Source: Fallbrook Art Center

Wildlife Art Show in Fallbrook Comes Full Circle

FALLBROOK, Calif., March 3, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- On its 15th anniversary, the popular Reflections of Nature wildlife art show at the Fallbrook Art Center, has come full circle.

For the first time in several years, Gamini Ratnavira, the internationally known wildlife artist who founded the show, will be showing his work.

"I haven't exhibited in a couple of years," the Fallbrook resident said. "So this will be a homecoming of sorts for me."

Ratnavira joins 25 other artists from across the United States on May 3-4 at the Fallbrook Art Center (formerly Art Center at Fallbrook), a division of Fallbrook Center for the Arts, who will take part in the show, which Ratnavira described as "one of the biggest wildlife art shows on the West Coast."

Exhibiting at the show will be: Adele Earnshaw (Sedona, AZ), Lindsey Foggett(Forest Falls, CA), Joe Garcia (Julian, CA), Don Rambadt (Trevor, WI), Kim Shaklee (Brighton, CO) and Wes and Rachelle Siegrist (Townsend, TN).

"It's an impressive show," said Patricia Hansen, co-owner of Ramona, Calif.-based Wildlife Art magazine. "They bring in a lot of well respected artists."

The show in many ways reflects Fallbrook's agrarian roots and is recognition of its vital arts community.

"Fallbrook is known for its avocados," explains Ratnavira. "It also needs to be known for something else -- its contribution to the arts."

Thanks in part to Sri Lankan-born Ratnavira and other visionaries from the community, Fallbrook is home to dozens of galleries, an art school and hundreds of resident artists who are known around the world.

He founded the show in 1994 as a fundraiser for the Fallbrook Land Conservancy, a nonprofit agency whose mission is to acquire and maintain open space throughout the community. Like the first show, a portion of the proceeds from this year's show also will be donated to the conservancy.

"Land preservation and wildlife are part of the fabric of our rural community," said Mary Perhacs, executive director of the Fallbrook Art Center. "As a stopover on the natural migratory flyway for wild birds and part of the land bridge for the California mountain lion, what better place to view wildlife art."

In addition to world class wildlife artwork, the two-day show is a great opportunity to interact with the artists, whose work will be displayed in two adjacent venues. The Art Center's 3,500-square-foot Janice Griffiths Gallery will house the two-dimensional artists working in a variety of media that include oil, pastel, pen and ink, scratchboard, acrylic, watercolor and collage. Across the street in the Village Square, sculptors will present their works in bronze, stone, steel and wood.

A weekend ticket to the 15th Annual Wildlife Art Show is $5. The Art Center is located at 103 South Main Street. Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Call (760) 728-1414 or go to: www.fallbrookart.org

For more information and photos of the exhibits contact: