Artist of the Month- Jan Vick

Jan’s first foray into art was through painting – first oils and then acrylic. Jan began seriously practicing
photography nearly 40 years ago when she moved to the Bay Area from Sacramento. After taking a couple of courses at the local community college, she started working exclusively in black and white film and ultimately had her own darkroom – in her bathroom. Her genre of choice was small area landscapes with interesting shapes. Jan met her husband Gene in 1985 and moved on his boat. No more dark- room. So, Jan switched gears and began using color films. She and Gene began the first of many trips both on his motorcycle and by car. She started specializing in landscapes and would bring home at least 12 rolls of 36 exposure film to be processed after every excursion. The era of digital photography expanded her potential, so she ditched film for digital that she could process on her computer.

Jan became fascinated with the small pieces of landscapes, though she continued to try to get interesting viewpoints of somewhat standard scenes. She began looking for interesting segments of buildings, trees, rocks etc. One of her favorite places to visit was the Monterey/Pacific Grove area, particularly the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Over the years, and many visits, she determined how to take moving animals in a dark habitat using no flash. As her cameras improved, so did her pictures, and her most satisfying achievement was a good picture of a mola mola, one of the two heaviest known bony fish in the world.

After moving to the Delta in 1995, Jan started specializing in photos of this area. Originally, Jan and Gene lived on the Loop – the land of stupendous sunsets. She commuted to Sacramento for work, usually via the river roads. She would explore different roads coming home and often rode the ferries in the summer. She made note of places to pull off and take pictures. In recent years, Jan became interested in mixed media and assemblage using ideas and pictures from travels with Gene. These were a lot of fun, though done mostly for her own enjoyment and have not been shown much; that may change. Age has somewhat limited both the desire and ability to make frequent forays into nature, but she still tries to get out, particularly to photograph the winter birds that congregate in the Delta.

Jan’s artist reception is October 19 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.

The RioVision Gallery, at 116 Main Street, is open Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 3 pm and features an amazing variety of paintings, photography, 3-D pieces, wearable art, and jewelry. See’s Candies are also sold as a fundraiser to help support the gallery. Drop by and visit with the artists who volunteer their time to keep it open.