Work by plein-air watercolor painter David Solomon embellished booths at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach for 35 years.
But that’s not his only distinction. At age 72, the four-decade local resident is the patriarch of a clan of artists that spans three generations.
During a recent First Thursday Art Walk, 10 family members showed off their works including oil and watercolor paintings, photographs, jewelry, painted T-shirts and artfully arranged miniature succulent gardens.
Equally artful was their ability to squeeze their works and, at times themselves, into the tiny Lang Fine Art gallery, 1450 S. Coast Highway, a venue normally featuring photographs, posters and photography books by Rick Lang. The show runs through July 31.
“Dave and I have been friends for 45 years. We are art scene partners,” said Lang.
The idea of a multi-generational show arose after Gaylen Solomon Corbett, David’s eldest daughter, displayed a solo show at the gallery, said Lang.
Solomon Corbett, 42, a self-described emerging painter, said curating the show is her main contribution. “Everyone, including the younger family members, have been active in art at least five years,” she said.
Tiffany Beauchamp Novak, 38, began designing jewelry featuring vintage Czech glass two years ago. Casey Corbett, 16, is just getting started. His pen and ink portrait of Jimi Hendrix suggests that he is on the way to an art career. His sister Haley Corbett, 14, makes jewelry, but also draws, sews and does woodworking. Both teens are David Solomon’s grandchildren.
Among the younger Solomons, April counts as the more experienced. At age 33, she found her way back to art and enrolled as an illustration major in the Laguna College of Art and Design after a 13-year hiatus. Her painting, “Slowly but Surly,” where mythical beasts sport horns mutating into snakes, speaks of the convoluted road to what she has determined as her true calling.
