Sonoma County’s sheer natural beauty and general creative ambience entices visitors, as well as long-time residents to explore the many and varied fine art offerings. With the addition of great food, drink, and outdoor activities, it’s easy to spend a day, a week, or a lifetime traversing through the vineyards, forests, and rolling hills, along the scenic coast, and through the welcoming towns of Sonoma County. This month some new exhibitions involve collaborations between artists, as well as between venues; introduction of five new SRJC Art Department faculty members; an ever popular book and paper show; and a celebration of women.

The following is a partial list of local art exhibitions. Many eateries, wineries, and civic buildings also present changing art shows in their spaces.

*** Designates an Opening Reception.

Arts Guild of Sonoma
Through March 2, For the Love of Art
Guest Artist, Carmela Beckman-Spector. Working primarily in pen and ink, Beckman-Spector builds richly textured compositions through layers of small dots and repetitive forms. Her work reflects a thoughtful exploration of interconnectedness and complexity.
140 E. Napa St., Sonoma
707-996-3115
www.artsguildofsonoma.org

Charles M. Schulz Museum
2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa
707-579-4452
www.schulzmuseum.org

Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery
Through March 20, Layers
The exhibit showcases work by Guest Artist Teresa Saluzzo, Community Annex Artist Michele Hanlon, and Featured Resident Artist Will McCoy, as well as our talented resident artists.
204 N. Cloverdale Boulevard, Cloverdale
707-894-4410
www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org

Corricks Art Trails Gallery/ My Daughter the Framer
Through March, Renewal: Strength through Art
*** Reception First Friday, March 6, Meet the Artists, from 5 to 7 p.m.
An exhibit of 22 Art Trails Artists celebrating the renewal that takes place in nature and our lives, and the strength and resilience we gain through the Arts by honoring the healing and sustaining power of art, for each person and for society.
637 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa
707-546-2424
www.corricks.com

Fulton Crossing Art Gallery
1200 River Rd., Fulton
www.fultoncrossing.com/exhibitions

Graton Gallery
Through March 29, Portraits
The work in this Juried Show portrays people, pets or other animals, posed or active in the world. Juror: Michelle Carnes.
9048 Graton Road, Graton
707-829-8912
www.gratongallery.net

Hammerfriar Gallery
March 21 through July11, Forms in Flux
*** Opening Reception March 21, from 4 to 6 p. m. with Artist Talks.
Kerry Vander Meer and Laura Van Duren bring together their shared love of organic abstract forms using a variety of materials and bold colors. Together, their work reflects forms in continual transformation evolving through intuitive processes.
132 Mill St, Healdsburg
707-473-9600
https://www.hammerfriar.com/art-gallery

Healdsburg Center for the Arts
Through April 5, For the Love of Art
This show brings together works made with passion, curiosity, and devotion, inviting viewers to experience art not just as something to see, but something to feel. It’s an ode to the joy of making, the pleasure of looking and experiencing art.
334 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-1970
healdsburgcenterforthearts.org

IceHouse Gallery / Digital Grange
March 7 through March 28, Inez Storer, Works on Paper
*** Closing reception, March 28, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Coinciding with Inez Storer’s exhibition at the Petaluma Arts Center, the IceHouse Gallery presents Inez Storer, Works on Paper. As an ongoing and essential studio practice of hers, these pieces reflect the process of “working it out” in a less formal manner. They hold visual ideas in motion: quicker, more fluid, and often the place where a personal visual language begins to emerge. Freed from the weight of finish or expectation, they allow for her intuition to lead. For Inez this way of working is less demanding and full of surprises. By moving the process around—shifting, layering, responding—she often discovers something she couldn’t have planned.
The IceHouse Gallery will be open during Storer’s reception at the Petaluma Arts Center Thursday, March 12, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
405 East D St., Petaluma
707-778-2238
www.digitalgrange.com

Laguna Foundation, Heron Hall
900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa
707-527-9277
www.lagunafoundation.org

Museum of Sonoma County
Art
Through May 24, Artistry in Wood
Artistry in Wood, presented in collaboration with the Sonoma County Woodworkers Association, showcases fine woodwork by local and regional artists. Now in its 36th year, Artistry is one of the most respected juried shows of woodwork in the state, and a perennial favorite for museum visitors.

