New paintings and photography on display at 'The Z'

BONSALL – The Z Cafe and Gallery is hosting the work of painter Teresa Shea, photographer Bill Pratt and painter Neill Ketchum.

Based in Los Angeles, Shea is an accomplished artist, working in oil. She has an associate of arts degree in fine art from West L.A. College plus post graduate work at various institutions. An instructor at Otis College referred to her as “the best student I’ve ever had.”

Shea has spent 38 years as a decorative painter and master wallcovering artist. She free-hand paints custom-designed stencils, murals, and decorative wall finishes. Pasadena Showcase House of Design and the L. A. Design Mart are two of her frequent customers.

Shea is a member of the National Oil & Acrylic Painter’s Society, Artists Guild Show (winning first place this year for “Geisha”), National Guild of Professional Paperhangers, Fallbrook Artist’s Guild, and has exhibited at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.

Pratt combined his love of art with the business of graphic designs and pinstriping for auto dealers during the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, Pratt had a different business career until retirement. His next move was to return to his art passion and took up watercolor painting.

Pratt has now moved into photography, more specifically, close-up images of flowers. He uses lighting and dramatic backgrounds to accent the natural beauty of flowers, most of which he lovingly grows himself. These days, he spends time either in the garden or the studio, arranging flowers, lighting them to show their beauty in ways people rarely see.

“My hope is to inspire people to never look at a flower the same again, to know that beneath the surface lives a whole other world of enchanting beauty,” said Pratt.

Pratt has won several awards in various galleries and this year took first place in photography for “Guacamole Tree” at the 2018 Fallbrook Avocado Festival.

This new work is showing now through Dec. 3, upstairs at the Z Cafe in River Village, 5256 S. Mission Road, in Bonsall. Z Cafe is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. For more information, call (760) 940 1751.