Laguna's Beaches, Second to None.

Laguna Beach boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in California. The city's seven miles of picturesque Pacific coastline features plenty of pristine sandy beaches. Throughout the year, you'll find beachgoers of all ages soaking up the sun and enjoying all the great activities you'll find in Laguna Beach. Map of Laguna Beaches.

Lounging in the soft, warm sand is only the beginning of what you can do here at the beach. Surfing and skimboarding are popular among locals and visitors. With up to 15-foot waves, the coves along Laguna Beach's coastline are home to some of the best waves in southern California. Or, cast a line and try your luck at the plentiful fishing along the coast of Laguna Beach.

Exploring the underwater world is fun and exciting in Laguna Beach, which is home to amazing diving. You'll discover a new world just beneath the waves filled with fish, anemones - even the occasional octopus!

But you don't have to dive to experience the amazing marine life hidden just below the waves. Laguna Beach boasts impressive tidepooling opportunities, giving you an up-close look at marine life without having to get your hair wet! Nestled within the rocky outcroppings that frame Laguna Beach's white sand beaches, you'll find an amazing display of marine life that calls this unique environment home. Check out our tidepool video for a sneak peek at the amazing sights you'll see while tidepooling in Laguna Beach.

While you explore the coves of Laguna Beach, please help us keep these beaches beautiful for years to come! All of Laguna's beaches and coves are designated "Marine Protected Areas," so remember:

• Deposit all litter in designated containers. Keep trash out of our parks and out of the food chain.
• Stay on designated trails. Prevent erosion and preserve plant and animal habitats.
• No pets are allowed in wilderness parks. Protect wildlife and your fellow park visitors.

With such an amazing variety of things to do and ways to relax at the beach, it's easy to see why Laguna Beach is a prime vacation destination for visitors from around the world.

“The Back Room” Group Exhibition

WHEN: August 04, 2011 - September 30, 2011
WHERE: JoAnne Artman Gallery
ADDRESS: 326 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach CA 92651
PHONE: 949-510-5481
TICKETS: www.joanneartmangallery.com
ADMISSION: Free


JoAnne Artman Gallery, Presents in the Main Gallery: “The Back Room” Group Exhibition Including Artists Valerio D’Ospina, Peregrine Heathcote, America Martin, and Anja Van Herle. August 1st, 2011 – September 30th, 2011 Opening Reception: Thursday, August 4th, 6-8 pm to coincide with Laguna Beach Art Walk Please RSVP: 949.510.5481 by August 1st JoAnne Artman Gallery 326 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, 92651 Contact: JoAnne Artman Telephone: 949-510-5481 E-mail, Web site, Open Wed-Sunday, 11-5 & by appointment;

First Thursday of every month 6-9pm Month after month, JoAnne Artman Gallery exhibits new work in our front gallery spaces by our featured artists in a thoughtful and thematic way. However, each month many of our viewers are enthralled by the “Back Room” in our gallery which is why we have decided to unlock our hidden treasures and feature our “Back Room” artists including Valerio D’Ospina, Peregrine Heathcote, America Martin, and Anja Van Herle! Emilio Valerio D’ Ospina was born in Taranto September 9, 1980. On July 14, 1999 he received an artistic diploma from Liceo Artistico Statale “Lisippo” in Taranto, where he was first introduced to the world of art.

In November of the same year he moved to Florence to further his artistic studies. There he enrolled in his first painting course under the instruction of Professor R.Giovannelli in the Accademia di Belle Arti. He also began to work in an antique‐painting restoration studio under the restorer Maurizio Bazzini, who gave him insight to the “character” of old paintings. On February 25, 2005, after preparing an experimental thesis in the study of “fisiognomica”, Valerio graduated with a degree in Painting.

At 27, Valerio traveled to America to begin teaching Classical Drawing and Painting, summer session II for the fine art department at IUP. Nevertheless, after this teaching experience, he decided to focus exclusively on painting, receiving positive feedback from private collectors from around the world. Since July 2009 Valerio is established in the USA where he lives and works. Valerio D’Ospina. “Lightning.” Oil on Canvas. 58” x 45”.

Peregrine Heathcote, born in London in 1973, graduated from the Florence Academy of Art in 1995 and currently lives and works in Chelsea, London. The BBC have recently filmed a documentary on Peregrine’s portrait painting which has been aired worldwide.His paintings, including commissioned portraits of prominent executives, aristocrats, and socialites, have been exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Academy, and are collected and exhibited all over the world.

Peregrine Heathcote’s paintings conjure a world of intoxicating glamour and intrigue, slipping across the boundaries of time to fuse iconic pre-war design with modern conceptions of beauty and silverscreen-era romance. The images could depict a dream world—the pure artistic vision of a painter fascinated with the bygone glamour of his parents’ youth and his own childhood spent in Britain and Dubai, but also by the contemporary incarnation of glamour in an international jet-set culture.

