Towering Oaks Gallery Defies the Old Adage
Who Says Oil and Water Don't Mix!?!

Towering Oaks Gallery interior art. Photo by Jim Evans

By Jim Evans

It isn't a very big sign, but travelers heading to Julian on Highway 78 can clearly see it mounted diagonally on the chain link fence between Santa Ysabel and Wynola with arrows pointing to the right. A short turn down the adjacent dirt road in the direction of the arrows reveals a quaint little blue building - The Towering Oaks Gallery - bedecked inside with beautiful wall-to-wall paintings.

Artist Cora Sobczak was a late bloomer. She started working with oil painting as a hobby in her native New York "after the kids left for college," and before long she was taking courses at the library, had become a member of several different art societies, and was entering art shows in New York and Pennsylvania. Her interest eventually turned to water colors which she successfully marketed as "Watercolors by Cora" in her studio in Panama, New York.

Sobczak woke up one morning after a snowstorm and said to herself, "Enough of this - we're leaving for California!" Her brother Dan had migrated to San Diego several years earlier, so she was already familiar with the area's weather. She packed her belongings and headed west with her 90-year-old mother and her two daughters - Shirley and Linda - settling in Wynola almost six years ago.

Her elderly mother's health required Sobczak undivided attention for the first few years until her mother passed away after a long illness. Then Sobczak resumed her painting and converted a small outbuilding - formerly a horse barn and a gunshop, according to neighbors - into an art gallery about 2 years ago.

The Towering Oaks Gallery is a labor of love with intimate seating arrangements and allowing visitors to sit back and enjoy the exhibit of Sobczak uniquely styled original watercolors capturing nostalgic images of yesteryear combined with her daughter's Shirley Jones colorful oil paintings preserving moments or feelings in time on canvas. The artistic talents of mother and daughter are evident, and the paintings are affordably priced to meet even the most frugal budget.

The gallery participated in the 2004 Julian Open Studios Tour featuring 20 artists in the San Diego backcountry. Sobczak's daughter, Linda Swartz, a well-known psychic in Julian, has been conducting meditation classes in the gallery on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. for the past two years - a perfect setting for relaxation amidst the peaceful ambience of traditional images and scenic landscapes.

The Towering Oaks Gallery is located at 4226 Highway 78 and open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by special appointment by calling (760) 765-1009. Sometimes good things do, indeed, come in

small packages.