Hilda Pertha, 2009 Poster Artist
The Mendocino Art Center has much to celebrate in 2009, as 2009 is also our 50th anniversary. We have chosen Hilda Pertha's wonderful painting, "Miksak's Cherry Tree," for our Garden Tour poster. This is a plein-air painting that Hilda did on a very cold spring day in 1996. She even remembers that Elaine Miksak brought out a cup of hot steaming tea that helped her finish the work. Amazingly, Hilda still has the original, which will be on view and for sale at the Art Center.
Bill Zacha invited Hilda to come to Mendocino to teach at the Art Center in 1960. She arrived to a Mendocino without paved roads or street lights. She is now 97 years old and still painting.
Hilda received her art education through scholarships; attending the Philadelphia College of Art; Temple University; Balano School of Painting; Settlement Music School, Philadelphia; Barnes Foundation; the University of California and College of the Redwoods.
Hilda's first solo exhibit was in 1944 at the Ragan Gallery in Philadelphia, and since then her work has been continuously exhibited at places as far flung as Paris, France; Larvik, Norway; Lima, Peru; and Paradise, California. She has also taught and lectured on art throughout the world, including several teaching stints at the Mendocino Art Center. Her long and important involvement with the Mendocino Art Center makes Hilda the perfect Garden Tour poster artist for MAC's 50th anniversary year.
– Marty Roderick, Garden Tour Coordinator
Garden Tour Poster Artists Retrospective
During the month of June, the Mendocino Art Center's Main Gallery will feature the artwork of Garden Tour poster artists, including Sunshine Taylor, E. John Robinson, Evie Wilson, Marion Bush, Janis Porter, Nancy Collins, Erin Dertner, Hope Stevenson, Patricia Martin Osborne, Paula Gray, Helen Reynolds, Julie Higgins and Hilda Pertha.
Banner Art/Cafe Beaujolais Gardens
Photo Credit: John Birchard
Hilda Pertha, "Miksak's Cherry Tree"