Library Exhibit

"‘Red Pajamas,"’ "‘Hummingbirds,"’ seascapes, more at Cal State L.A.

More than 40 works by artist Barbara Kimmel-Palmer—including many portraying children—are on display at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Cal State L.A. in an exhibit that runs through Friday, March 16.

Library visitors can view Kimmel-Palmer’s oil paintings and watercolor artworks, which include “A Window in Budapest,” “Best Friends,” “Hummingbirds,” “Red Pajamas,” “Toddler in Rain Puddle,” “Lotus in Echo Park,” “Water Lily in Shaw’s Garden,” and more.

Children, she says, are among her favorite subjects. “I love to paint them in their own little worlds, doing what children do,” explains Kimmel-Palmer. She adds that her favorite subjects include florals, seascapes, and shells.

Her underwater scenes and landscapes frequently begin with wet-into-wet techniques. She then develops the painting impressionistically until the subject matter develops a life of its own. Her paintings have been reproduced in needlepoint, greeting cards, and limited-edition lithographs.

Kimmel-Palmer’s artwork has been exhibited at Visions Gallery of Morro Bay, The Watercolor Gallery of Laguna Beach, Yorba Linda Art Gallery, and Village Art Gallery of Fullerton. She also exhibited at the Laguna Beach Art-A-Fair from 1990 to 2005, where many of her paintings were sold. In 2002, one of her paintings was selected for the annual Art-A-Fair festival poster.

Kimmel-Palmer began painting in oils with Sandra Bergeron more than 30 years ago and transitioned into watercolors about 15 years ago. A teacher at a Rowland Unified School District (RUSD) elementary school for more than 20 years, she ran the after-school art program and painted five large murals for the district. Her most recent mural, completed in 121 hours at Yorbita Elementary School in La Puente, extends 12 feet by 4 feet high on nine panels. After retiring from the district in 2004, Kimmel-Palmer moved to Prescott, AZ. She recently opened Mountain High Five Art Gallery with some local artists and she teaches watercolor workshops at her new gallery.

Cal State L.A. is located at the Eastern Avenue exit, San Bernardino (I-10) Freeway, at the interchange of the 10 and 710 Freeways. Public (permit dispenser) parking is available in Lot F or the top level of Parking Structure 2. (For campus map, go to www.calstatela.edu/univ/maps/cslamap.htm) The exhibit is open to the public and free of charge. For library hours or more information on the exhibit, please call (323) 343-4435.

CALENDAR

What:
Exhibition of Barbara Kimmel-Palmer’s paintings.

When:
Now through Friday, March 16, 2007.

Where:
John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, first floor, north wing, on the Cal State L.A. campus.

Info:
Free to the public. Call the University Library at (323) 343-4435.

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 190,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, to be housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center now under construction. www.calstatela.edu