The Winfield Gallery is proud to present Nocturnes: From Dusk Till Dawn, a small, museum-quality exhibition of Nocturne paintings from the late 19th Century to the present. This theme is particularly relevant to the Monterey Peninsula because of the early, then radical, work of Charles Rollo Peters. Peters, a Monterey resident, specialized in mysterious nighttime paintings often of ruined adobes. His work was successfully exhibited widely in New York, San Francisco, even London, where his paintings were reportedly admired by James Abbott McNeil Whistler. The early 20th Century “night paintings” by Lockwood de Forest are small and study-like but with a somber, poetic mood.

The more contemporary works in the exhibition present the nighttime experience in a variety of ways. Ann Lofquist’s sweeping view from above of Los Angeles with its hazy lights and rich atmosphere brings the Nocturne to the present. The apparently matter-of-fact commercial buildings in Marc Trujillo’s paintings glow like lanterns against the night sky. They are tour de force observational studies of a variety of light sources and reflections.

Los Angeles artist, Peter Alexander, abstracts the night in much the same way that Whistler did. Bay area artist Holly Lane builds elaborate dark frames that then reveal jewel-like images of mysterious landscapes. David Hines’ stark country nightscapes have a portentous, even David Lynch-like foreboding to them. David Ligare’s “Fire in the Desert,” has a primal, even biblical presence.

Artists: Peter Alexander, Frederick Brosen, Noah Buchanan, Pam Carroll, Warren Chang, Carla Crawford, Lockwood De Forest, Bruce Everett, Deanne Forbes, Frank Galuszka, David Hines, Andrea Johnson, Mari Kloeppel, Holly Lane, Chris Leib, David Ligare, Ann Lofquist, Ed Mell, David Molesky, David Molteni, Gillian Pederson-Krag, Charles Rollo Peters, Kristine Reiner-Hansen, Paul Roehl, Sandra Mendelsohn Rubin, Marc Trujillo, Joaquin Turner