History
Through March 22, Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific
The exhibition reveals untold stories of Black seafarers and the North Coast of California, and expands that narrative to include the many Black whalers, commercial mariners, fishers, explorers, soldiers, and sailors who traveled along the Pacific Coast and traversed the high seas from the 16th century to the present day. Curated by Dr. Caroline Collins, who is an Assistant Professor at UC San Diego, and is a co-founder of “Black Like Water,” an interdisciplinary research collective at UCSD.
425 Seventh Street, Santa Rosa
707-579-1500
www.museumsc.org

Occidental Center for the Arts
Through March 29, Go Figure
Figure drawings from live models by the OCA Drawing Group. Founded more than thirty years ago by Bill Wheeler, this group continues in his honor.
3850 Doris Murphy Court, Occidental
707-874-9392
www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org

Paradise Ridge Winery
June 15-ongoing, Return to Paradise
Paradise Ridge Winery and the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation are pleased to announce Return to Paradise – a sculpture exhibition celebrating Walter Byck and Marijke Byck-Hoenselaars’ thirty year legacy of visionary leadership and community engagement through art and sculpture at Paradise Ridge. Curated by Jeff Nathanson (former director of the Museum of Sonoma County), the exhibition will showcase more than a dozen local artists, each with a unique and rich history of exhibiting at Paradise Ridge. In recognition of Walter Byck and Marijke Byck-Hoenselaars’ enduring dedication to supporting local artists and to bringing sculpture to Sonoma County, the exhibition will serve as a celebratory return for the participating artists.
Paradise Ridge Winery; in Marijke’s Grove
4545 Thomas Lake Harris Drive, Fountaingrove, Santa Rosa
www.prwinery.com

Paul Mahder Gallery
Through April 12, Omar d’Leon; In Memoriam – Paintings & Drawings
Omar D’León was a visionary multidisciplinary artist whose work explored identity, memory, and cultural lineage through painting, mixed media, and installation. Deeply influenced by personal history and broader social narratives, his art bridged abstraction and figuration to examine themes of belonging, resilience, and transformation. Known for his evocative use of color, texture, and symbolic imagery, D’León created works that were both intimate and expansive, inviting viewers into spaces of reflection and emotional connection.
222 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg
707-473-9150
www.paulmahdergallery.com

Petaluma Arts Center
March 12 through April 18, Americana Reimagined
*** Opening Reception: Thursday, March 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
This juried exhibition looks beyond nostalgia to examine how familiar symbols, stories, and styles evolve over time—bridging the past and present through creativity and craft.

Also on view, States of Anxiety, States of Hope | Works by Inez Storer
States of Anxiety, States of Hope presents a selection of works by artist Inez Storer that reflect on the emotional, cultural, and political complexities of contemporary life. This show coincides with Inez Storer, Works on Paper at the IceHouse Gallery, March 7 through March 28.
230 Lakeville Street, Petaluma
707-762-5600
www.petalumaartscenter.org

Ren Brown Collection Gallery
Housed in a refurbished building with shoji and a small, serene Japanese garden, the gallery shows contemporary art by Japanese and regional Northern California artist.
1781 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay
707-875-2922
www.renbrown.com

Santa Rosa Arts Center
Through March 28, Abstract
An abstract artwork does not attempt to represent external reality but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.

