Art in the Club

The Art Foundation of Santa Barbara took over the historic town club for its annual members’ art exhibition, which featured 45 works scattered throughout the venerable Chapala Street venue.

The Santa Barbara Club’s featured speaker was British artist and gallery owner Ralph Waterhouse, who with his wife, Diane, recently opened a new gallery on Coast Village Road to complement their longtime locale in La Arcada, founded in 1989.

Ralph started life as a graphic designer in the U.K.’s scenic Lake District, beloved by the Victorian children’s author Beatrix Potter, who bought innumerable farms in the area over her lifetime, donating them to the National Trust on her death to avoid them being developed.

His wildlife paintings led to international recognition, including being featured on BBC television. In the late ‘80s, he became inspired by the California landscape with its beautiful light, changing his focus to a much broader vista encompassing the whole landscape in plein air works.

His art, painted locally as well as in Tuscany and Nantucket, was shown to the 100 guests, including members of the Montecito Bank & Trust MClub, at a reception and dinner in the garden, including a Spanish Days poster and several large murals he was commissioned to paint for Santa Barbara Bank & Trust.

Ralph, 79, is a founding member of the Santa Barbara Art Dealers Association and chairman of the California Art Club, Central Coast chapter.

Among the supporters turning out to admire the works were Andrea Newquist, Simon Williams, Luke Swetland, Anne Luther, James and Erin Graffy de Garcia, Palmer and Susan Jackson, Brendon Twigden, Dirk Brandts and Maria McCall, Hiroko Benko, Frank McGinity, Katherine Murray-Morse, and foundation president Keith Moore, who was recently elected to the board of trustees of the San Francisco-based 173-year-old Society of California Pioneers.