Every once in a while Events & Adventures Santa Clara will have an ice breaker meeting to bring new members into the fold. It’s no surprise that since our club is based in the heart of the Silicon Valley, a member will often introduce themselves as an engineer of one ilk or another. Of course, we do have members that are teachers and doctors and plumbers and every other profession under the sun, but a large number of our members come from tech fields. So, when member Bernard Weston said that he was a painter we were all instantly intrigued. Some of us went home and Googled his name. Darned if he wasn’t just ANY painter, he was a nationally recognized artist!
Bernard Weston (Bernie) is an Asian-influenced California painter, who draws on his personal engagement with Chinese and Japanese art history, theory and philosophy, to create paintings of the sublime. The goal for a painter like Weston is not just to produce amazing art, but to do so in conjunction with studied processes of mental, spiritual, and physical Zen such as practice and preparedness. Bernie’s paintings exemplify the phrase “East meets West”, utilizing innovative, avant-garde materials while being grounded the tradition of meditative art-making.
This week, the spectacular Simone Beckett Gallery in Los Gatos opened its doors for us to be able to view Bernie’s work during private Events & Adventures only event. The gallery set up a table in their courtyard for our members to bring bottles of wine to share and enjoy while they perused the gallery. Bernie took the time to explain his techniques to our members as they looked on in awe at all the beautiful works created by the hand of our very own resident artist. The evening was as memorable as it was magical and unique. A nationally renowned artist? With Events & Adventures you are guaranteed to meet new people who are unique and exciting virtually every day.