Artist Celeste Duffy has spent years combining images of people and elements of the natural world, drawing on her former career in graphic design and the landscape around her.
This year, one of those paintings — a woman with a bird perched on her shoulder — appears on the cover of the Sonoma County Art Trails catalog.
“I never tire of painting the human face and often connect them with a natural element to try to capture that feeling you get when you see or touch the world around us,” Duffy wrote in her artist statement.
Art by Celeste Duffy in her studio in Sebastopol on Monday, October 5, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Art by Celeste Duffy in her studio in Sebastopol on Monday, October 5, 2026. Duffy’s art is featured on the cover of this year’s Art Trails catalog. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Duffy is one of 160 juried artists participating in the 42nd annual Sonoma County Art Trails open studio tour, which gives visitors a chance to see artists at work in studios throughout the county over two weekends, Oct. 10-11 and Oct. 17-18.
Their paths to making art are as varied as the work itself.
There is Duffy, who retired from graphic design to paint full time. Maggie Parr, of Petaluma, spent three decades designing concepts for Disney theme park attractions around the world before turning more fully to painting. And Steve Scavo, a retired federal architect, now transforms lumber scraps, old packaging and other discarded objects into three-dimensional collages.
For all three, the work represents some form of looking at the familiar differently.
Art by Celeste Duffy in her studio in Sebastopol on Monday, October 5, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Art by Celeste Duffy in her studio in Sebastopol on Monday, October 5, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Finding nature in the human face
Duffy’s studio reflects the influence of her surroundings.
“I’m in west county, so being in this setting has inspired me,” she said. “That is why I focus so much on nature.”
Birds appear frequently in her work.
“I really love birds,” she said. “The bird is a symbol of resilience and hope.”
Her process begins partly on a computer.
“I use stock images from the computer and manipulate them. Then I paint in oil on canvas,” she said. “I retired from graphic design to concentrate on painting.”
This is her third year participating in Art Trails.
A Disney imagination, on canvas
Parr brings a different kind of visual vocabulary to Art Trails.
For 30 years, she worked with Disney theme parks, including Animal Kingdom at Disney World near Orlando, Florida, and parks in Shanghai and Tokyo. Her job was to imagine the places visitors would eventually walk through.
“I designed the concepts for theme park rides and attractions,” she explained.
Castles, gardens, dragons and unicorns were among the imagery that passed through her work. Now, she brings some of that imaginative sensibility to paintings rooted in classical technique.
“Renaissance Rabbit” by Maggie Parr combines her training in classical painting with an imagination inspired by her work with Disney theme parks. (Maggie Parr)
In “Renaissance Rabbit,” a rabbit wears an elaborate Renaissance costume — an idea that might seem fanciful until Parr explains the philosophy behind her work.
“My work is whimsical,” she said. “You learn the rules so you can break the rules.”
Parr, who also teaches painting, will demonstrate portrait painting for visitors during Art Trails. Her commercial art and design business includes murals, portraits, illustrations and architectural elements.
“I love working with people,” she said. “I bring in a sense of humor.”
The secret life of discarded things
Scavo’s materials are considerably less fanciful.
They might come from a lumberyard or the packaging left behind after something has been opened and used.
The Guerneville artist, who maintains a studio at the Fulton Crossing gallery and studio complex in Santa Rosa, spent much of his career designing buildings as an architect for the General Services Administration, the federal agency responsible for managing government properties.
Now he is making art from things that might otherwise be thrown away.
“I’ve shifted away from a once highly regulated world to that of a free, liberated landscape of design and art,” Scavo writes in the Art Trails catalog.
After a career as an architect working for the federal government’s General Services Administration, Steve Scavo has turned to a new life as an artist. (Dave Hall)
His three-dimensional collages can hang on a wall or stand independently as sculpture. Some contain another layer that is not immediately apparent: hidden messages.
Scavo incorporates visual references to Braille and Morse code into his pieces.
“Not every single piece has a secret message, but most do,” he said.
The work asks viewers to look again — and perhaps a little closer.
Open studios
That invitation to look closer is part of what distinguishes an open studio tour from an ordinary gallery visit. The work is shown where it is made, and visitors can encounter artists whose careers have taken them through very different worlds before arriving at the same place: a studio, a blank surface and the question of what to make next.
Visitors can choose their own itinerary using the event catalog and guide at sonomacountyarttrails.org.
Art Trails is one of two annual open studio tours administered by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. The other, Art at the Source, was held in June and returns next year.
IF YOU GO
What: Sonoma County Art Trails open studios tour
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 10-11 and Oct. 17-18
Where: Studios throughout Sonoma County, featuring 160 juried local artists
Admission: Free
Information: sonomacountyarttrails.org