A Colorful Opening

To the charming Danish community of Solvang, just 45 minutes north on the 101, for Santa Barbara artist Mara Abboud’s latest exhibition at the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature.

Mara, sister of menswear designer Joseph Abboud, in 2014 designed the Granada Theatre’s 90th anniversary celebration poster and in 1980 was named Artist of the Year at the Santa Barbara Arts Festival. She has staged more than 25 one-woman exhibitions.

Her works, interweaving a palette of striking colors, achieve a jewel-like tapestry effect reminiscent of tiles and stained glass.

Mara, a good friend of the museum’s director Stacey Otte-Demangate, is donating a portion of the proceeds from the show Visions of Beauty in the Valley Oak Gallery to the institution, which opened its doors in 2000 on ancestral land of the Santa Ynez tribe of Chumash Indians.

It was quite the turnout for the colorful exhibit, which runs through November 12, with Anne Towbes, actress Bo Derek and her actor beau John Corbett, Geonine Moriarty, Jelinda and Daniel DeVorzon, Nina Terzian, Kathryn Martin, Maria McCall, and Dirk Brandts.