By Mary Beth Hislop

Los Altos Hills resident Terenia Offenbacker will be showing her paintings for the first time at the Rotary Club’s 33rd annual arts event in Lincoln Park Saturday and Sunday.

For the past 15 years, Los Altos Hills resident Terenia Offenbacker has attended the Los Altos Rotary Club’s Fine Art in the Park, strolling by artists’ booths and purchasing paintings to brighten her home’s décor. But this year, she’s changing the tradition.

Offenbacker will sit the strolling out as she trades places with the vendors she used to visit and becomes one herself – Offenbacker’s own paintings will be on exhibit at the Rotary’s 33rd annual arts’ event in Lincoln Park Saturday and Sunday.

The invitation to display her paintings in the city she lives in and loves is a coup for Offenbacker, who started attending a mixed-media arts class at Community School of Music and Arts three years ago.

Mixed-media art combines layers of scavenged items and paints for visual expression. For Offenbacker, scavenged items can be recyclables, corrugated cardboard, metal screen, sewing patterns, palm tree fronds – she has two boxes full of items awaiting their turns on canvas – specifically chosen and intricately placed so the art tells a story.

“That’s what makes it more interesting for people,” she said. “People step back and wonder ‘What is she trying to tell me?’”

And there is no right or wrong answer – people are free to interpret the art any way they please, she said.

Offenbacker’s themes cover the canvas in novelty – from landscape and animals associated with Africa to the violins and sheet music of Antonio Stradivari, Offenbacker subtly and deftly creates works of art that invite viewers to scrutinize the work deeply to discover its hidden pictures and text.

The final product generally has a multilayered surface finished with acrylic glaze, high gloss or resin.

“Most of my work is touchable work,” Offenbacker said. “My whole thing is the texture.”

Interestingly, the mixed-media approach that gives her creative freedom in expression is not the reason the Rotary’s jury judges chose Offenbacker to participate in Fine Art in the Park.

Offenbacker also paints portraits modeled after the style of Amedeo Modigliani, an Italian artist who lived 1884-1920.

“He’s really my inspiration,” she said.

Offenbacker abandoned the stresses of wheeling and dealing in Silicon Valley to pursue painting. Upon awakening, she climbs the steps to her attic studio, a quick commute to a job she truly loves to do.

“I consider myself extremely lucky,” she said.

Anthony Kent would like to retire to pursue his passion for photography full time, too – but he’s got a few years to go.

“It’ll be my full-time job sometime in the future,” Kent said.

This year marks Kent’s second invitation to join the approximately 200 artists who will dot Lincoln Park’s landscape.

“It was my best show of the year and it was fun, too,” Kent said of last year’s Fine Art in the Park. He’s hoping this year will be equally successful.

Kent said he got his first camera when he was 9 years old – an Instamatic. When his parents allowed him to use film – and develop the photos – Kent said he was intrigued with the results. He’s been at it ever since.

Kent is fascinated by the convergence of light on his subjects. Fast forward to the digital age, and Kent doesn’t have to buy 100,000 rolls of film and waste time developing not-so-great photos.

“The feedback on digital made it for me – it really helped me fine-tune my vision,” Kent said. “I can take less photos and slow down with better results.”

Kent photographed motor sports for 25 years, but his real passion is nature – particularly landscapes and animals.

One of his favorite photos is a shy coyote he’s seen off and on in New Mexico over seven years. One day, he spotted the coyote and spent three hours cajoling the creature. All at once, the coyote got playful and Kent got his picture – a moment in time when the coyote shyly looked into his camera. Then the coyote was gone.

Kent once waited for a hummingbird to return to a flower. It did – nine hours later.

“The unknown opportunity is what gets me out there,” Kent said.

The animals and birds he photographs are in their natural element – not in cages or confined in any way.

“I’ve been to 70 wildlife refuges,” Kent said. “All the animals are in the wild.”

Landscapes in Africa, India and China are exotic and offer variety, but Kent said North America is the most beautiful.

“I could shoot in Northern California for the rest of my life and just be happy,” he said.

Inspired by internationally known nature photographer Gaylen Rowell, Kent spent 10 years trying to recapture the likeness of an instant in time when the white waterfall of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley turns gold, as Rowell had done. He finally got his photo.

“But I wanted the same subject with a new perspective,” he said.

He captured an incandescent moment on the face of El Capitan, when, in just one instant, the lack of light from a setting sun created a black-and-white photo effect while the dark-blue sky and deeply green trees above are canvassed in the upper corner of the photo. The resulting photo is “Lightfall.”

Kent will offer a new effect for mounting his prints – transferring the images to canvas and carefully wrapping the canvas around a wood frame. The resulting art is a textured print that has the characteristics of a painting.

In the meantime, Kent wants to know what everyone thinks.

“It’s important to build relationships with art and get feedback,” he said.

For more information, visit www.losaltosrotary.org.

Contact Mary Beth Hislop at marybethh@latc.com.