Samantha McNally’s “Bay Area Color” will be Saturday from 2-4 p.m. at Benicia Plein Air Gallery, 307 First St.