The images could be literal representations of actors on movie sets, or real-life models letting their contemporary sensibilities peek through as they pose against period backdrops. Each canvas suggests a story, prompting us to imagine the circumstances around a single crucial scene. Heathcote purposefully leaves such questions open, allowing us room to construct multiple narratives. This weaving in and out of various realities, blending the literal and metaphoric is achieved with great skill, imagination, and ingenuity. Peregrine Heathcote.

“The Lightness of Being.” Oil on Canvas. 21” x 25”. Born in Belgium in 1969, Anja Van Herle combines a European sense of high fashion in her artwork with an American sense of wonder. Her childhood years were devoted to exploring the fundamentals of her art using crayons, pencils and watercolors. In 1987, she enrolled in Belgium’s Higher Institute for Art Education where she earned a Master’s of Fine Arts in Painting. In 2003, Anja relocated to Los Angeles, where she now concentrates on figurative paintings that are inspired by both classic and contemporary fashion while exploring issues of identity, emotion and human interrelationships.

As timelessly chic as Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Anja’s women are playfully sexy, and their expressions and eyes tell stories that go far beyond the simple exhibition of fine fashion. In Anja’s masterful hands, fashion becomes alive. Anja Van Herle. “Bow.” Acrylic on Panel. 52” x 40” These artists will inspire, provoke, engage and mesmerize. With visual perceptions always changing, peek behind the stories told and you're sure to find the right artistic expression! JoAnne Artman Gallery is located at 326 N. Coast Highway in Laguna Beach and is open Wednesdays-Sundays from 11-5, and by appointment.

Visit the first Thursday from 6-9 pm of any month to coincide with the Laguna Beach Art Walk. Street parking is available directly in front of the Gallery as well as the Downtown Parking structure located at Glenneyre Street. Take a stroll through the galleries and studios. See art come alive in North Laguna!

A Visit From Rodin - Pure Art, Pure Laguna

Laguna College of Art + Design’s (LCAD) gallery is showing 14 figures by the great Auguste Rodin, arguably the greatest sculptor to live since Michael Angelo. The exhibit is on loan from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, the owner of the largest collection of Rodin sculptures in the world. Rodin redefined sculpture in many ways including his faithfulness and representation to and of nature, his expressively-modeled surfaces (using the surface to portray the emotion of his subjects), and by showing partial figures and fragments as complete works of art.

The story of how this Rodin exhibit ended up at LCAD is one of chance, or rather fate. Nearly one year ago Ryan Fisher, a trustee of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, came to visit LCAD and was interested in taking a sculpting class. During his visit Mr. Fisher learned about the college and their commitment to the representational nature of sculpting, the idea that a sculpture tells a story, and that there is a narrative aspect to art. This of course is in line with Rodin’s impressionistic techniques and his mission to convey the human spirit through sculpture. LCAD’s new President, Jonathan Burke, was not aware of Mr. Fisher’s connection with to the Cantor Foundation when they first met that day, but when he mentioned his tie, a vision of having a Rodin exhibit in Laguna Beach was born. Mr. Fisher believed that if Rodin was a student today, LCAD would be is college of choice because of their commitment to impart the enduring language of representational art.

After many months of preparation, the 14-piece Rodin exhibit came to life at LCAD. It has been the highest attended show at the gallery in the history of the college. And no wonder! On my visit I was overcome with amazement of the beauty each figure held. The feeling of movement and emotion…the subtleties that brought them to life…just incredible! For instance one of Rodin’s most well-known ‘fragment’ pieces is “The Walking Man” which is a seemingly incomplete figure without a head. Yet, when you take the time to get to know him, he does not seem to be missing anything at all

Lost Wax
Another part of the exhibit is a 10-piece step by step representation of the Lost Wax casting process. Most people don’t realize that the work of a finished sculpture is about 25% actual creation and 75% is the process of casting and bronzing. Lost Wax is an ancient casting process that allows the artist to accurately reproduce the nuances of the original model. This process can be sent and done at a foundry, but many individuals do not have the financial resources to do so, and therefore do many of the steps on their own.

The Cantor Foundation has a group of pieces that show ten of the steps of the Lost Wax process. In order to show how Lost Wax is done, the Cantor Foundation reversed the engineering process from a Rodin sculpture. Seeing this process in-person gave me an even greater appreciation of the labor that goes into producing these bronze sculptures. This special and intimate Rodin exhibit at the LCAD gallery is a show you don’t want to miss! It is on display now through September 23, 2011. Admission is FREE.

Hurry to Laguna College of Art + Design for your chance to see the extraordinary works of Rodin up-close.

Gallery Hours
Monday - Friday 11:00 am - 5:00pm
Saturday by appointment only - 10:00 am - 4:00pm
Sunday Closed