The Capital City Arts Initiative presents “Basin and Range” by artist Candida Webb at the Community Center’s Crowell Board Room through Oct. 14. The Community Center is located at 851 E William St., Carson City and is open during all public meetings and on request. The exhibition video tour will be online soon at ccainv.org. “Basin and Range” presents color-filled landscape paintings of the artist’s personal view of the Sierra. Her work refers to the time of day that Webb calls “Ante Sidera,” Latin for “before the stars.” She focuses on light, contrast, and texture, with an emphasis on “saturated color.” As Maynard Dixon’s son, Daniel, said about his famous father’s paintings, “He see colors that no one else sees” — also a fitting description for Webb’s canvases. Webb said, “As an artist representing the eastern Sierra and interior basin, my goal is to highlight our unique terrain and bring a fresh perspective to landscapes ranging from towering craggy fault-block mountains bordering the western part of the vast basin, to the arid land that falls away to the east. It is easy to picture the Black Rock Desert for example, as ancient Lake Lahontan, with only the mud and dust of the lakebed to mark the long dissipated body of water. Now lovely and stark playas weave in and out of mountain range after mountain range. At the end of the day, both basin and range start to show off. Colors intensify, shadows grow long, alpenglow spreads, and it becomes the time before the stars.” Webb has been selected as the Great Basin National Park’s 2021 Artist in Residence and will spend two weeks working and researching in the park this October. She will offer a week-long workshop in Yosemite Valley in September with the Yosemite Nature Conservancy. Webb has taught various art disciplines and mediums through the Nevada Museum of Art, Very Special Arts Nevada, Wilbur D. May Museum, public and private school outreaches and programs, and more. She has taught art classes at elementary schools for Arts for the Schools in Truckee, California, and workshops for the Nevada Arts Council’s Basin to Range Exchange program. She studied art at University of Nevada, Reno and at Truckee Meadows Community College. She lives in Carson City with her family. CCAI is an artist-centered not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, illustrated talks, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities. The initiative is funded by the John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, U.S. Bank Foundation, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members. For information, visit CCAI’s website at www.ccainv.org.
