Painting

Laguna Art Museum 307 Cliff Drive (949) 494-8971 www.lagunaartmuseum.org Open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Open until 9 p.m. during First Thursdays Art Walk. Admission is $12 for adults and $10 for seniors, students and active military. Children younger than 12 are admitted free. The museum is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's days. Free admission on First Thursdays Art Walk nights. Current exhibition Closing Sunday: "OsCene 2010": Survey exhibition drawn from artists working in all media including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, multimedia installations, video, architecture, performance and design.

A Laguna Beach art professor thinks he has discovered the true origins of Vincent Van Gogh’s greatest masterpiece. William J. Havlicek, a professor at the Laguna College of Art & Design, provides insight into what inspired Van Gogh to paint “The Starry Night.” Havlicek’s book, “Van Gogh’s Untold Journey” reveals how “The Starry Night” is connected to Victor Hugo novel, “Les Miserables.” According to Havlicek, Van Gogh wrote letters that made numerous references to Bishop Bienvenu.

Saturday and Sunday Acrylic & Oil Painting Instructor: Charleine Guy This two-day workshop is for beginners, intermediate and beyond. Students can expect to paint one painting each day: flowers the first day and a simple ocean scene the second. $165 class fee includes all materials needed. Oil Painting Instructor: John Eagle Also March 20, 21, 27 and 28 Learn the basic steps of creating a successful landscape painting.

Two Laguna Beach High School seniors, Sadie Drucker and Ali Bloom, were recently awarded the opportunity to collaborate with renowned artists James “Dalek” Marshall and Jason Maloney on an art project for Hurley 225 on Forest Ave. Drucker said the pair became involved with the project through the high school, when an art teacher recommended them for the job. “I was called out of art class and sent to the principal’s office,”...

Despite gloomy skies and spurts of rain, the 11th annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational, hosted by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn. and Laguna Art Museum, has seen a successful week for its 50 noted artists, who will present their paintings at a public exhibition and sale at Sunday’s closing soiree. Forty artists were chosen to return based on past participation and their sales, while 10 new artists, including the first place winner of the association’s Best of Plein Air show, Erich Neubert, were also invited to partake in the prestigious event.

Three Laguna Beach art galleries got a measure of justice for a 10-year-old crime Tuesday. A convicted art thief was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $260,000 in paintings from the galleries in 1999, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Joseph Michael Killebrew, 51, was arrested earlier this year on a decade-old warrant while living under a false name in Las Vegas. Killebrew pleaded guilty to four felony counts of grand theft and sentencing enhancements for a theft of more than $100,000 and was sentenced to two years and eight months in state prison.

Community members and local organizations will come together to share simple ways of becoming ?greener? at the Sawdust Art Festival?s second annual ?Green Day? event from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. ?We?ll provide an interactive and educational ?environment?-themed day for visitors, showing them how they can be more environmentally aware in our everyday lives,? said Cynthia Fung, director of marketing for the festival. ?Our mission is to educate the public and support the community?

Watercolors on display at Artist Eye The recent works of Newport Coast artist Nancy Swan will be on display through Aug. 31 at Artist Eye Laguna Gallery, 1294 S. Coast Hwy. In conjunction with the exhibit, the gallery will host a reception with the artist from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 23. Swan is a self-taught artist who, inspired by the masters, has painted the world around her since childhood. For the past 40 years, she has documented rapidly changing landmarks of the California coast in watercolors, copperplate etchings and ink drawings.

?Outraged? is as good a word as any to describe how the Laguna Beach art community feels upon learning of the sale of 18 California Impressionist works originally donated to the Laguna Art Museum many years ago and lost in a failed merger attempt with what is now the Orange County Museum of Art. The paintings sold by OCMA to an unnamed Laguna Beach collector include works by William Wendt and others who were instrumental in the founding of...