Peninsula People Feb 2018

Original sketch of Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary by Albert Operti, from which
a life-size portrait was painted. Courtesy of the Explorers Club of New York
Sketch exhibit cont. from page 22
Katrina’s grandmother (and the grandmother of Katrina’s siblings, Kelvin,
Narcissa, and Henrik). A sketch by Kelvin Cox Vanderlip, Katrina’s father,
showing the Villa Narcissa cypress allee in the early 1930s is being included,
in addition to sketches of the Villa Narcissa entrance hall by Denis
Berteau and various mural sketches by nearby resident Steve Shriver.
Notable, also, are the jewelry designs, coupled with the finished pieces,
by Marianne Hunter. Please see the accompanying story.
Katrina Vanderlip’s new children’s book, “A Tale of Twin Peacocks,” will
be available for purchase. As a girl, Katrina was taught illustration by Ted
Geisel, that fellow better known as Dr. Seuss.
What was, and what could have been
A companion show, “Inhabit: The Olmsted Brothers on the Palos Verdes
Peninsula,” is to occupy the third gallery. The Olmsteds were hired by
Frank Vanderlip to study and evaluate the vast tract of land he’d purchased.
They did a thorough job, and the exhibition, in the words of curator
Hilarie Schackai, “casts a spotlight on the crucial process of visionary translations
from rough settlement and natural environment into a manifestation
of cultural splendor. It presents formidable and meticulous early
surveys, planning sketches, and other documents – topographical surveys,
water analyses, road studies – that in their glorious abstraction are more
than technical artifacts: they are virtual art objects in themselves.”
The person who knows the most about Frank Vanderlip’s history, before,
during, and after the land on the peninsula was acquired, is Palos Verdes
Estates resident Vicki Mack. