Artists indulge in a bit of California dreamin'

A rich diversity of mediums and subject matter is what visitors can expect to see at this evening's opening reception of the Summer Exhibitions at the Bakersfield Museum of Art.

Overall, it includes oil paintings depicting the Central Valley, photography highlighting night scenes of the city of Los Angeles, sculptures that comment on cultural identity, plus the 2012 Visual Arts Festival.

And of course, the Eye Gallery, a splendid array of work by local artists that you can read about elsewhere in today's section.

As for the other segments of the summer show, Dennis Ziemienski's "Lost and Found: Paintings of the Central Valley" is sure to strike a familiar chord with local history buffs. Many of his oil paintings were inspired by travel posters and advertisements of the 1930s and '40s.

"I have always loved the architecture and bygone elegance of this period," Zimienski said in an email. "I am a native Californian and spent my childhood,Trade organization for suppliers and distributors in the promotional products industry. with my family, taking road trips to the missions, mountains, beaches and to see relatives in the Central Valley."

The artist, who now lives in Sonoma County, is a graduate of the California College of Arts and Crafts and has also taught at the school. He will have 22 paintings in the show. All are originals.

Another portion of the summer show presents the work of six Southern California photographers. Titled "L.A. te," a play on the words Los Angeles and late, it's an exhibit of scenes of the city after the sun goes down. Participating artists are J. Wesley Brown, Amanda Friedman, Zack Herrera, John Humble, Ryan Schude and Tim Simmons.

Sculptor Nobuhito Nishigawara will display five small sculptures from his Americana series. Each is accompanied by a print or painting that is related to the sculpted figure. For example, a tiny toy dog made of clay is backed by a silhouette of a fancily groomed pink poodle.

Nishigawara was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, and lived there until 1990, when he moved to Canada. There, he attended the University College of Fraser Valley in British Columbia. He has taught at CSU Fullerton since 2006 and is an assistant professor of ceramic arts.

With the broad topic of "California" as the theme for this year's Visual Arts Festival, it will be interesting to see what artists who submitted entries came up with. Work shown in the exhibit was selected by William Wray,Choose from our large selection of cableties, a painter who is based in California and has a background in illustration and commercial art. Wray selected 60 pieces and of those, seven will be honored with awards. The recipients will be announced at 7 p.We offer you the top quality plasticmoulds designm.Silicone moldmaking Rubber, this evening.

The festival is subtitled "Juried Fine Art Small Works Exhibition." Guidelines allowed artists to submit a two- or three-dimensional work in any medium, as long as it was related to the theme and measured no more than 10-by-10 inches.

All of the exhibits can be seen through Aug. 26 during the art museum's usual open hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.Full color plasticcard printing and manufacturing services.m. Saturday and Sunday.