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5/3/2017 3:08:22 PM

Ranches and Rolling Hills Art Show - 20th Anniversary 2017

January Morning-Gale Ranch, 15x30", oil

What a beautiful Spring we're having this year after all that much needed rain. The verdant hills and fields serve as a large and very fresh "salad bowl" for all the happy cows, sheep, and goats on the MALT ranches in West Marin in Northern California. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Ranches & Rolling Hills Art Show benefitting the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. It will be my 18th year as one of 36 participating artists that come together each year the third weekend in May to create one of Northern California's most prestigious art shows.

Spring at the Gale Ranch, 5x24", oil

This year I have spend quite a bit of time at the Chileno Valley Ranch owned by my friends Mike and Sally Gale. I have been ranch sitting on several occasions and this has given me some great opportunities to collect amazing subject matter for my paintings. Sally's Katahdin sheep are my favorite, especially since I have been helping to bottle feed some of the "bummer lambs", ones that the ewe refuses to feed for one reason or another. The bummer lambs become attached to humans and follow you around as if you were the mom. Last year there was Nutmeg who still remembers me, and he'll come up and want to say hi and have a good chin scratch whenever I visit. This year there's Alice, a beautiful white bummer lamb. Needless to say, one can't help but fall in love with these wonderful creatures. I always look forward to my ranch visits when I can spend time with the animals whether they be the chickens, dogs, cows, or sheep...and of course Mike and Sally too!

I truly look forward to creating paintings for the Ranches & Rolling Hills art show every spring. It gives me great satisfaction to be painting for a show that benefits such an important cause where 50% of proceeds from the sale of artwork will go to saving precious ranch land and guaranteeing that the protected ranches remain as they are, never to be developed. For more than 30 years, Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) has worked with local families to save their farms and ranches. So far MALT has protected, as "farmland forever", 80 farm families on more than 48,500 acres of farmland.

Marin's farms provide delicious milk and cheese, meat, vegetables, fruit and wine to people in the Bay Area and beyond. With the public parks that surround them, farms preserve a contiguous open landscape that is home to abundant wildlife, verdant grasslands, sparkling streams and dense woods. Ranching families have faithfully cared for this working landscape for many generations, guarding an extraordinary place unlike anywhere else in the world.

For more information on MALT and the art show please visit their website: http://www.malt.org/art-show

ChristinCoy.com

Good Morning - Gale Ranch, 12x9", oil

9/1/2016 8:06:28 PM

Mt.Tamalpais - BayWood Artists Benefit Art Exhibit for One Tam

Christin Coy / Comment on this

Mill Creek - Mill Valley, 12x24", o/c

I have been hiking the trails on Mt. Tam for over 40 years, and it's one of my very favorite places to spend time out in nature. There are trails through the Redwoods and trails with spectacular views over the San Francisco Bay and the blue Pacific. The weather can be anywhere from bright sunshine to heavy fog, depending on the time of year, and still amazing either way. This year my painting group, the BayWood Artists, is painting Mt.Tam for our annual benefit art exhibit for One Tam, titled As We See It - BayWood Artists Paint the Spirit of the Mountain. One Tam, the community initiative of the Tamalpais Lands Collaborative, seeks to raise awareness about the need to maintain the long-term health of Mt. Tam, engaging more volunteers in caring for its treasured resources, and renew the spirit of philanthropy that has been so fundamental to its preservation over the past century. The BayWood Artists was formed 19 years ago and is a unique and diversified group of professional artists who share a passion for saving and preserving our San Francisco Bay Area environment.

Winter Afternoon - Mt.Tam 8x48", o/c

From a landscape painter's point of view, Mt. Tam is always an inspiring subject matter whether one is on the mountain or looking at it from a multitude of vantage points around the Bay Area. For this show, I have painted the mountain from various locations around Marin. The subject matter is one that could keep an artist like myself inspired for a life time of painting. One of my favorite times of day to capture Mt.Tam is the late afternoon when the sun angle is low and the shadows long. This summer I have spent quite a bit of time looking at the mountain from Ring Mountain, which gives the viewer a sweeping view of Mt.Tam's iconic silhouette. It was fun painting some of the winding roads up on the mountain as well. I also did a small 8x6" painting of the Fire Lookout which sits atop the mountain. Every summer the lookout is manned by volunteers who keep an eye out for potential wild fires in the area, a lonesome job but a very essential one.

Our show, As We See It -BayWood Artists Paint the Spirit of the Mountain, will be held on October 1 & 2 at the Mill Valley Community Center. 50% of the proceeds from the sale of the art work will go to help One Tam continue their mission. The event is free to everyone, and for more information please visit BayWoodArtist.org and OneTam.org. The BayWood Artists website has a preview of several of the paintings that will be featured in the exhibit. We hope to see you there!

West Ridgecrest Blvd. - Mt.Tam, 6x8", oil

3/11/2012 10:47:04 PM

Ranches & Rolling Hills - MALT Art show and sale 2012

Christin Coy / Comment on this

Spring is here a bit early this year with daffodils and fruit trees in full bloom. I have been visiting some beautiful West Marin MALT ranches, painting and collecting images for this year's 15th Annual "Ranches & Rolling Hills" art show. Three years ago I painted a portrait of a sheep named Torpedo on Al Poncia's ranch in Tomales. He was one of the 'bum' lambs raised by Anita, Al Poncia's mom, in her laundry room. A 'bum lamb' is one that is rejected by the mother ewe and therefore has either be hand fed or attached to another ewe. He became very tame and for a long time loved people more than his own kind. A couple of weeks ago I made a visit to the ranch and Torpedo was grazing out in the field. When I called his name, he came ambling over to the car and almost hopped in to see what I had in my cooler. I knew he liked apple, so I quickly pulled one out and cut off little pieces to give him. Torpedo loved it and soon had eaten the whole apple. He scratched my leg, just like a dog, begging for more. What a character! I gave him some good back scratches, which he gladly accepted, before he ambled off into the pasture with his flock.

I decided I had to paint another portrait of this friendly guy, and so he will once again make an appearance at the "Ranches & Rolling Hills" Art show to be held in Nicasio on May 19th and 20th, 2012. Make sure to mark your calendars and come out West to see a great show featuring over 40 well known California artists' works of art. Fifty percent of the art sales will go to benefit Marin Agricultural Land Trust so that they can enable Marin ranchers to continue working their land. The event is free to the public. Please visit "Ranches & Rolling Hills Art Show" for more information about this event. Hope to see you there....