Orland art show offers pictures and bowls

Photographer and wood turner Judith Clever is offering an eclectic display of her work this month in Orland.

Her show is featured in the Orland Center for the Arts Gallery under the theme “From Sunrise to Sunset and in Between,” and it runs through Oct. 15.

An artist’s reception is scheduled tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at the gallery, 1016 South St. in the Stony Creek Square Center.

The San Francisco native moved to Orland three years ago following her retirement from the California State Parks maintenance division.

She has been taking pictures since childhood and is featuring some of her early work taken on a cross-country vacation with her parents in 1959 with an old brownie camera.

Clever then displays some of her first works with a 35 mm. camera and moves on into recent photos shot with a Canon S-5 digital, she said.

Nature and landscapes are her favorite subjects, she said. “I do not do a lot of people photography unless it is candid (they don’t know you are shooting them),” Clever said. “You get better shots that way.”

Photos of the Grand Tetons, Niagara Falls, Mt. Rushmore and other historic places are in the exhibit along with shots of wildlife, birds, cats, dogs and horses. There are also photos of Bay area scenes and a sunrise in Orland. Flowers also are featured in the show.

Clever said she likes to do projects as a series, so many of the photos are in that format. However, she will sell the framed photographs individually or as a group, she said.

Clever got into wood turning last year and has several beautiful pieces on display in the show. They include wooden bowls, a potpourri bowl and letter openers carved from unique pieces of scrap wood.

She said her interest in wood dates back to the 1970s when she worked in Soquel for a guy who made redwood burl and myrtle wood jewelry and bowls.

“One of my first toys other than an electric train was a tool box,” Clever said. “The first thing I ever built was a sand box, but we had no sand – so I turned it upside down and made a stage.”

Her bowls are made of redwood, myrtle wood, cedar, maple and sycamore, she said. Some are usable for kitchen serving and others are simply suitable for decoration – depending on the type of wood.

The letter openers take her about two weeks to make and include pieces made from walnut, cherry, pistachio, and olive wood from Oregon, she said. They range in price from $15 for a single opener to $25 for a pair.

The bowls can take up to a year to finish, Clever said, depending on the wetness of the wood.

Clever has boxes of more photographs ready to be put up should the walls of the gallery clear out.

”If somebody buys something, I’ve got more to hang on the wall,” she said.

The art show is sponsored by the Orland Arts and Cultural Commission. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and interested visitors are welcome to stop by and check out its activities.