Art Show "Fluid Moments" by Jem Atwater and Zrondeb
Reception: Sat., October 10th, 5 - 7 PM
Show runs from 10/6 to 1/9
Jem Atwater
Jem's Story
Jem Atwater is a classically trained oil painter and fine art instructor based in Ventura, California. She earned her degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where she immersed herself in traditional painting techniques with a strong emphasis on foundational skills and visual expression. That grounding in classical craft has shaped both her own work and her calling as a teacher.
After relocating to Ventura in 2022, Jem dedicated herself fully to arts education, driven by a mission to make fine art instruction accessible, engaging, and personally enriching. She now teaches throughout Ventura County, at institutions including the Santa Paula Art Museum, the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, and the Raminfard School of Arts, as well as in her own studio at Pacific and Main Creative Workspace. Over the past five years, she has taught more than 4,200 students, and looks forward to reaching many more in the years ahead.
Jem maintains an active studio at Pacific and Main Gallery in Ventura and keeps a regular plein air practice, often painting the coastal landscapes that inspire her most. A lifelong surfer, she carries her close relationship with the ocean directly into her work. Painting outdoors has become especially meaningful to her—not simply a way of observing nature, but a lifelong practice of patience, reflection, and connection to both self and environment.
Zrondeb
Zrondeb's Story
Zrondeb was born and raised in Ventura County, spending his life close to the beach and Channel Islands Harbor. His deep connection to the ocean, its shifting colors, wave formations, and ever-changing light, became something friends and family noticed long before he ever picked up a brush; they often told him he spoke like a painter.
His path to painting began with a simple desire: to find artwork that captured the coastal beauty of his home. While visiting Ojai, he was struck by how thoroughly local artists there had captured the region's mountains and farmland, and he set out to find the same for the beaches and Channel Islands he loved. When he couldn't find the work he was looking for, he decided to create it himself, teaching himself to paint and beginning his practice in late 2023.
Largely self-taught, Zrondeb approaches painting with persistence and a willingness to learn through trial and error, working to translate his lifelong observation of the coast onto canvas. His connection to Oxnard's beach and surf culture runs deep, and it surfaces in his signature, his last name spelled backward, paired with a diamond X nodding to the area's NardCore roots. For Zrondeb, painting is a way of putting into form what he has always seen and felt along the local shoreline.
