Napa County artists at The de Young Open 2023
By Rosemarie Kempton
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — When Scarlett Woolsey walked into the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park for the pre-opening of The de Young Open 2023, it was packed with an abundance of art as well as hundreds of artists whose smiling faces told her they shared her pleasure at being at there.
Having your work shown in the de Young Museum is an exciting honor for any artist, regardless of age or background.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been around so many artists and grateful people at one time,” said Woolsey, a 20-year-old artist from Calistoga.
Woolsey is one of 883 artists whose work was selected out of 7,776 submissions for The de Young Open 2023, which showcases the diverse work of artists from all nine Bay Area counties. Opened Sept. 30 and running through Jan. 7, 2024, it has returned as an established triennial, following its inaugural popularity in 2020.
Unique to major museums in the country, the works in this exhibit are all for sale with 100% of the proceeds going to the artists. As it did in 2020, the de Young Museum will acquire a selection of exhibition artworks for their permanent collection.
“This community-based exhibition serves as a snapshot in time of artists who are working locally but thinking globally—both about the world of art and also the world we live in,” said Timothy Anglin Burgard, the triennial's curator. “The de Young Open represents a significant paradigm shift from historical perceptions of museums as gatekeepers of art—often imported nationally or internationally—to a more democratic model in which museums foreground the voices and visions of local artists.”
The artworks exploring the issues shaping life in the Bay Area and beyond include nine mediums: painting, photography, drawing, prints, fiber, sculpture, video, film and digital art. Artists were allowed to submit only one piece, created within the last three years, to enlarge the number of artists participating in The de Young Open 2023.
Pieces are organized by themes such as historical and contemporary politics, social issues, the urban environment, nature, abstraction, surreal imagery and the human figure.
Woolsey, one of 12 artists from Napa County in the show, found her name next to the number 304 on a wall, indicating where her painting was hanging. Amid hundreds of paintings, displayed salon-style, or nearly floor-to-ceiling, she saw her watercolor “Pit Stop” placed at eye level.
“Pit Stop” was inspired by Woolsey’s fond memories of her family’s summer trips to Pickathon, an annual three-day folk music festival in Oregon, when she was a youngster. As a preteen she made fan posters of the Pickathon musicians as animals and did custom portraits at $2 a painting “of anyone willing to have a kid paint them.” She smiles as she recalls how supportive and encouraging the musicians were to her and the other children there.
Growing up on a 20-acre property in Calistoga, Woolsey was homeschooled in a dome home. There, she was free to run through the pine forests with her friends, build forts, write stories and learn from her mother, Amy Boulant, an artist specializing in pyrography (the ancient art of writing with fire) and watercolor.
Woolsey picked up watercolors from watching her mother paint and it became her medium of choice. Though she gravitates towards watercolor, much of her work is also done using relief printmaking techniques.
Her alternative education gave Woolsey time and space to develop a love for art, a passion for creating and the freedom to learn and recite countless poems, make multiple stop motion animation films, draft a graphic novel and design the local library card as a fifth grader.
While most of Woolsey’s artistic education has been self-taught, she is currently finishing an associate degree in graphic design at the Santa Rosa Junior College and plans to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in graphic design.
“My work shares glimpses into moments of my childhood, dreams, made up stories and inner monologues,” Woolsey said. “Painting the female portrait and figure is what I’m most called to. I love to examine what femininity is through different characters in my pieces as I attempt to figure out actual womanhood on my own.”
“You must be Scarlett,” said BJ Thrailkill upon meeting Woolsey at the museum. Thrailkill is a Napa artist whose oil painting “Cactus with Zebra Butterfly” is also in The de Young Open 2023.
Thrailkill is a prolific artist who has been painting with oils since she was 7 years old. Growing up in rural Maryland in the 1950s and 60s, she lived near Helene Coakley, an accomplished artist, who taught weekly painting classes to the neighborhood children. Her teacher not only had easels set up for the children to paint, she also “piled them into a station wagon to drive them around the countryside to sketch barns.”
Thrailkill paints in a portrait style, paying homage to what she is painting – whether it is a tree branch, bird, kitchen sink or a cactus – by placing it against a solid background.
“I get up every day and paint. If I don’t, I won’t get any better,” Thrailkill said. “I put on canvas what I am thinking about and feel incomplete if I haven’t spent time with my brushes and paint.”
She often paints in a series when she finds a subject that fascinates her and has been featured in dozens of exhibitions throughout the Bay Area.
Thrailkill connected with Michael Fitzpatrick, another Napa artist at the de Young show in front of his oil painting, “On The Bay.” This painting was done almost entirely with a squeegee and a roller.
Fitzpatrick, who landed his first art job at 17, has been steadily honing his artistic skills over the decades. Every day he is in his studio creating the kind of oil paintings that have brought him recognition from galleries and collectors around the world plus respect from his fellow artists for decades.
“Art is my life. It’s what I’ve done for 50 years. If someone offered me a million dollars if I’d give up art, I’d turn down the million dollars and stick with art,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick’s painting “An Artist’s Eye” was used as the cover art for the 2023 guide to Napa Valley Open Studios that took place the last two weekends of September. Posters of the image were also distributed throughout the valley to encourage Open Studio attendance.
His painting “Golden Days” will be used as the poster for the upcoming Napa Valley Mustard Celebration taking place throughout Napa Valley from Calistoga through American Canyon from January to March 2024.
Twelve Napa County artists have their work in The de Young Open 2023. They are Christopher Paddock, Melissa Hutton, Nissen King, Tere Ertola Charney, Araceli Soto, Kristine McCallister, Scarlett Woolsey, Michael Fitzpatrick, Carol Rosemond, BJ Thrailkill, Carolyn B. Ellis and Julia Crane.
In addition to being on display at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the work of the 12 Napa County artists as well as that of other artists in The de Young Open 2023 can be viewed online.
Rosemarie Kempton is a local journalist.
What a tremendous article featuring our local Napa Valley artists. What an honor for them to have their art in the De Young Museum. Thanks for letting us know about this wonderful show.
Love it