Jerilyn Lightfoot is one of nine Sunnyvale artists participating in the Artists' Open Studios tour.
By ANNE GELHAUS
Two of the Sunnyvale artists participating in Artists' Open Studios of Santa Clara County are not only creators but teachers of fine art.
Jerilyn Lightfoot, who owns and operates Pantheon Fine Arts and Framing, will display her oil paintings and pastels at her Murphy Avenue business during the 10th annual open studios tour, set for April 27 and 28.
Lightfoot not only creates her own art in the converted 1920s house, but frames the works of other artists. She also holds classes to teach her fellow painters how to frame their own works.
"A lot of them have been doing damage to their art work," Lightfoot says. "Since I'm also a painter, I know how to incorporate the frame into the entire work."
Lightfoot has been involved in Artists' Open Studios for four years, three of them as a member of the steering committee that organizes the event. She says the volunteer committee is trying to get the Arts Council of Santa Clara County, which cosponsors the tour, to take it over entirely next year.
An avid reader of Greek and Roman mythology, Lightfoot often incorporates these myths into her paintings. Her son, Angelo, appears in several of his mother's works, dressed as Mercury in one and a sprite in another.
Lightfoot says she enjoys it when families take the open studios tour together.
"What's really nice about the tour," she adds, "is that lots of kids don't get to see enough art work, and this way, they get to see how artists work and live."
While Lightfoot has separate work and living spaces, Heidi Perera, another of the nine Sunnyvale artists participating in the tour, creates her painted porcelain at home.
Perera began working with porcelain in 1988, studying with Jean Bushnell, another Sunnyvale artist. She has since joined the Santa Clara Valley Porcelain Artists Club, a group Perera says is necessary to foster the art form.
"It was somewhat of a dying art," she says of porcelain painting. "It's only in the last several years that other artists started teaching beginners."
Now that she's well-versed in the medium, Perera teaches beginners herself, passing along what she learned from Bushnell.
"I had a marvelous teacher," she says. "She didn't teach it as a craft; she taught it as a fine art."
For the open studios tour, Perera plans to have enough plain porcelain pieces and paints on hand to demonstrate her technique to visitors.
"I paint and fire, paint and fire," she says. "The more you do this, the darker and more vibrant the colors get.
"Lots of people ask me questions," Perera adds, "and it's easier to show them."
The West Valley leg of the Artists' Open Studios Tour is set for April 27 and 28, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. This third and last weekend of the tour will encompass studios in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Campbell and west San Jose. Location maps and catalogs are available at Pantheon Fine Arts, 471 S. Murphy Ave., Sunnyvale. For more information, call (415) 969-9905.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 24, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.