Ranches & Rolling Hills

Landscape Art Show & Sale


About the Show
Ranches & Rolling Hills: Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust
A treasure of a book featuring images from the first 10 years of the art show
See some of the art from the 2009 show
Listen to interviews with some of the 2009 artists
How artists are selected
Ranches & Rolling Hills collection of full-color art greeting cards

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Since 1998, artists from Marin County and from Santa Barbara's Oak Group have participated in Ranches & Rolling Hills, a landscape art show and sale to benefit Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT). United by their admiration of the working landscape and their desire to help preserve it as a source of both human sustenance and artistic inspiration, the painters, photographers, and printmakers have created an exceptional collection of work which is available for sale just one weekend a year during the third weekend in May. These paintings and prints depict farms protected by MALT easements, ranches located in Point Reyes National Seashore, and other private farmlands—all of them reflecting the human and natural history that make West Marin such a special and beloved place. Fifty percent of all sales go to support Marin Agricultural Land Trust's work of preserving Marin County farmlands. Pictured above: Ane Carla Rovetta, Looking East Across the Dolcini Ranch, 10" x 13.5"

Marin Agricultural Land Trust is a private, member-supported, nonprofit organization created in 1980 by a coalition of ranchers and environmentalists to permanently preserve Marin County farmland. MALT eliminates the non-agricultural development potential on farmland through the acquisition of conservation easements in voluntary transactions with landowners. MALT also encourages public policies that support and enhance agriculture.

Some of the Bay Area's most highly acclaimed dairy products and organic crops, including Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, Straus Family Creamery dairy products, and Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese are produced from farmland protected by MALT conservation easements, which total almost 41,000 acres on 63 family farms and ranches.

When

The 2010 art show will take place on Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 16.

Where

The Druids' Hall is located on the village square in Nicasio, California.

Directions

From the Golden Gate Bridge or the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge:

Take Highway 101 north to Lucas Valley Road which is just past the Marin Civic Center. Go west on Lucas Valley Road for 10 miles. It ends at the intersection with Nicasio Valley Road. Turn right on Nicasio Valley Road which winds into the village of Nicasio. The Druid's Hall is located on the south side of the village square. Public parking is available all around the square. Limited handicapped parking is available at the Druid's Hall.

From Santa Rosa:

Take Highway 101 south to Lucas Valley Road. Go west on Lucas Valley Road for 10 miles. It ends at the intersection with Nicasio Valley Road. Turn right on Nicasio Valley Road which winds into the village of Nicasio. The Druid's Hall is located on the south side of the village square. Public parking is available all around the square. Limited handicapped parking is available at the Druid's Hall.

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John Iwerks, West Tomales Bay, 24" x 30"



How Artists are Selected

Part of what makes Ranches & Rolling Hills an experience that artists like is the camaraderie created before, during, and after the show. Artists selected for the show assist in hanging the exhibit, staffing it during the weekend event, and/or taking the show down.

Download the Ranches & Rolling Hills Artist Application Form for complete details about applying for participation in this event.

Participating Artists 2009

  • Meredith Brooks Abbott
  • Whitney Brooks Abbott
  • Krystal Allen
  • Martha Borge
  • Ralph Borge
  • Chris Chapman
  • Russell Chatham
  • John Comer
  • Dan Cooper
  • Christin Coy
  • Willard Dixon
  • Michael Drury
  • Michael Enriquez
  • Jon Francis
  • Kristin Garneau
  • Karen Gruszka
  • Susan Hall
  • Dana Hooper
  • Timothy Horn
  • John Iwerks
  • Larry Iwerks
  • Jeanette Le Grue
  • Richard Lindenberg
  • Manny Lopez
  • Rick Lyttle
  • Dan McCormick
  • Zee Zee Mott
  • Davis Perkins
  • Jeri Quinn
  • Ane Carla Rovetta
  • Rick Schloss
  • Wendy Schwartz
  • Suzanne Siminger
  • Gary Smith
  • Skip Smith
  • J. Thomas Soltesz
  • Nancy Stein
  • Arturo Tello
  • Millicent Tomkins
  • Thomas Van Stein
  • Sarah Vedder
  • Ward Walkup
  • Patricia Wallis
  • Thomas Wood



Press

Click here for information on the 2009 Ranches & Rolling Hills Landscape Art Show and Sale.

Ranches & Rolling Hills:
Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust

Ranches & Rolling Hills: Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust is a hard-cover book containing more than 135 full-color works of art selected from the first 10 years of Ranches & Rolling Hills, MALT's annual landscape art show and sale. The elegant 160-page large format book published by Windgate Press of Sausalito, contains essays by MALT's Associate Director, Elisabeth Ptak, by Jean Stern, Executive Director of the Irvine Museum, and by Michael Whitt, the show's co-founder and curator.

During the era of America's westward expansion in the mid-nineteenth century, countless artists were inspired by the luminous beauty of California. Prominent painters who visited the state at that time included Albert Bierstadt, William Keith, and others who illustrated both the native beauty and, later, the agrarian life that became an integral part of the landscape. This book is a collection of contemporary artworks in that tradition, but the images also stand on their own as representative of a new tradition, that of the artist as conservationist.

Read the book review published in Bay Nature Magazine.

"Marin Agricultural Land Trust has created...a legacy not only of conservation but also of art."
—Sue Rosenthal, Bay Nature Magazine

"It is a masterpiece."
Joan Collignon, Oakland Museum of California

"What a pleasure to see the rural landscape of West Marin captured so beautifully by the paintings featured in Ranches & Rolling Hills. The book is a delicious visual feast."
—Bonnie Ganglehoff, Southwest Art Magazine

"...an exquisite book!"
—Joan Rosen, photographer, Farming on the Edge

Click Ranches & Rolling Hills: Art of West Marin—A Land in Trust to order a copy for yourself. The book also makes a wonderful gift.


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