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. October is Harvest month, with Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studios and plenty of Autumn colors and brilliant sunsets.
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.
Art Trails Sonoma County
*** October 10–11 and 17–18, Art Trails Open Studios, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sonoma County Art Trails is a free, county-wide open studios tour showcasing 160 local, juried artists. This premier annual event invites art lovers to step inside the studios where creativity comes to life — connecting directly with artists in the spaces where they work. Art Trails offers a unique opportunity to explore a wide range of artistic styles and mediums. Many artists provide live demonstrations, and 100% of art sales go directly to the artists — a meaningful way to support the local art scene. Visit a preview exhibition to pick up a catalog, see samples of the work, get inspired and make a tour plan.
www.sonomacountyarttrails.org.
Arts Guild of Sonoma
Through November 2, A Harvest of Art
*** Artist reception Thursday, October 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. during Sonoma Art Walk.
The harvest spirit brings together an ever-changing collection of original work by Guild artists, from paintings, photography and sculpture to glass, jewelry, prints, cards and distinctive gifts. October Guest Artist, Monica Kuhlman Jacobson, presents Sea and Sand, a contemplative collection of black-and-white and color photography inspired by the Northern California coast. Her atmospheric images explore the connections between place, memory, light and time, transforming coastal landscapes and natural details into quiet visual meditations.
140 E. Napa St., Sonoma
707-996-3115
www.artsguildofsonoma.org
Charles M. Schulz Museum
Through January 10, Inking History
Happy 250th Birthday, America! Snoopy’s Revolutionary War patriot persona tells the story of America’s war for independence while reflecting Charles M. Schulz’s love of history. This series of Peanuts Sunday strips explores suffering and hope for a better future, brought to life through humor and reflection, in one of Snoopy’s final personas.
2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa
707-579-4452
www.schulzmuseum.org
Cloverdale Arts Alliance Gallery
204 N. Cloverdale Boulevard, Cloverdale
707-894-4410
www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org
Corricks Art Trails Gallery/ My Daughter the Framer
Through October 24, Art Trails Preview Exhibit
With over 60 artists from the Sonoma County Art Trails Open Studios program discover new artists, meet up with old favorites, and take in the amazing diversity and beauty of Sonoma County’s top artists! Art Trails Open Studios will take place on October 10–11 and 17–18.
637 Fourth Street, Santa Rosa
707-546-2424
www.corricks.com
Erickson Fine Art Gallery
324 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg
707-431-7073
www.ericksonfineartgallery.com
Fulton Crossing Art Gallery
1200 River Rd., Fulton
www.fultoncrossing.com/exhibitions
G Street Gallery
Through November 1, Terrain Shift: Work by Karen Olsen-Dunn
Terrain Shift explores landscape as a site of continual change. Drawing from coastal bluffs, Monterey cypress, oak-studded hills, working farmland and other familiar Northern California environments, Olsen-Dunn examines how place is shaped by natural forces, human intervention and shifting perception.
1st Street Gallery
Through November, Antarctica, Photographs From a Frozen Desert
Showing photos by Vegar Abesnes.
Artist Talk, October 10, at 3 p.m.
Watershed Building
429 1st Street, Petaluma
Gehricke Wines & Vintage House
October 1 through November 27, Ocean: Fragile Beauty
*** Open October 1 during Sonoma Art Walk from 5 to 7 p.m.
Ocean: Fragile Beauty features five artists who each capture the beauty of the ocean and its inhabitants in their own unique way. The artists have committed to supporting local organizations BayQuest & Point Blue in Petaluma in their ocean conservation work and to create awareness for sea and whale conservation.
Gehricke Winery
32 Patten Street, Sonoma
Graton Gallery
Through October 25, The Blues
In this Juried Show artists show us how Blue inspires them, and how it inspires you.
9048 Graton Road, Graton
707-829-8912
http://www.gratongallery.net
Hammerfriar Gallery
Through October 17, Here & There; Paintings by D.A. Bishop
In his paintings Bishop records landscapes embedded in our common memory—images of local hills, intersections, roadside trees, buildings, and engaging skies. Rather than nostalgia, his work evokes the mysteries of this region.
132 Mill St, Healdsburg
707-473-9600
https://www.hammerfriar.com/art-gallery
Healdsburg Center for the Arts
334 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-1970
healdsburgcenterforthearts.org
Laguna Foundation, Heron Hall
Through December 18, Spirit of My Homeland; Art by Gloria Armstrong
Contemporary Indigenous Art by Gloria Armstrong features a selection of paintings and drawings spanning several decades, along with her poetry and prose, along with photographs by her friend and renowned photographer, Hansel Mieth. Through her work, Armstrong reflects on the brilliance, kinship, and healing found in the natural world—a powerful and enduring source of inspiration—and offers a living testimony of a local life beautifully rooted in survivance. Developed in collaboration with her daughters, Yana and Lorelle Ross, this exhibition presents Gloria’s work for its cultural, historical, and artistic significance.
900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa
707-527-9277
www.lagunafoundation.org
Museum of Sonoma County
Art
Through November 8, Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Running Fence at 50 Years
This landmark exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s monumental Running Fence, the temporary art installation that stretched 24.5 miles through Sonoma and Marin Counties. The project became world famous, and is an iconic part of North Bay culture and history.
Through immersive design, powerful visuals, and firsthand accounts, the exhibit invites visitors to experience the magic and beauty that was the Running Fence – white fabric flowing across fields and cresting over hills to vanish into the Pacific Ocean – and to discover the remarkable 4-year odyssey that brought it to fruition.
For more information and further reading: https://museumsc.org/christo/
History
Through November 29, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)
Presented every year since 1996, the 30th Annual Día de Muertos exhibition continues a local touchstone. Over the years, the exhibition has featured altars and artworks created by hundreds of different students, artists, altaristas, and community members, who have presented the powerful traditions of Day of the Dead in our community. To recognize the 30-year milestone, the exhibition will highlight the creations of many past participants and honor the founders of the local Día de Muertos exhibitions and celebrations.
425 Seventh Street, Santa Rosa
707-579-1500
www.museumsc.org
Occidental Center for the Arts
Through October 25, Poets Meet Artists
*** Artists Reception and People’s Choice Award October 3 from 2 to 4 p.m.
Invitational exhibit featuring local artists and poets coming together to showcase their work and create a collaboration of talents and imagination. Participating poets and artists have been working together to create poetry that represents an artist’s work, and art that creates a visual interpretation of poetry.
3850 Doris Murphy Court, Occidental
707-874-9392
www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org
Paul Mahder Gallery
Through October 4, Jake Messing; Visible Light Paintings
Visible Light explores the narrow spectrum of energy our eyes are capable of perceiving—the small fraction of light that shapes our understanding of the world. Through flowers, birds, fruit, reflective surfaces, bubbles, crystals, and other natural forms, these paintings investigate light not simply as illumination, but as a force that reveals, transforms, and connects.
October 10 through November 22, Lanny Bergner; Natura Synthetica -Sculptures
*** Opening Reception October 10, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Bergner works with industrially woven metal mesh as a sculptural material, transforming stainless steel and copper into forms that move between the organic and the constructed. In Natura Synthetica, he continues the exploration of a place where nature and manufactured materials meet—where the language of leaves, insect wings, mycelium, cellular pods, and cosmological structures can emerge from mesh, flame, hand pressure, and wire.
222 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg
707-473-9150
www.paulmahdergallery.com
Pepperwood Preserve Gallery
Beginning October 15, Majesty of Water
*** Opening reception and Meet the Artist, Thursday, October 15, from 4 to 6:30 p.m.
Featuring four distinct openings that build on the pieces from each previous opening with new works—it’s an art exhibit experience that ripples like water. The first opening showcases the work of Richard McDaniel, in a stunning collection of paintings that capture the beauty of water. In this iteration, the focus is on how water flows through the landscape, shaping landscapes and ecosystems. As you wander through the exhibit, you will encounter a variety of landscapes that transport you into the serene and dynamic world of water. Each piece engages your senses with rhythmic flow, vibrant colors, rich textures, and intricate details.
2130 Pepperwood Preserve Road, Santa Rosa
https://www.pepperwoodpreserve.org/
Petaluma Arts Center
Through October 24, It’s Not Trash: Reclaiming and Transforming
The exhibition combines a selection of 40 artists from Recology San Francisco’s Artist in Residence (AIR) Program and five invited artists from the Bay Area and explores how artists transform discarded and overlooked materials into art.
Also on view in the North Gallery: Strictly Local: Piecing It Together in Sonoma County
For this exhibition, students, community members, and individual artists bring together a diverse range of voices and approaches. By considering a new purpose for found fabric, plastic bags, cardboard, clothing, e-waste, and other overlooked items, these works combine everyday remnants with creative intention, inviting viewers to reconsider assumptions about value and use.
RELATED PROGRAMS:
Sunday, October 4, 3:30-4:30pm, Bryan Keith Thomas: We Are One
Saturday, October 17, 3:30-4:30pm, Katie Murken: Dust to Dust
Sunday, October 18, 3:30-4:30pm, Ali Gass & Phoebe Schenker: Reuse in Art, Reuse in Life
230 Lakeville St. Petaluma
707-762-5600
www.petalumaartscenter.org
Ren Brown Collection Gallery
1781 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay
707-875-2922
www.renbrown.com
Santa Rosa Arts Center
Through October 31, Beneath The Surface: Small Works
October 1 through November 28, Autumn Harvest
*** Opening reception Friday, October 2, from 5 to 8 p.m.
SOFA Arts District
312 South A Street, Santa Rosa
707-526-0135
santarosaartscenter.org/
Santa Rosa Junior College, Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery
1501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa
707-527-4298
https://art-gallery.santarosa.edu/exhibitions
Santa Rosa Junior College, Frank P. Doyle Library Gallery
Through December 11, Jerrold Ballaine: Land and Sea
On view are 20 paintings by Ballaine who was part of the art faculty at U.C. Berkeley for over 30 years. There he befriended many artists including Joan Brown, Manuel Neri, and Richard Diebenkorn. Ballaine continues to paint and work in a variety of media in his Sebastopol studio.
