Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Vale Fine Arts Gallery Opening Gala

I was so excited to hear that a new contemporary art gallery was opening in downtown Paso! It's called Vale Fine Arts and is owned by Madeline Vale along with her husband Edward Wilcox - who is a fabulous artist, I must say.

This past Saturday evening was their "Grand Opening Gala" with a ribbon cutting ceremony & party. The "who's who" of the wine industry & art scene were there - and I had *so* much fun catching up with old friends! (I mean, come on! Who wouldn't attend this party? It's not often you get something new & exciting in Paso! If you didn't go, "Loser!" in the sing song voice.) First off, Cypher Winery was pouring excellent vino along with 15C supplying my favorite cava bubbles - woo hoo! Cypher only brought magnums - thankfully so as they are sexy & more "artistic" - and supply a lot more wine :)




Many apologies to my buddy T, the bartender for the night, for going through the line so many times to get more bubbles.....

My dear friend Michelle completely fell in love with a piece of art that Edward did. If you can believe it, he made it using tar - though it looks more like a reactive finish. I think the piece was the crowd favorite for the night. Michelle is starting a penny jar to get up to the $10,000 + price tag:


(Apologies that the photo isn't clear. Obviously I was on too many bubbles....)

And here's a photo of Michelle with Lisa & Losh (Losh works at 15C) all in front of Michelle's coveted art piece:


Suddenly, my dear friend Laura from Clayhouse Wines showed up. I didn't get a chance to chat with her, but she did chat with Boyfriend. Here's their adorable photo:


Laura is one of the first that we met when we came to the area and we're forever grateful that she helped show us around :)

OK. On to the art. Here's a few great shots of what's in the gallery:







The artist of this last piece is Aleah Koury. He was such an amazingly nice guy! The piece pictured above was one of my favorites for the evening - and here he is in front of another one of his pieces, pictured along side my FABULOUS friend, Lisa:


So lots of eating...and drinking...went on into the wee hours. Most people had left, but we lingered on. Aren't we smart! Lucky us - T from 15C left behind a bottle of cava, unopened and ready to go. I saw Madeline searching for bubbles. I said, "Let's pop this baby open to celebrate your fabulous opening!" And yes, we did. Though when I opened it, I let it "POP" instead of the quiet sommelier thing. I much prefer the "pop" to mark a celebration.

Here's a photo of Madeline & I breaking the bottle open - woo hoo!:


Now I had to get a photo of Madeline & Edward to mark the grand opening night. Here they pose before one of the finest of pieces of art for the night. First off, here's Madeline & Edward:


They are posing before the piece of art called, "Red Legs." Here it is:


"Red Legs" was the piece everyone was talking about for the evening. Too sexy & cool. Madeline, can I work for fine art?

To end the fabulous evening, I ran into Lindsay, aka. "Tasting Room Celebrity." I realized we hadn't done a photo of her in a while - but she happily obliged, blowing smoke into the gorgeous painting that hung in the entry way of Vale Fine Arts:


Tasting Room Celebrity does it again!

A big thanks for Madeline Vale & Edward Wilcox for throwing such an amazing gallery opening. I wish you nothing but the best of success, and I must say how thankful I am that you opened shop in the Paso area.

Check out Vale Fine Art gallery Located at:

619 12th Street, Paso Robles, CA
310.795.4680

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats to Vale Fine Art! Wonderful to have them next door! ~Rachel from PierceModern Gallery!

    ReplyDelete