Kelseyville >> Artworks by Jean Holdenried will be showcased at the Wildhurst Vineyards tasting room beginning Friday through April 17. The artist is mother of vineyard owner Myron Holdenried.
Jean Dorn Holdenried, 1913-2009, was a native Lake County artist. Her pioneer parents, Fred and Nellie Dorn, were pear farmers in Big Valley. Nellie Henderson Dorn’s family arrived in Lake County in the mid 1850s and were instrumental in planting some of the first pear orchards in the 1880s.
At age 16, Jean Holdenried graduated from Kelseyville High School and left the farm for the University of Southern California. A year later, she found herself attending the California College of the Arts in Oakland with her mother, Nellie Dorn, as a fellow student. Both there to study art.
At the age of 20 in November 1933, Holdenried married farmer Eugene Holdenried, and began the next chapter of her life as a farm wife, mother, 4-H leader and community volunteer. She used her artistic talents for the school dance decorations, graduations and for agricultural booths at the Lake County Fair in the exhibit hall.
After raising three children Jean Holdenried went back to her love of painting. She studied with art teachers in San Francisco, Mendocino and Florida. While she was in her 70s, Holdenried began quilting.
The walls of many Lake County homes and businesses are graced by Holdenried paintings, barn boards and mosaics.
Jean Holdenried was a pear grower, rancher, artist, storyteller and nature lover. Myron and Marilyn Holdenried invite the public to visit the Wildhurst Tasting Room for this art show. The tasting room, located at 3855 Main St. in Kelseyville, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except for Tuesdays.
Wildhurst will also be offering wines at a case sale, featuring the 2011 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2012 Reserve Merlot and the 2014 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.
