There is no substitute for standing in front of a great painting, well framed, hung, and expertly lit. The hues and values are exactly what the artist put down. The scale and presence of the work are tangible. The dimensionality and textures of the brush strokes are clearly visible. You can look from afar then get close. Every nuance that a great painter employs to convey place, time, mood and emotion in a work, can be explored and enjoyed.
It is similarly distressing to be deprived of face-to-face contact with friends and colleagues, as has been the case with the Jonathan Art Foundation board. We have not had a board meeting in person since March 2020, but in November we finally met and enjoyed a celebratory dinner at the Jonathan Club. Before this meeting, our four newest board members had never met any of their colleagues in person.
Despite these challenges, JAF has had an active year and is planning an exciting 2022. The Granville Redmond painting California Landscape--Oaks and Meadow returned to the Club after a year long west coast museum tour. We took advantage of its empty place on the wall to relocate the recently acquired Poppies and Lupines by John Marshall Gamble to the lobby. We were also delighted to be loaned an Arthur Beaumont watercolor entitled The Atlantic Battle--USS Bogue, which is currently on display in the Beaumont Room.
Docent tours of our collections were curtailed for much of the year, but in September, JAF Vice President Judy Jenkins and JAF Collections Manager Jennifer Gunlock were able to host visiting guests from the UC Irvine School of Social Sciences. The tour was led by former JAF board member Steve Platt. We also look forward to hosting another group next year, as past JAF President Grafton Harper will be bringing guests from Arizona for an overnight stay and art tour. We are always looking for ways to showcase our collection, and your ideas are always appreciated. Comments may be sent to inquiries@jonathanart.org.
UCI also generously provided a video team for us to make a 30-minute virtual tour of the collections, expertly hosted by Richard Reitzell, Judy Jenkins and Dale Harbour-Day. This video includes the history of the Club, as well as the artistic underpinnings of Impressionism, which led to the creation of our collections. It is well worth a viewing for all art lovers. We invite you to watch the video here!
Truly, we look forward to seeing you all again as we plan for next year's events. Mark your calendars for our Art Auction Preview event at the Beach Club on Friday evening, January 21, 2022. Artists will be there to present and talk about their work, and you will have an opportunity to place an early bid or purchase these artworks that night. We always find this event to be a lively and enjoyable gathering to start a January weekend.
Also, keep a lookout for our March online auction fundraiser, and get ready for our very special gala dinner event on Saturday, March 19th! The 2022 Gala is being developed jointly with the Jonathan Club and will honor the life and art of Peter Alexander, who died in 2020. Peter was a member of the now discontinued Jonathan Club Resident Artist program. He made works of art for the Club that can be seen all around the Beach facility. He was a prolific and multifaceted artist who was one of the early pioneers in the Southern California contemporary art scene. This dinner will be a remembrance and appreciation of Peter’s life and will have no fundraising component.
This makes the reason of this annual spread about JAF all the more important: It is where we launch our annual “YEAR END APPEAL.”
As a not-for-profit charitable organization, every year we reach out to the Club membership to support our mission. These funds are tax deductible donations and are used to support our mission to manage the Jonathan Art Foundation’s and Jonathan Club’s collections. A portion is reserved for our operating budget, and the balance used to improve our collection. Our donors are known as members of our Circles of Support. Visit our website here for more information.
This year we are setting a goal of $30,000. We greatly appreciate any and all of your support.