Botanicals

June Yokell

June Yokell’s first exposure to painting came when visiting grandparents in the Adirondack Mountains, where they lived next door to a painting school known as “The Old Mill School.” At 60, her grandmother, a dentist, took up painting, and that love of painting inspired June to pursue art from an early age. In high school, she took painting classes at the Montclair Museum in Montclair, N.J. 

After graduating high school, Yokell went to Goddard College in Plainfield, VT, later taking a study term in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she took classes at the Boston Museum School and worked privately with artists Phil Geraci and Joie de Martelly. In 1970 she transferred to California College of Arts and Crafts, in Oakland, CA (now known as California College of the Arts), where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1973 and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture cum laude, in 1982.    

Yokell has been a professional artist since 1984. Her contemporary art features aspects of abstract realism which she draws from her love of the natural world. Since 2010, Yokell has shared her passion and expertise as an instructor in drawing and painting through the Community Education Department at College of Marin, Kentfield, CA. Her work has been in numerous group and one-person shows, nationally, regionally, and locally. She works in San Anselmo. 

Kija Lucas

Kija Lucas is an artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her photographic practice uses the languages of scientific imagery, maximalist installation, and the community-driven archive as an exploration of memory, home, and belonging. She is interested in how ideas are passed down and seemingly inconsequential moments create changes that last generations. 
 
Her work has been exhibited at Mills College Art Museum, Palo Alto Art Center, For-Site San Francisco, Montalvo Arts Center, San Francisco Camerawork, The International Center for Photography, and Black Cube Nomadic Museum Headquarters Amongst others. Lucas is an Artist Fellow at Montalvo Center for the Arts and has been an artist in Residence at Recology San Francisco and the DeYoung Museum. Lucas received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MFA from Mills College. She teaches others the power of creativity through photographic practices. Lucas lives and works in the East Bay, where she is notorious for giving excellent unsolicited advice and profusely apologizing afterward. 

Karen LeGault

Karen LeGault began fine art painting in 1967 and has painted professionally since 1993. She is joyfully committed to visual poetry, light, transformation, and healing, bringing energy and serenity into the world through her paintings. Her lush, distilled compositions express beauty, fragrance, rhythm, and form in a magical palette where spirit is reflected through matter.  
 
Over forty years of spiritual practices and study, including Tai Chi, meditation, feng shui, and clairvoyance, along with a lifetime of painting, contribute to a rare sensibility that is energetic and powerful while also being serene and delicate. 
 
LeGault applies her extensive artistic skill, mastery, and sensitivity to compose and balance color, shape, form, and depth that engages all the senses, offering gorgeous paintings that define and enhance the spaces we live, work, and breathe in with vibrant color and life. Ultimately, she enjoys creating paintings that make our senses and heart sing and dance. LeGault lives and works in Oakland. 

Jules Kobelin

Jules Kobelin is a British artist with a career spanning over three decades. She graduated with a BA in Public Art from The Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. 
  
Kobelin relocated to San Francisco, embarking on a diverse array of ventures, from fine art sales and commissioned murals to graphic design and website development. Over time, her passion for film led her to attend The Berkeley Digital Film Institute and go on to assume roles as producer, director, editor, art director, and production designer. Jules also co-founded ARTiDOCs alongside Marcy Cravat, passionately delving into the creation of documentaries that explore the lives and journeys of artists. The duo achieved widespread distribution for their feature-length documentary titled “Lucky Girl, A Portrait of Jacqui Naylor.”  
 
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kobelin dedicated herself to painting, infusing her art with a fresh perspective. Her bold, colorful paintings reflect the surreal, the natural, and the combination of both into vivid multimedia works. She remains active in the East Bay arts community through gallery shows, open studios, and organizing the annual Gilman District Street Fair. She is currently an active member of the ACCI gallery in the heart of Berkeley. She lives and works in Berkeley.