Painter Terry Sonntag
Finding and Creating Art Terry Sonntag is a part-time BVS resident since 2005 and long-time resident of Agua Dulce, located on the eastern border of the Santa Clarita Valley. He is an Adjunct Professor at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita. He has been a connoisseur of antiques and fine arts for decades. His broad exposure from his antique business, professional development and antique appraisal practice guided him to a greater interest and appreciation for California Impressionism.
In 2009, a professional artist friend, Susan Tredway, suggested that he might enjoy painting and offered friendly instruction. He declined at first, indicating that he lacked artistic ability. She approached again and suggested that his attention to detail and interest in paintings might prove him wrong. He eventually took her up on the offer. She could not believe that he had never painted before. Three months later he sold his first oil painting; a rendering of Agua Ducle’s Vasquez Rocks. He hasn’t put his brush down since. He meets every week with fellow oil painters in a workshop setting in Santa Clarita.
Terry expresses his feelings in the style of the California artists that captured the sense of early 20th Century California Plein Air oil painting. The many great artists sought the views of the Santa Barbara area, Laguna Canyon and Beach, Catalina Island, the Deserts, San Gabriel Valley, High Sierras and beyond. Having enjoyed the local landscape for decades, Terry expresses his feelings with renderings of local areas: Vasquez Rocks and surrounding canyons of Agua Dulce, the Deserts, Ventura County and Tehachapi areas. He enjoys his interpretive style and often will work from the field studies and photographs he generates from various locales. He finalizes his paintings in his home studio setting. He likes painting en plein air when weather and time permits.
Terry is an active member of the Bear Valley Springs Cultural Arts Association and Santa Clarita Artist’s Association. He is an accredited member of Appraisers National Association and a retired accredited member of the International Society of Appraisers. He is a panel member at the Rose Bowl Flea Market Appraisal Event and a similar event at the Saugus Swap Meet. He has participated in Tehachapi’s “First Friday” art events and frequently will set up easel and paint at the Country Antique Fair, a large antique mall in the Santa Clarita Valley.
He is at a loss as to his achievements in painting. He tells people that he cannot draw a stickman and that his brain just seems to tell him which paints to put out and where they belong on the canvas. His wife, Linda, has since joined him and they often paint together in their Agua Dulce studio. They enjoy spending time in Bear Valley Springs and antique hunting in Tehachapi.
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2012 Participants
