Two members of the Manteca Artists Guild are taking center stage in the Council Chambers at the Civic Center.
More than a dozen of the original paintings of Guild president Dan Voller and member Gary Wilson will be on display through the end of January 2011. They are open for public viewing during regular business hours at City Hall.
Wilson’s half of the collection are primarily scenic images done in acrylics, his medium of choice. Many of the captivating sceneries captured by his brush on canvas are products of his imagination. His collection is distinct, in one sense, from his art colleague in that his paintings are much larger with all of them in frames.
Voller’s images of familiar Manteca landscapes – many of them around the downtown business district – are executed in oil. Several of them are painted on the new type of canvas – thicker in depth than the ordinary canvas with the painting simply wrapped around it without the benefit of a picture frame. The sizes are also panoramic and don’t follow the traditional 8’x10” or 16”x20” configurations of most paintings. Another thing to look for in Voller’s paintings in central Manteca is his 20-year-old red Chevy pickup truck. You’ll find it even in the evening painting showing Yosemite Avenue at Christmas time with the Christmas tree lights glistening on the wet pavement.
Both artists are largely self-taught.
Wilson started his art training early on, beginning with drawing at age 5 and oil painting at 11. His first formal training came from his aunt who was a professional artist. The first award he received for a painting he has done happened during a high school art show. When he enlisted in the army, he continued painting even when he was stationed in Germany in 1971 where he later met his wife, Liesl.
After he was honorably discharged from military service, he took what he called a “European out” to marry his German sweetheart. In Bavaria in 1974, shortly before returning to America, Wilson did not want to be encumbered by all his paintings during the journey back home and sold everything he painted. He and his new bride settled in California where they have lived since.
The two continue to satisfy their wanderlust, however, and do a lot of traveling – many times by riding in their motorcycle. They have spent time in Canada, Hawaii, Ireland, Scotland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Liesl’s native country, Germany. Many of the photographs that Willson accumulated from these travels have found translations in many of his paintings.
Voller’s love of Callifornia’s Central Valley is evident in many of his nostalgic paintings. He started painting in 1984 using the many photographs and color sketches he has accumulated through the years as the basis for many of his oil creations. A lot of these are painted in his backyard art studio. But he has recently been doing a lot of painting plein air. In fact, one of the paintings in this exhibit at the Civic Center came from one of the Guild’s plein air expeditions – it’s a relatively small painting showing one of the colorful buildings in the downtown business district. It’s the building on the southeast corner of Yosemite Avenue and Sycamore Street, right across from the “Cow-munity” mural in the parking lot of Athens Burgers, the original site of the city’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken with the spinning bucket.
An industrial supervisor at the Deuel Vocational Institute in Tracy where he has worked for about two decades, Voller’s only art classes were taken while he was at Manteca High where he graduated in 1980. While he enjoys painting landscapes found around the area where he grew up, he has also produced out-of-the-box conceptual creations which have been snapped up at various art competitions where these paintings have won major first prize awards at the same time. One of his entries, for example, was the first one to be awarded Best of Show at the annual Lathrop Mayor’s Art Purchase Award Show and Sale. Another of his conceptual paintings won first place in the oils category at the annual Tracy Expressions Art Show.
Voller and his wife Patty are the parents of two grown children. Patty works for the San Joaquin County Office of Education.
More than a dozen of the original paintings of Guild president Dan Voller and member Gary Wilson will be on display through the end of January 2011. They are open for public viewing during regular business hours at City Hall.
Wilson’s half of the collection are primarily scenic images done in acrylics, his medium of choice. Many of the captivating sceneries captured by his brush on canvas are products of his imagination. His collection is distinct, in one sense, from his art colleague in that his paintings are much larger with all of them in frames.
Voller’s images of familiar Manteca landscapes – many of them around the downtown business district – are executed in oil. Several of them are painted on the new type of canvas – thicker in depth than the ordinary canvas with the painting simply wrapped around it without the benefit of a picture frame. The sizes are also panoramic and don’t follow the traditional 8’x10” or 16”x20” configurations of most paintings. Another thing to look for in Voller’s paintings in central Manteca is his 20-year-old red Chevy pickup truck. You’ll find it even in the evening painting showing Yosemite Avenue at Christmas time with the Christmas tree lights glistening on the wet pavement.
Both artists are largely self-taught.
Wilson started his art training early on, beginning with drawing at age 5 and oil painting at 11. His first formal training came from his aunt who was a professional artist. The first award he received for a painting he has done happened during a high school art show. When he enlisted in the army, he continued painting even when he was stationed in Germany in 1971 where he later met his wife, Liesl.
After he was honorably discharged from military service, he took what he called a “European out” to marry his German sweetheart. In Bavaria in 1974, shortly before returning to America, Wilson did not want to be encumbered by all his paintings during the journey back home and sold everything he painted. He and his new bride settled in California where they have lived since.
The two continue to satisfy their wanderlust, however, and do a lot of traveling – many times by riding in their motorcycle. They have spent time in Canada, Hawaii, Ireland, Scotland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Liesl’s native country, Germany. Many of the photographs that Willson accumulated from these travels have found translations in many of his paintings.
Voller’s love of Callifornia’s Central Valley is evident in many of his nostalgic paintings. He started painting in 1984 using the many photographs and color sketches he has accumulated through the years as the basis for many of his oil creations. A lot of these are painted in his backyard art studio. But he has recently been doing a lot of painting plein air. In fact, one of the paintings in this exhibit at the Civic Center came from one of the Guild’s plein air expeditions – it’s a relatively small painting showing one of the colorful buildings in the downtown business district. It’s the building on the southeast corner of Yosemite Avenue and Sycamore Street, right across from the “Cow-munity” mural in the parking lot of Athens Burgers, the original site of the city’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken with the spinning bucket.
An industrial supervisor at the Deuel Vocational Institute in Tracy where he has worked for about two decades, Voller’s only art classes were taken while he was at Manteca High where he graduated in 1980. While he enjoys painting landscapes found around the area where he grew up, he has also produced out-of-the-box conceptual creations which have been snapped up at various art competitions where these paintings have won major first prize awards at the same time. One of his entries, for example, was the first one to be awarded Best of Show at the annual Lathrop Mayor’s Art Purchase Award Show and Sale. Another of his conceptual paintings won first place in the oils category at the annual Tracy Expressions Art Show.
Voller and his wife Patty are the parents of two grown children. Patty works for the San Joaquin County Office of Education.
