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A pair of artists who call Bar XX home are being honored near and far this year. Ray Roberts and wife Peggi Kroll-Roberts were invited guests and featured artists last month at the week-long Maui Plein Air Painting Invitational in Lahaina and will have the featured exhibit May 1 through June 30 at the Knowlton Gallery in Lodi. Roberts and Kroll-Roberts each have their own style and specialties but share an appreciation for many of the same artists and the history of early California impressionists. Roberts is best known for his plein air work created in outdoor environments, while Kroll-Roberts has mostly made her name in still life and figure paintings. But he also paints figures and she does landscapes, so neither is exclusive to a genre. Both have been published extensively. “Our approach to painting is very similar but when it comes to putting brush on canvas, it manifests itself differently,” Roberts said. “Her paintings are very direct … she just gets to the guts of it right away. She captures the essence of a painting in a more direct way than I do.” Born and raised in Orange County before its population exploded, Roberts was introduced to painting as a child when neighbor Evelyn Nunn Miller let him into her studio to retrieve balls he had hit over her fence. He developed a love for California’s natural beauty. “I’m always impressed by the power of nature and the subtleties of nature,” Roberts said. “Everything I find outdoors, I find some aspect of it that strikes me.” He brought home the Artist’s Choice Award from Lahaina. “A lot of artists feel that’s kind of the best one because you’re judged by your peers,” Kroll-Roberts said. When setting out to paint in the open air of the Valley Isle, they each picked different things. For Roberts, it was the dramatic sea cliffs of the island’s north coast. For Kroll-Roberts, it was surfers riding the ocean waves. The pair enjoy art history and a similar taste and appreciation for painters such as Joaquin Sorolla, William Ritschel, David Park, Tom Thomson, Edgar Payne, Donna Schuster and Robert Henri. “I’m fascinated by art history,” Kroll-Roberts said. “I think it goes with it.” Peggi Kroll-Roberts was trained at Arizona State University and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. She worked as a fashion and advertising illustrator before making the transition into fine art. Roberts also attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He first pursued a career as an illustrator, establishing a studio in Los Angeles and then Scottsdale, Ariz., and switched to fine art in 1992. In Lodi, their “Focus on the Figure” exhibition will include an opening reception from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, which will include a figure painting demonstration at 1:30 p.m. at the gallery at 115 S. School St. Teaching is not new to the pair. They taught while raising three children in Arizona. “Through teaching, we’ve learned a lot about painting,” Roberts said. The couple have been married for 27 years and attended art school in Pasadena together but did not date until seven years later. “When she finally did go out with me … we dated for three weeks and then got married,” Roberts said. Their daughter Ali, 24, serves as her parents’ office manager and is often a model for figure paintings. She also dabbles in painting. |