Even after nine years of holding our Get Covered contest, we continue to be amazed by the high number of quality entries we receive. Art in Marin is indeed alive and well. This year was no exception, with more than 230 submitted pieces in mediums including painting, illustration and photography. We’re proud to introduce our winner and 12 finalists (in no particular order). Click through to each page to learn more about the artists and check out the gallery below to view the beautiful works of art created by our finalists and winner.
Marin Magazine's 2015 Cover Contest Winner
A MANAGER OF A thriving German entertainment complex known as the Dream Factory while in her 30s, Ingrid Lockowandt decided to leave it all behind and “go into the unknown.” For her, that meant a move to San Francisco.
“I was successful in work and it was fun, but I got burned out,” the artist says. “And when I got here I couldn’t speak English. It was a challenge to my ego; nobody cared what I’d done in Germany.”
After a few years of life on a houseboat in Sausalito, a move to Tiburon led to her meeting a woman who’d become a great friend — none other than author Anne Lamott. “Everyone hates the holidays when they are single,” Lockowandt says. “And for the last six years Annie has invited me to her house to celebrate.”
It was thanks to this meeting that the painter was able to finally finish a painting she had been trying to start for three years — the painting that would become Father and Son.
“I was walking in Tiburon and saw a man in jeans with a fishing rod and a boy carrying a big book,” she says. “I could not forget the image and wanted to re-create it.”
When she noticed Lamott’s son and grandson, the latter holding a large book, on the tour for the author’s Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son, she knew the subjects of Lamott’s book, Sam and Jax, would be perfect models for the painting she wanted to create.
So Lockowandt and the Lamotts ventured to many places, including the hills surrounding the San Geronimo golf course, to take photos to be used for the painting, which the artist would paint in a photo-realistic style. “It took one-and-a-half years to complete,” Lockowandt says. “But I couldn’t have done it without Sam’s support.”
Our 12 Finalists
EDY RABY: Although the Idaho native and San Rafael resident has lived in Marin since 1954, it was a childhood trip to San Francisco — where Edy Raby saw a still life painting in a gallery window and wanted to learn how to create something like it — that changed her life. Now a retired Reed Union School District teacher, Raby has returned to painting full time.
“This oil painting resulted from a fascination with light reflection,” she says, and “with our assumptions about the law of gravity and with magical moments of twilight.”
TERRY VICK: Terry Vick shares a sailboat with his wife in the Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael, but life on the boat doesn’t keep him from enjoying his five grandchildren and illustrating whenever he can.
“This Golden Gate Bridge picture was taken on 35 mm film in 1964 while I was driving my Volkswagen near the Presidio coastline hoping to get a good view of the bridge,” Vick says. “I scanned the 35 mm photo to my computer and did some retouching.”
TJASA OWEN: Starting at a very young age, Mill Valley’s Tjasa Owen always had a paintbrush in her hands. She grew up in a family of architects in New York and was influenced by art, color and design. But it was while living in France after college that Owen had the chance to photograph, sketch and paint daily.
“This piece,” she says, “was inspired by the beautiful spring colors and vistas around me here in Marin, combined with inspiration from my years living in France.”
TRICIA GEORGE: Since arriving in San Rafael from the East Coast 11 years ago, Tricia George has been mesmerized by the beauty of the land and the variety of birds and wildlife she encounters. The decorative artist loves to paint and has made wildlife the subject of her latest series entitled “Journey to the Soul.”
“I was walking near the estuary located in Corte Madera where I had the chance to see a group of American avocets wading in the shallow waters,” she says. “I was astounded by their coloration and the sound they would make as they would fly by.”
MARVIN BURKE: Marvin Burke of Novato has had a lifelong interest in art and studied history and aesthetic theory at the University of Michigan. He has also enjoyed an eclectic career that includes computer programming, finance, professional sailing and photography. Burke spent the last 15 years honing his skill in photography and just recently started entering competitions.
“I find the hummingbirds to be incredible,” he says. “Their speed and ability to rapidly change course is fun to watch and very challenging to photograph.”
EILEEN ORMISTON: This Marin Society of Artists member and 40-year-plus San Anselmo resident became fascinated with the brilliant color, luminosity and sparkle of watercolor at an early age after watching her grandmother paint. Eileen Ormiston’s favorite subjects include garden flowers, still life and the scenery of Marin County.
“I painted several small studies of this view as seen from the hills of Tiburon before completing the larger finished product,” she says. “Painting small studies en plein air gives me a feeling for the changing light, intensity of the colors and depth of the shadows in the landscape.”
NANCY CICCHETTI: This San Anselmo artist uses her own photos for inspiration. Nancy Cicchetti loves to focus on her travels, her daughter and experiences and moods when she picks up a brush. To her a painting is the beginning of a story; it is up to the viewer to complete the picture.
“I painted this from a photo that my husband took of me at Limantour Beach,” she says. “This photo catches me in a reflective moment, a moment only possible on this beach, and the title of the piece is a nod to the singer Neil Young.”
JANEY FRITSCHE: Art was always Janey Fritsche’s favorite subject. In grade school the Greenbrae resident won an Easter art contest and was featured on a local television program. Fear of becoming a starving artist convinced her to major in math and minor in art, but as it turns out, she gets plenty of time to paint when not working her high-tech day job.
“This painting was inspired by the afternoon light at Stinson this winter,” she says. “I was captivated by the misty orange transparency of the people between me and the sun and ocean, and the sparkling whiteness on the water.”
NANCIE BAILEY: While Nancie Bailey loves gardening, being a wife and mother of two girls and taking photos, nothing for her is really as much fun as meeting new people while exploring Marin and beyond in the family’s 21-window 1967 VW bus.
“This particular photograph was shot at the beautiful Cypress Grove Preserve just outside Marshall,” she says. “Clearly van life suits our youngest daughter.”
JUNE YOKELL: San Rafael’s June Yokell got her first exposure to painting while living on the East Coast and visiting her grandparents in the Adirondack Mountains. Her grandparents lived next to a painting school known as the Old Mill School, and Yokell saw her grandmother start painting at age 60. It didn’t take Yokell as long; she knew she wanted to be an artist by age 8.
“I’ve been working on California landscapes, specifically in regards to water or lack thereof,” she says. “I thought the brown hills on Ring Mountain told a story of how the lack of rain was impacting the landscape.”
SUZANNE SIMINGER: Suzanne Siminger of Tiburon found early artistic inspiration while traveling to her grandparents’ house with her parents and brothers. It was on these car trips that she became mesmerized by the beautiful light effects on the hills, the sunsets and even the light dancing off passing cars. Later, she earned a fine arts degree and spent 17 years as a courtroom and graphic artist for KGO-TV.
“Who can resist a s pr i ng l amb? ” Siminger says of this piece. “The Poncia Ranch is located in a verdant valley, so the sof t green pasture and misty hills in the background were too beautiful to pass up.”
MIGUEL FARIAS: Kentfield’s Miguel Farias moved to Marin when he was 2 and received his first camera when he was 8. He brought his Polaroid Land camera on a third-grade field trip to Point Reyes and fell in love with nature and photography. Growing up, Farias was mostly influenced by pop culture, animation, science fiction and punk rock.
“This photo was taken on a clandestine early-morning foray to Point Reyes to pick huckleberries for a pie to be baked later that day,” he says.