LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Orinda Senior Village Artists to Showcase and Sell Work


Lamorinda art lovers will mix and mingle with artists from the Orinda Senior Village at a special exhibit and silent auction March 3. From left: Grace Bernal Werlin, Dolores Dockery, Lupe Jimeno, and Joan Dougherty. Photo Ohlen Alexander

Lovers of thought provoking art work will have a unique opportunity to diversify their collections when creative minds from the Orinda Senior Village (OSV) join forces with other East Bay artists during a special exhibit and silent auction March 3.

Pat Strout and roughly 15 of her Mt. Diablo Adult Education art students will exhibit alongside OSV residents Lupe Jimeno, Grace Bernal Werlin, Dolores Dockery, Joan Dougherty, and Richard Creda.They hope to see many Lamorindans and other area residents join in the bidding on photographs, jewelry, and paintings in oil, acrylic, and watercolor.

Creda has worked mostly in oil and acrylics while Dougherty has created abstracts and other stunning images in watercolor. Many Orindans are well acquainted with her work from classes she taught at the Orinda Community Center. Bernal's paintings are characterized by their vibrant images of the natural and built worlds while Jimeno has most recently worked in watercolor, bringing to life a village in France, a lakeside cottage from her native Chile, and California's redwood forests. In the early 1970s, she developed an interest in Mayan and Aztec textiles while living in Guatemala where she studied archaeology and anthropology.

Jewelry designer Dockery employs very special beads and other materials in her intricate jewelry creations. "My daughter was doing it, and I decided to give it a try," she said recently. One blue macramé necklace took her 11 hours to complete. The four others she designed in this style have already been sold to fans of her work.

Jimeno and her fellow OSV Association board members put the show together to support programs which are key to helping village residents age gracefully. "We made a list of all the things people want here ... of what they want to do," she said. OSVA members have already started making that wish list come true. Residents stay active with the help of a new ping pong table and through yoga classes, a garden club and Friday knitting club, special holiday and birthday celebrations, and trips to historic sites around the Bay Area. They've been having so much fun with their new karaoke machine, in fact, that they've asked the OSVA to purchase new songs in the many different languages spoken by their friends and neighbors.

The exhibit and silent auction will be held March 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Orinda Senior Village, 20 Irwin Way. Refreshments will be served, and a raffle will be held for a Loard's candy basket.