1501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa
https://libraries.santarosa.edu
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Through October 18, Art Trails 2026 Preview Exhibition
Take a first look at the artists, demonstrations, and preview exhibitions. The 42nd Annual Sonoma County Art Trails tour features 160 Sonoma County artists, each opening their studios to visitors for two weekends. The tour runs October 10–11 and 17–18, 10 to 5pm. Meet the artists, explore studios, and plan your tour at www.sonomacountyarttrails.org.
Through October 11, Under Many Moons: Asian and Pacific Islander Art, Identity, and Community
Presented in collaboration with AAPIC North Bay and the Many Moons Festival, Under Many Moons: Asian and Pacific Islander Art, Identity, and Community is a juried exhibition exploring themes of identity, heritage, belonging, and cultural expression.
282 South High St., Sebastopol
707-829-4797
www.sebarts.org
Sebastopol Gallery
Come see the Gallery’s beautiful new location.
The gallery features the work of over 25 Sonoma County artists, and guest artists.
186 N Main Street, Sebastopol
707-829-7200
https://www.sebastopolgallery.com
Sonoma State University, University Art Gallery
Through October 17, Mere Seconds: Andrew Owen and Insight/Incite 20/20
Two concurrent photography exhibitions showcase the breadth of contemporary photographic practice, bringing distinct artistic voices into conversation through shared explorations of the natural and built world, and the ways people move through both.
Mere Seconds presents sixteen landscape photographs by Andrew Owen that examine ecological transformation across California during recent cycles of megafires and floods.
Insight/Incite 20/20 explores themes of resilience, identity, community, migration, environmental change, and social justice, demonstrating photography’s enduring capacity to foster dialogue and reflection.
Panel Discussion: Saturday, October 3 from 1 to 2 p.m.
1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park
707-664-2295
https://artgallery.sonoma.edu
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Through January 24, The Real-Life Art History of M. Louise Stanley
Stanley’s large-scale acrylic paintings, gouache and watercolor works on paper, and sculptural objects are presented alongside selections of the artist’s sketchbooks, studies, photos, and notes from her personal archives, revealing her artistic process and her relentless creative pursuits. Known for her irreverent humor, imaginative storytelling, and distinctly female perspective, Stanley emerged in the 1970s alongside artists associated with Bay Area Figurative and Funk Art. She developed a singular style blending art history, mythology, everyday life, and social satire.
551 Broadway, Sonoma
707-939-7862
www.svma.org
Studio LZ
Through October 17, Debra Seal; Contours
Contours invites viewers to encounter the human form with fresh eyes. By transforming the body into abstract, landscape-like compositions, the work moves beyond familiar social assumptions and encourages an appreciation of its raw shapes, texture, and natural beauty. Building on the conversations prompted by her earlier exhibitions, particularly around the representation of women, Seal provokes curiosity and acceptance in place of the prejudice and the preconceived notions embedded in our collective consciousness. The body becomes a landscape of quiet curves, contours, and hidden spaces. Lines and shapes flow together, moving between the familiar and the abstract, where scale shifts and the human form becomes an imagined terrain. Ceramist Anna Casadidio, from studio CASA CASA, will pair some of her ceramics with Seal’s photos.
Watershed Building
429 1st Street, Suite 130, Petaluma
www.studiolz.net
Upstairs Art Gallery
Through October 25, Aspirations
*** Reception Saturday, October 3, from 3 to 6 p.m. Meet Laura Roney and Linda Loveland Reid and learn about their art and inspiration.
Laura Roney unveils Aspirations, a new collection of paintings in oil, celebrating the unique goals people set during their lives, challenging us to take bold steps forward. Meet the artist: Roney will host the Gallery on October 1 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Stairway Smallworks Showcase features Linda Loveland Reid’s Intentional Chaos, a collection of mixed-media works that explode with excitement and energy. Random patterns, amorphous shapes and dancing dribbles magically coalesce into bold statements. Distilling energy into smaller works brings new challenges and some happy surprises. Meet the artist: Reid will host the Gallery on October 23 from 11am to 6 pm.
306 Center Street, Healdsburg
707-431-4214
www.Upstairsartgallery.net
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