I am now recording audio spots for Best Bets on the Sonoma Arts website. You can go to their site and click the Best Bets button to hear the most recent posting, or you can read the text here on my website.

This week I recommend a visit to the Gatehouse Gallery at di Rosa, in Napa county. This time of year it’s a beautiful drive through vineyards, and green rolling hills. Once there you’ll see Cycle: New Work by Hung Liu, the current exhibition in the spacious lake-side gallery.

Hung Liu was born in China and immigrated to California in 1984, where she continued her studies in art. Liu’s work has been shown and collected by numerous top-notch museums in this country. She currently lives in the East Bay and teaches at Mills College.

The work in this exhibition features large, mixed-media paintings, which are derived from historical Chinese photographs. Starting with the photographic images, that are both her cultural and personal narratives, Liu reworks the surfaces with layers of various materials. In this process she conceals, changes, as well as reveals selected aspects of the original image. The story becomes a new narrative, combining both her future as well as her past.

The exhibition continues through June 10. While you are there, you may want to consider a tour of the sculpture gardens. The Gatehouse Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information on events and tours, visit their website, dirosaart.org.

Then, at Art Works Downtown, in San Rafael, we have, Surface Design, an exhibition of nearly 30 pieces, that, according to the curator, Virginia Breier, illustrates the importance of surface design to the final object. And, indeed, when I saw the exhibition, I was impressed by how well the surface treatments were integrated with the artworks.

Plus there was a wide variety of materials and methods, including traditional ones such as wood, clay, glass, metal and fabric. But also more unusual materials such as coffee filters, tree bark, woven paper, and one I had never seen before, which was dried orange peels that were stitched together into large geometric shapes.

A reception for the artists is on Friday, May 11, 5 to 8 p.m. coinciding with San Rafael’s second Friday artwalk.The exhibition continues through June 22. For more information, check their website, Art Works Downtown.org.