Auction benefits art museum

Event raises $120,000 to fund programs at Laguna Art Museum.Laguna Art Museum grossed $120,000 Saturday night at the 23rd annual art auction.

The gross take was higher than in 2004. Fewer paintings were sold, but at higher prices -- an estimated 20% higher. Proceeds will benefit the museum’s education and exhibition programs.

About 400 people attended the event, at which works by 157 artists were put on the block in either the silent or the live auction.

The auction included the work of 47 emerging artists juried into the auction and works by 108 artists invited to participate.

All but 33 of the pieces in the auction sold Saturday night, and a few more were bought Sunday when high bidders picked up their purchases.

High bid of the evening was $5,200 for a Laddie John Dill piece, “Jade.” The second-highest bid was $4,800 for Jeffrey Gillette’s “Los Angeles,” which was juried into the show.

“It’s nice to see all the new influx of artists, and I really like the All-California Theme,” said invited artist G. Ray Kerciu.

“The silent auction was closed in 15-minute increments, which really focused people,” museum spokesman Stuart Byer said.

“We had a lot of positive comments about the changes in format,” Byer said.

Juried newcomer Masami Tsuchikawa’s untitled white porcelain piece drew a considerable audience.

The mixed-media piece of clay buttons pinned on drywall was a departure for Tsuchikawa.

“I usually do site-specific pieces directly on walls,” the artist said.

Tsuchikawa handcrafted each of the buttons of Australian porcelain clay, which she favors for its whiteness.

The auction was Tsuchikawa’s first participation in a Laguna museum event. She has lived in the United States for eight years.

California gallery owners, including Laguna’s Peter Blake, served as a juror for the auction.

“I am proud to announce that in its 23rd year, the auction is the oldest ongoing museum auction in Southern California,” Director Bolton Colburn said.

“It is also the Laguna Art Museum’s largest artist-centered fundraiser, providing critical support for the museum’s education and exhibition programs.

“I want to thank this year’s gracious auction committee chair, Bob Dietrich, and the very capable committee consisting of Marsha Daniels, Nancy Englund, Chris Hoff and Chris Lutz,” he said.

The Dietrichs also were bidders at the auction.

“It’s wonderful, and we have absolutely no place to put it,” Linda Dietrich said of the artwork they purchased.

An auction format is geared to stimulate purchases, but some art lovers need little encouragement.

“My wife has never seen a painting she didn’t like,” said museum advisory board chairman Matt Lawson.

Johanna Felder, a museum board member, and her husband Gene bid on Paul Paiement’s “Hybrids B-Stephanorrhina Trashcana.”

Although from Long Beach, Paiement tapped into the Laguna psyche with his painting of a bug whose body was a trash container in a brilliant parrot green.

The auction included works by artists familiar in Laguna Beach.

“I have been in almost every show [auction],” photographer and gallery owner Mark Chamberlain said.

Other long-time Laguna artists in the auction included Joan Corman, whose submitted piece, “Hunkered Down,” depicting a duck holed up in some weeds, was a change in genre from the lush florals for which she is noted.

Artist Patricia Turnier also turned her attention to wildlife. She identified the critter trapped inside of three different metal meshes as a lizard.

Other local participants invited to participate included Cathy Bartels, Barbara Berk, Wolfgang Bloch, Brenda Bredvik-Madison, Cynthia Britain, Gabriel Burchman, Brigette Burns, Gene R. Cooper, John Cosby, Paul Darrow, Pam Deily, Anne England, Karen Feuer-Schwager, Rob Gage, Jacques Garnier, Jennifer Griffiths, Julita Jones, Kathy Jones, Leonard Kaplan, Niclas Kruger, Lynn Kubasek, Tom Lamb, Walter Reiss, Terry Reno, Suzette Rosenthal, Jon Seeman, Fred Stodder, Ralph Tarzian, Rachel Uchizono, Marianne Van der Veer, Patricia Whiteside Phillips and Steve Zoller.

The highest artist-valued work in the invitational was “Quantum Space I,” by Antonio Arellanes, at $18,000. It did not sell.

Locals juried into the auction included Amada Erlinger, Jeff Koegel, David Linnig and Ron Pastucha.

The museum is the oldest cultural institution in Orange County. It is located at 307 Cliff Drive on the corner of North Coast Highway and is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Admission is $9 for adults, $5 for seniors and students. For more information, call (949) 494-8971.