New watercolors by Half Moon Bay artist Jennifer Roberts Almodova in her solo exhibition, Pink is the Daughter of Red, on view January 6 – February 24, presented by M Stark Gallery. Roberts Almodova paints vivid colorful gardens full of quiet drama. Reception for the artist on Sunday, January 7, from 1-4. M Stark Gallery, 727 Main Street, Saturdays 12-5, Sundays 12-4 and by appt., mstarkgallery.com, 415-407-8743
Roberts Almodova’s flowers are wild and unkempt, memorialized in situ before the beauty queens are chosen for composed arrangements. The name of her solo exhibition Pink is the Daughter of Red, reminiscent of poetry by Irish poet Mary O’Neill (1879 – 1967), captures the opera of unremarkable gardens. In her paintings she records the divine drama of nature playing out among the herbaceous plants, the short and fragile life cycles of pollinators, and small fauna thriving in sunlight and shadow. While red is associated with the human passions, pink represents friendship, affection, harmony, inner peace, and compassion.
Every painting is infused with the artist’s memory of the beauty of nature. Roberts Almodova grew up in Orange County in an orange orchard and vividly remembers smelling the intoxicating perfume of the creamy orange blossoms as she walked to school. After her family’s groves collapsed, her mother became a self-trained horticulturist, landscaping the grounds with Monterey Pines, magnolias, roses, azaleas, and irises. As an undergraduate Roberts Almodova studied art and art history at Scripps College, which was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style and is considered to be one of the most beautiful campuses in the United States. She received her Master’s in sculpture from San Francisco State University, where she studied with Stephen de Staebler and Robert Bechtle. Her years teaching art and practicing art therapy on the island of Kauai also inform her practice. In such a verdant setting, her understanding of the role of nature’s beauty in her own life and her love of color advanced even further. She taught watercolor painting and color theory at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for thirty years before retiring in 2022. Today, Roberts Almodova lives in Half Moon Bay on a street with exquisite gardens, including hers, and visits the renowned gardens of Filoli often.
Jennifer has been a member of the Half Moon Bay art community for over thirty years. Before retiring, Jennifer taught watercolor painting and color theory at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco from 1992-2022.
