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Collections Manager

Regard the Light: The Spirit of California in Art and Wine





Taking place on March 25th will be the Jonathan Art Foundation’s (JAF) annual gala, which coincides with the yearly online auction JAF fundraiser from March 19-26th.


The gala theme, ‘Regard the Light’, is a nod to painting plein air landscapes outdoors. The method is about capturing the light and atmosphere, the time of day and sense of place. The theme also provides ample creative interpretation for other art forms in the auction such as photography, the medium which is the manipulation of light and time.


More than 25 artists will be in JAF’s March auction, and the featured works will represent the breadth of their extraordinary artmaking - painting, photography, collage, textiles, and prints. Other luxury items featured in the auction will be jewelry, fine wines, cigars, sporting events, and unique experiences and services such as a portrait photography session with Rory Lewis. Rory is the winner of the Portrait of Britain prize and has offered a portrait session taken in his downtown LA studio. The gala, which will be held in the Florentine Room and Ballroom at the Town Club, will be an elegant evening of wine, food, music, a presentation of artworks and a selected panel of artists. A few of the artists in the auction, and potential panelists, are featured below:

Timothy Kitz is an accomplished watercolorist who paints plein air and studio works. His appreciation for the local environment can be traced to influences by the California Scene movement and the early coastal impressionists. As a painting instructor, he is a faculty member and conducts watercolor classes and workshops at the Brentwood Art Center.



Timothy Kitz, Elysian North, 2022, watercolor, 17 x 13 inches


Joan Horsfall Young was born in Toronto Canada and studied art under Charles Goldhammer at Central Technical School. She spent 10 years studying in Europe and after moving to California, she was so taken by the characteristic light that she changed her style of painting to impressionism.

Junn Roca has been a professional painter for over 40 years, starting in his native Philippines where he apprenticed to the noted Filipino artist Felix Gonzales. He has lived in the U.S. since 1979 and has had a lengthy career in animation, which won him two Emmys. His experience as a background artist in film has given him an innate sense of staging the subjects of his paintings and organizing the elements within the field of vision to capture a mood or emotion with great effect.



Joan Horsfall Young, Enjoying the Water, 2022, oil on linen, 20 x 24 inches



Junn Roca, Bodega Bay, oil on Belgian linen, 16 x 20 inches



Jennifer Gunlock is a familiar name to many as she served as the Jonathan Art Foundation’s Collections Manager for twelve years and is now pursuing her art practice full time. Jennifer’s mixed media collage works explore the relationships between the objects of nature and those imposed upon them by human activity. By layering photographs taken on her travels, decorative papers and drawing, she constructs tree-based forms which are awkwardly fused with architectural motifs. The work is a commentary on humanity’s direct impact on the environment, as well as Earth’s interminable shapeshifting over the long history of its existence.

Carlo Van de Roer is an LA based New Zealand artist and in his series The Portrait Machine Project, he explores the idea that a camera can reveal otherwise hidden facets of a subject’s character, and their relationship with the photographer and viewer. Van de Roer uses a Polaroid aura camera, developed in the 1970s to record what a psychic might see. His subjects--friends, family, and artists are connected by sensors to the camera, which translates biofeedback into information about their characters and how they are viewed. The camera depicts this information as color in the Polaroid and as a printed description and diagram.



Jennifer Gunlock, Eagle’s Nest, 2020, mixed media paper collage & drawing on panel, 24 x 28 inches

Carlo Van de Roer, Yoko Okutsu, 2008, chromogenic print, 19 x 24 inches, edition of 7



We hope you can join us at the JAF gala on March 25th and participate in our online fundraising auction March 19th to March 26th.




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