It may seem somewhat odd to have a show in the middle of winter entitled “Beachcombers” but the name refers to both artists’ sense of slow-motion, the passage of time, contemplation, solitude, and the awe of nature and natural forces. Strangely enough the title reflects what many of us do around this time of the year; reflect on the past and wonder about the future. Our bodies stay dormant as we look out at the landscape. We wait till the moment of release inevitability arrives.

Both women take on parts of this idea in their own ways. Patricia Fernandez focuses heavily on the depiction of remote landscapes using native and found materials. Her images are somewhat abstract while still maintaining natural colors and overall shapes, like memories digested and abbreviated through time. She has spent the last year making art while traveling from place to place; from the Black Forest of Germany to the adobe villages of Northern Spain. Her latest workspace was in the mountains of Topanga where Patricia lived in her truck while she worked in her small, solar powered hut surrounded by wild land. She collected rainwater to wash her brushes in, picked berries to make paper with, and kept a journal of her daily events and challenges. The paintings and collages she presents in this show are based on and created by the local vegetation and her daily foraging excursions on the mountain.

Anna Fidler illustrates her fascination with unseen energy through what look like auras surrounding or making up her subjects. She not only uses rings of paint but uses layers of paper in a three dimensional way to create what may look like heat or electricity emanating from the surface. This very handmade quality, to her, is every bit as magical as a sorcerer’s hand creating wizardry. Anna’s work is both monumental and fragile in her execution, just like that of nature. She wishes to inspire awe, solemnity, and piousness through the formality, unexpected color tones, and relationships of the characters and shapes within her pieces. Her work requires the viewer’s attention much like a beautiful sunset on a white sandy beach or a white out condition blizzard atop a high and dangerous mountain.

Both women currently live and work in the Los Angeles area. You can read more about them at their own websites, http://www.patriciafernandez.com and http://www.annafidler.com