Venturing into an exhibition of paintings by Phoebe Brunner, one expects a certain transformative effect, to encounter something of an alternate reality. Land, sky, and reworked art historical references have long been at the heart of her painterly interests, but always under the influence of varying degrees of dream logic.
In this region blessed with inspiring nature, where landscape painting has deep roots and a wide market, Brunner lives in an artistic outskirt of her own devising. Two years ago, her show Breathe invited us to observe the evolution of this artist — boasting some four decades of presence and significance in Santa Barbara’s art scene — with such memorable canvases as “The Nimble Tide” and a misty, natural vision entitled “Slowly, Slowly We are Drifting.”
With her third and latest show at Sullivan Goss, A Wild Delight, the title is perfectly apt, but longtime observers and admirers of the Brunner touch will notice a new clarity and fidelity to nature as commonly understood — she’s leaning more earthward and skyward, especially in a series of recent vintage she calls “Seeding Series.”