“Third Age” Artists Exhibit at Piedmont Center for the Arts

From a Piedmont Center for the Arts press release:

In May, a new exhibit featuring oil paintings by Sallie Inglis Sadler and watercolors by Robert C. Davidson opens at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.

The Oil & Water show runs from May 10 through May 26, with a public artists’ reception May 11 from 4:30 to 7 pm.

Eleven years ago, Sallie’s husband, sociologist William Sadler, published The Third Age: Six Principles for Personal Growth and Renewal after Forty. In it he reviews the new possibilities offered by medical and technological breakthroughs that have given many the equivalent of a 30-year active life bonus – a period he calls the “third age.” Professor Sadler freely credits his wife Sallie as an important inspiration for his work and thought.

Both exhibiting artists exemplify the “third age” possibilities sociologist Sadler describes.  

Sallie Sadler, listed in Who’s Who in America as a distinguished clinical psychologist, served as chief of psychological services for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and as a senior clinician in psychiatry for San Francisco Kaiser Permanente. And Robert Davidson has a successful architecture practice under his belt.  

When she retired from her organizational positions, Sallie missed the creative aspects of working with her clients. She saw an Impressionist exhibit and – with no prior training – was inspired to take up painting. After taking classes and private instruction, Sallie found her muse: she brought her psychotherapist’s instincts and insights into her artwork through color, subject matter, and a quality of mystery and depth.  

An Oakland resident, she also lives and paints in Maine for four months each year, and several of her works have been featured in the Maine State Art Gallery.

Watercolorist Robert Davidson, too, is a model of Third Age possibilities.  A practicing Oakland architect for 40 years, working for the last decade of his career with partner John Seals, he designed houses and offices, retail and educational structures, and facilities for religious organizations.

He started developing his watercolor interests a dozen years ago, when Davidson & Seals totally computerized their offices. When computer-assisted design retired his working pencil, Robert needed an additional outlet for the hand/eye/mind collaboration of creative expression – and turned to what he calls the “liquid” arts.

His early interest in art and his grasp of the role of art in architecture enabled his transition from successful architect to working artist. Studio classes, workshops, and involvement with critique groups all improved his brush skills, and he became a member of the California Watercolor Association. Association juries have selected his work for local and state exhibits.

Robert’s greatest artistic honor? The signal achievement of having a painting selected for the association’s national show in 2011.

Robert refers to his current body of work as “fractured realism,” a way of viewing nature architecturally and structurally. He also uses a bold color palette to exaggerate that realism and to stimulate the experience of familiar places for the viewer.

While very different in content, style, and coloration, both of these local artists have created colorful patterns of landscapes, flowers and places.  

Art lovers of all ages and those in or near their own third ages will find pleasure and inspiration in these artists and their work.

The Oil & Water exhibit is on display at Piedmont Center for the Arts, 801 Magnolia Ave., Piedmont, CA from May 10 through May 26. The gallery is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.

Interested community members are warmly invited to an Artists’ Reception on Saturday, May 11, from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Center. For more information or directions, see www.piedmontcenterforthearts.org.