“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Picasso  

There couldn’t be a better time or place to refresh your soul than attending Placerville Arts Association’s 58th National Mother Lode Art Exhibition, Nov. 7-23.

Last year’s exhibition was highly praised by Cheryl Gleason, the gallery’s curator, as one of the finest art exhibits that the Mills Station Arts and Culture Center had ever hosted. This year’s exhibit is again at the MACC, 10191 Mills Station Road in Rancho Cordova (Mather Field and Folsom Boulevard). The exhibit hours are 2-7 p.m. Thursdays & Fridays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

The public is invited to a reception, 5-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8. While enjoying live music and refreshments, guests can walk the gallery. At 6 p.m. the show judge will present the award-winning artists with their ribbons and give a slide presentation discussing the show and her process of selecting artworks for the awards.

There will be 15 awards presented during the reception: Best of Show, Awards of Excellence, Awards of Merit, Honorable Mentions, three PAA awards and two Memorial Awards. The combined cash awards total $3,150. To view the exhibition online visit paa.gallery.

Juror and judge for this year’s show is D. Oldham Neath, also known as “The Art Lady.” She is the co-founder of Second Saturday and has been part of the Sacramento arts community for more than 38 years. Neath also managed the Solomon Dubnick Gallery for seven years, served as president of the Center for Contemporary Art for three years and has been the owner and director of Archival Gallery since 1983.

Neath was active in the region’s nonprofit arts community as the art curator for KVIE Public Television, 2009-19, and currently supports a number of other fundraising and awareness organizations. As The Art Lady, she is a guest curator and art judge for exhibitions across the region and is a regular contributor to Good Day Sacramento, covering visual arts news stories. To learn more visit her website a artladysacramento.com.

Neath had quite an undertaking  selecting artwork for this year’s show from the 695 pieces submitted by 295 artists. Because of space limitations (and the large sizes of a number of pieces), this year’s exhibit has a total of 93 artworks, including 12 3D pieces. There is a broad range of media among the artworks — oils, watercolor, multimedia, pastel, cold wax, ceramics, photography and more, created by remarkable artists from across the U.S.

This is Placerville Arts Association’s 58th Mother Lode Show event, but PAA wasn’t granted nonprofit status until 1975. Next year, the organization will celebrate 50 years as a nonprofit.