Mona Neuhaus is native of Southern California and has been painting professionally for more than 40 years. She received her formal training under Master Pastelist and nationally recognized watercolorist/pastelist William McEnroe, Mary Michel, Bernard Dietz, Richard Phelps and internationally recognized artists Katherine Chang Liu and Hiroko Yoshimoto.
Always an advocate for the environment, and being an outdoors person in heart and lifestyle, in recent years her work more frequently depicts the perils and impacts of climate change and her emotional response to it through the medium of paint.
Biography
Often in art an idea or theme will result in new ways of observing and painting. Additionally, often one art event will be a pivotal catalyst to innovative approaches to creating. November 2016 her solo show entitled “It’s Just Paint” was dedicated to the memory of her art mentor, William McEnroe. This art exhibit continued to evolve into, “It’s Just Paint II and III - The Land, Sea and Skies”, “It’s Just Paint - Atmosphere Clouds Water Mud“ , “It’s Just Paint IV - Evolution of a Painting”, and now to her current body of work “Inspirations from Nature - Heat, Drought, Rain Prayer” at The Gallery at the Conejo Ridge, hosted by Coastal Wealth Advisors of Thousand Oaks, California.
Mona’s work is in the Museum Ventura County “Bank of A. Levy Corporate Collection”, the Carnegie Art Museum’s “Jackson Wheeler Collection”, the Municipal Art Collection for the City of Oxnard, and in many other corporate and private collections throughout the United States, Mexico and Japan. Her exhibits have included myriad shows hosted by the Ojai Art Center, the Buenaventura Gallery of Ventura, California, Studio 83, Ventura Art Walk, the Ventura County National Bank, the “Hiroko Yoshimoto – Mentor to Many” show at Studio Channel Islands Art Center of California State University, Channel Islands. The Law Offices of Thomas E. Neuhaus hosted a solo show in May 2004. In May 2006 the Pacific Oaks Federal Credit Union, in Camarillo, California, hosted a solo show of Mona’s work. In May 2008 her work was accepted in a juried exhibition entitled “Art Matters”, held at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, hosted by the San Marino League of Pasadena and Curated by the Norton Simon Museum and California Art Club of Pasadena. In 2010 her art was shown in an adjunct art show of the exhibit “Influencing Generations: Four Legends - William McEnroe, Gerd Koch, Carlisle Cooper and Norm Kirk” at the Museum Ventura County. The work of selected professional artists was shown, in acknowledgment of their accomplishments in the arts, by the four Legends who had been their mentors.
June through August 2017, Mona exhibited ten original watercolors in the Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, California Invitational Aguamedia Exhibit entitled “Soluble Power” alongside acclaimed artists Gary Brewer, Doug Shoemaker, Paul Pitcher, Joanne Julian and Gail Faulkner.
Her show “Home is Where the HeART Is” in September 2017, was hosted by the Carnegie Art Museum as an artist’s studio tour and philanthropic art appreciation and education event.
In 2019 Mona Neuhaus was invited to exhibit in “The Imaginary - Art Commingling Realism and Imagination” at the Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, California. The premiere Invitational Exhibit was hosted by The Representational Art Conference (TRAC2019), a California Lutheran University Arts Initiative Event. “TRAC’s focus is on cutting-edge representational art in the 21st century – where imagination matters and the mind meets the hand. TRAC provides a platform for understanding the unique possibilities of representational art and perhaps some illumination about future directions.”
Artist's Statement
“I enjoy the experience of freely exploring our natural environment through the creative process with the use of paint and other mediums. Painting is free flow expression. Nature with its beauty and serenity, yet often powerful presence, provides limitless inspiration for my work. Our lands, seas, and skies are ever evolving by nature’s own course and human hands. It is my desire not only to paint an interpretation of nature as I encounter it, but also to preserve a moment of natural narrative.”
- Mona Neuhaus