March 6 through April 25, Shadows and Reflections
*** Opening reception, Friday, March 6 from 5 to 8 p.m.
The artist’s use of shadows and reflections on a subject can impact how the images are perceived by the viewer.
SOFA Arts District
312 South A Street, Santa Rosa
707-526-0135
santarosaartscenter.org/

Santa Rosa Junior College, Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery
Through April 2, New Faculty Showcase
The New Faculty Showcase is a group show featuring and welcoming five new members of the SRJC Art Department faculty; Kaela Barker, Ryna Frankel, Laeh Glenn, Hwei-Li Tsao, and Anna Valdez.
1501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa
707-527-4298
art-gallery.santarosa.edu/current-exhibits

Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Through March 8, The Unknown Thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud’s lushly painted still lifes of cakes, pies and gumball machines are icons of modern American Art, but there is another large body of Thiebaud’s art that is relatively unknown—his prints. Thiebaud had a life-long passion for printmaking—his first print was made on pieces of linoleum he ran through the wringer of his mother’s washing machine! And he continued making prints until well into his 90s. This exhibition highlights Thiebaud’s printed artwork spanning 6 decades, exploring common themes and subject matter and the artist’s unusual working method.

March 14 through May 3, Pulp • Paper • Book
*** Opening Reception Sunday, March 15, from 2 to 4 p.m.
This juried exhibition features works by book makers, papermakers, and printmakers, including all forms of pulp manipulation. Jurors: Barbara Kibbe: Quinn Keck.
282 South High St., Sebastopol
707-829-4797
www.sebarts.org

Sebastopol Gallery
Through March 28, The Journey; Paintings By Teri Sloat
*** Reception Saturday, March 7, from 4 to 6 p.m.
New Woman and Fox paintings by Teri Sloat celebrate the personal journeys we all take as we travel outward through landscape trails or inward through thoughts and dreams. These rich, metaphorical paintings invite you to pause and reflect on your own path and enjoy the distance you have come.
Also showing at the gallery: Paintings by Craig Magoon.
150 N. Main St, Sebastopol
707-829-7200
https://www.sebastopolgallery.com

Sofie Contemporary Arts
1407 Lincoln Avenue, Calistoga
707-942-4231
www.sofiegallery.com

Sonoma State University, University Art Gallery
Through March 14, In Vivo: Within the Living
Featuring the art of medical science, the body, and human resilience, In Vivo reveals the powerful role of art in advancing medicine, science, and human understanding. Connecting science and empathy, the exhibition showcases medical illustrations and prosthetics from the Department of Art as applied to medicine in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Curated by Taryn Möller Nicoll, the exhibition brings together fine art, illustration, graphic design, biological science, and lived human experience through an expansive range of artistic techniques and technologies rarely witnessed by the public.
1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park
707-664-2295
https://artgallery.sonoma.edu

Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Through April 26, Maija Peeples-Bright: Life is Just a Bowl of Terriers
Maija Peeples-Bright is one of the few women artists associated with Northern California’s Funk Art Movement of the late 1960s and ’70s. Peeples-Bright’s wildly inventive practice comprises robust compositions bustling with animals of all kinds—her “beasties” as she calls them—forming surreal, imaginative landscapes in audacious impasto. Her zoological arrangements represent alternate realities, infusing exuberance and a sense of the absurd into impossible scenarios. Highly distinctive, her textural creature patterns revel in the extreme, often taking up every inch of the canvas, multiplying her beasties into dizzying arrangements. The exhibition features a retrospective look at Peeples-Bright’s career, from her early days of the Funk Movement to today.
551 Broadway, Sonoma
707-939-7862
www.svma.org

Studio LZ
Through March, Claude Smith Painting in the Dark
429 1st Street, Suite 130, Petaluma
www.studiolz.net

Upstairs Art Gallery
Through March 29, Celebrating Women
*** Reception Saturday, March 7, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Tosya Shore presents Celebrating Women, paintings that commemorate women in honor of Women’s History Month. Shore’s watercolor works capture women in their element, showing the multiple facets of their lives. Meet the artist: Shore will be hosting the Gallery on March 5 and 19 from 11 am to 6 pm.

The Stairway Smallworks Showcase features Donna Schaffer’s Ooh La La, Plein Air, a collection of oil paintings made on her recent trip to France. Roaming the streets of Paris, toting paints and palette, Schaffer captured iconic scenes buzzing with la belle vie. Meet the artist: Schaffer will be hosting the Gallery on March 21 and 22 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
306 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-4214
www.Upstairsartgallery.net

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