Baywood Artists
In 1996, Zenaida Mott, Lissa Nicolaus and Sherrill Miller were sharing a studio in San Anselmo, California. They were coincidentally approached by Mary Welch, the then director of MarinScapes, a fine art show that benefits Buckelew Programs in Marin County. It was suggested that since these artists all painted landscapes, they could do something to also preserve the land they loved to paint. They discussed the formation of a plein air artist group that would partner with a non-profit environmental group each year to produce an art show to raise funds and to bring awareness to Bay Area environmental causes.
The mission of the BayWood Artists is to protect and preserve the landscape by raising awareness of and making donations to environmental causes through fine art exhibitions and sales, and by promoting the tradition of plein air painting in California.
The BayWood Artists is a unique and diversified group of professional artists who share a passion for saving and preserving our San Francisco Bay Area environment. As artists we feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of our country and to be able to enjoy the unspoiled and undeveloped land that is all around us. One day we might hike up Mount Tamalpais to find the perfect view, canoe down the Russian River or set up our easels near the wetlands along the San Francisco Bay. We feel that we can contribute to the preservation of this treasure by capturing its beauty in our art. BayWood Artists contribute one half of the proceeds from our sales to one of the many environmental groups involved with preserving these lands, shores and waterways.
We all bring our own personal style and talent to one unified goal, to create our own vision of the landscape and then to share it with like-minded supporters. We find great satisfaction in creating beautiful art that stands alone and serves as a vehicle to perpetuate our unique environment.
How it began…
BayWood Artists was formed with a group of ten professional artists in 1997. Their first exhibition was held at St. John’s Church in Ross partnering with San Anselmo Open Space in preserving Hawthorne Canyon. The BayWood Artists have remained small in size with about ten to twelve members with guest artists added every year. They produce about one hundred and twenty original fine art paintings for their shows with fifty percent of the proceeds going to the environmental organization.
“I am a huge fan of the BayWood Artists and the important contributions they make to our appreciation of the Bay Area’s magnificent open space heritage and to our determination to enhance and preserve it for generations to come. Through their evocative art, they help us see our landscape with fresh eyes. Through their generous support of local conservation organizations, they help us protect the very scenes they paint. Each of the BayWood Artists portrays our environment in wonderfully different ways, but they are all bound by common threads of affection for the nature of our home and for its daily needs to be nurtured by us all.” -Doug McConnell, Creator and Host of television’s “Open Road”
“This group of professional landscape artists shares a common bond- a passion for painting matched by an equal passion for helping preserve our remaining Bay Area open spaces for future generations. I wish them well, as ultimately, it is through groups like the BayWood Artists that we can help save not only our remaining open land, but also perhaps some of the lands already ‘lost’. -David Brower, 1912-2000; Sierra Club Executive Director; Founder of Earth Island Institute and Founder of Friend of the Earth.
List of organizations we have partnered with since 1997:
One Tam – http://www.onetam.org
Point Reyes National Seashore Assoc. – http://www.ptreyes.org
Save the Bay – http://www.savesfbay.org
Marin Open Space – http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/PK/Main/mcosd/home.asp
Marin Open Space Trust – http://www.marinopenspacetrust.org
Save Mount Diablo – http://www.savemountdiablo.org/AboutSMD.htm
Angel Island Association – http://angelisland.org
Russian River Keepers – http://www.russianriverkeeper.org
Marin Conservation League – http://www.marinconservationleague.org
Tamalpais Conservation Club – http://www.tamalpais.org
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy – http://www.parksconservancy.org
Bay Area Ridge Trail – http://www.ridgetrail.org
Marin Baylands Advocates – http://www.marinbaylands.com
Save the Bolinas Lagoon – http://www.bolinaslagoon.org/about/about.html
San Anselmo Open Space – http://home.comcast.net/~crawford.b/SAOSC/index.htm
West Point Inn – http://www.westpointinn.com
Farrallones Sanctuary – http://farallones.noaa.gov
Atrium Gallery, Marin General Hospital – http://www.marincancerinstitute.org
Greenbelt Alliance – http://www.greenbelt.org
Tiburon Arts and Heritage Commission – http://www.ci.tiburon.ca.us/links/index.asp