Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Avie Urch is the featured artist at Gallery Saratoga for the month of August.
Nature, dreams inspire watercolorist
Avie Urch's paintings reflect her favorite things
By Shari Kaplan
Although she has never lived in Saratoga or Los Gatos, Avonell "Avie" Urch--this month's featured artist at Gallery Saratoga--has a history with both towns that spans two decades.
About 20 years ago, the Los Altos resident recalls, she ran into some local artists while on a trip to France. The artists exhibited at Los Gatos' now-defunct El Gatito Gallery at the time, and Urch became involved with them. Artists came and went, she says, but a core always remained, even after the gallery closed and many relocated to Gallery Saratoga, an artists' cooperative.
It was still longer ago that Urch got her first taste of art. Her father--a painter, musician and philosopher--enrolled her in art classes at age four because he had begun to see her talents showing through. "My dad recognized it because it runs in the family," Urch recalls, chuckling.
Although Urch loved studying and creating art, she did not pursue it as a career. Instead, she went to college, earned a nursing degree and worked as a registered nurse. She also served a stint as a flight attendant--back in the days they were called stewardesses. After meeting her husband, Frank, a pilot, Urch devoted most of her time to raising a family.
When Frank retired, the couple set out on a long trailer trip that helped reawaken Urch's love of art. "I realized I had to do something!" says Urch, who adds that nature, especially the ocean, is one of her favorite topics. She created some paintings on-site, but preferred to take photographs and create paintings from them later. This is still her preference today.
Another well from which Urch draws inspiration is that of dreams. "I do a lot of drawings from my dreams. I see them in detail and in color," she says. "One time I was struggling to make a tree come out the way it was supposed to, from a dream landscape, and then it was like someone took my hand and was guiding it."
Paintings from realistic to abstract can be seen in her gallery show, which consists of watercolors done on rice paper and what she calls "oriental papers." She also uses various paper types to create textured collages.
Urch's love of the outdoors is apparent in many images, such as Bridalveil Falls, the celebrated Yosemite waterfall portrayed in a complete spectrum of muted colors; Clam Diggers, a view of hopeful clammers gathering at the end of a windswept beach; and Northern British Columbia Miner's Cabin, a cozy creekside cabin set amidst the woods in early autumn. Even the lanky sycamores of Saratoga's own Wildwood Park put in an appearance in this exhibit.
Among Urch's more abstract, ethereal works are Ocean and Earth, which uses blue and brown tones to show a meeting of the two dissimilar elements; and Serendipity, a large painting awash in bright clouds of colors reminiscent of rainbow sherbet.
Urch's show runs through Aug. 30. Gallery Saratoga is at 14531 Big Basin Way, Unit 3. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For information, call 408.867.0458 or visit www.geocities.com/~artsite/saratoga/ on the Internet.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
