Calendar / Demos

January 25, 2025, Installation and Awards Luncheon, Harry’s Hofbrau, Trophy Room, 11:30am-1:00pm: Members may bring spouses or guests to this meeting as it is our only annual social get together.  This is a no-host event.  After installing our 2025 Officers, we will also present our Annual Popular Vote and Sable Brush winners.  If you are unable to join us, your award ribbon and check may either be mailed or presented to you at the February meeting. 

February 26, 2025, Jim Caldwell (art history), Zoom presentation, 7:00pm: Jim Caldwell, artist, teacher, art historian, architect, and long -time Woodside resident will speak about Mary Cassatt’s brilliant and fascinating career. Mary Cassatt holds a unique place in the history of American artists. She spent 60 years in France and she was the only American to have exhibited with the impressionists. . She never married or had children, but her reputation was secured by her tender portrayal of the relationship between mother and child. She was a close friend of Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro. Her paintings are in the collections of most major museums, but she was also considered to be one of the greatest print makers of her generation.

March 26, 2025, Rafael DeSoto, Jr. (watercolor), in-person, 7:00pm: Rafael is a lifelong artist who’s father was a renowned New York illustrator.  This fostered an informal maestro-apprentice way of learning traditional art that no school could ever offer.  During his teens and early 20s Rafael participated in many seasonal outdoor art festivals, from Florida to Maine, and won several awards as a young artist.  He augmented his fine art pursuits with a degree in advertising art and illustration, and has worked as a graphic designer throughout his career. Rafael is a self-taught digital artist.  An early adopter of Photoshop, he also worked at Adobe as a QA engineer.  In the mid-90s Rafael moved to Silicon Valley where he was employed as an art director and senior designer for notable high tech companies including SGI, Adobe, Apple and other marketing design firms.  He is now retired from commercial art and paints every day. Rafael conducts public art classes around the San Francisco Bay Area, and holds private classes in his San Carlos studio.  He is a member of Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society, the Pacific Art League, the Burlingame Art Society, the Society of West-Coast Artists, and the Los Gatos Art Association.  He exhibits locally and nationally and has received numerous awards.  Visit his artwork on his website.

May 28, 2025, Aaron Alvarez Mendoza (photography), in-person, 7:00pm: Aaron will be presenting a photo slideshow-style talk and will discuss general photography techniques relevant to each slide including lighting and equipment. Subcategories will include landscape, long exposure, studio, and magazine cover photos, as well as insights into “the art of the deal” in photography. Aaron Alvarez Mendoza is a photographer and visual artist passionate about the power and beauty of nature, digital photography, traveling to remote locations, community and his family. Aaron has been a part of nonprofit organizations for the past 20+ years, for example, as Visual Art Director at the Riekes Center, and he is currently the official photographer for four different private magazines. Aaron says, “As an artist, I joined Art Bias because it was an opportunity to grow my network among artists, art collectors, art enthusiasts and supporters. Now Joining the Art Bias Board will build my leadership skills to the next level.” If you don’t find Aaron working at his Art Bias studio #221, you might find him working at his new small gallery space, Silk and Stone, at 714 Kelly Avenue in Half Moon Bay.

June 25, 2025, Sonja Hamilton (watercolor), Zoom presentation, 7:00pm: Award winning San Francisco born artist, teacher, art show judge, Sonja Hamilton, S.W.A., is noted for her fluid, concise watercolors, whether landscapes, seascapes or florals. She was graduated from San Jose State University with a BA Degree and holds a Lifetime Special Teaching Credential in Art, has exhibited widely, with paintings in private collections in the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, Mexico, Great Britain and France. Sonja has taught in adult education for more than 40 years, and has had several workshops in Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Nevada. She was an instructor on a tours in Italy & Greece, the Canadian Rockies, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Belgium. In 1999, Sonja was a demonstrating artist and lecturer in China. Sonja is affiliated with Auburn Old Town Gallery, Auburn, CA, Yosemite Art & Education Center, and is listed in “Who’s Who of Business & Professional Women, 1999”. She was the recipient of the Grumbacher Gold Medallion Award in 1996, cover artist for Sure West 2008 telephone book and in 2007 & 2008, two of her paintings were selected for corporate holiday cards to be sent around the world. Sonja’s reference book, “Watercolor – It’s only a piece of paper” was published in 2015. She says of her work, “Although I draw and paint in many mediums, I find watercolor exciting, spontaneous, and challenging. When I paint, my cares leave and I become totally immersed in what I’m doing. Watercolor is a joy – exhilarating, yet most relaxing for me. It is who I am.

September 24, 2025, Amy Rattner (watercolor), in-person, 7:00pm: Amy Storey Rattner lives in Woodside, California, with her husband, two sons and two Bernese mountain dogs. She graduated from Stanford University with a BA and MA in English and started her career in graphic design before discovering her passion for fine art in 2006 while taking classes at the Pacific Art League (PAL) in Palo Alto. She has not put the brush down since. After attending an intensive water media workshop in Taos, New Mexico, led by famed watercolor artists Skip Lawrence, Christopher Schink, Fran Larsen, and Katherine Chang Liu, Amy discovered a new, fresh style of painting that is uniquely her own.