The gallery at the Coffee Gallery, 2029 N. Lake, features the work of Richard Davies during the month of May.
Davies is one of Altadena's unique treasures: a former physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who also lived a bohemian artistic life with the likes of Jirayr Zorthian, Richard Feynman, and Albert Hibbs, he is noted as a painter of vibrant colors and cosmic images.
The artist works that are presented in this exhibition consist of two elements: the oil painted images created by Richard Davies, and the unique frames crafted by Richard Benson. Davies and Benson are former colleagues at the Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory where they pursued efforts to explore the planets in our solar system.
The images in the paintings are extensions of landscapes and skyscapes, all related to the various creations of Mother Nature. The oil painting techniques are several but the most easily recognizable is the use of pointillism. The paintings are contemporary in feel because of their abstract construction, but they are nonetheless about something natural.
Once one of these paintings was begun, it took on a life of its own, leaving the painter Davies somewhat at a loss to explain to others his mental processes during the painting. Davies hopes a viewer will be instantly intrigued by the images and will wish to take a second look and a third and other longer looks.
The materials used in the frames made by Benson are cherry and dark walnut wood that Benson took out of forestland his family owns in Michigan.
Davies has exhibited elsewhere. Locally he has shown his work at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena and the Gallery at the End of the World on North Lake in Altadena.
