The Sonoma 8 is a group of professional artists who got together with the goal of supporting and encouraging each other in the creation of their art. Each member has many years experience and they all have been involved in the plein air movement of landscape painting. Now they are in the process of exploring and pushing the boundaries of realistic and abstract painting to achieve a higher level of creativity and emotional impact. At their first meeting they discovered they all had a similar goal in mind. They wished to paint “outside the box”. The artists are unique in their view of this concept and it shows in the individuality of their art. The group encourages each other to follow their own muse and not conform to some group plan.
The group originally started with eight artists but are now six. They are Joyce Delario, Pat Spiz and Andrea Way of Petaluma, Kath Root, Chris Stover and Henry Violin of Sebastopol. They work in various media including oils, watercolor, pastel and acrylics.
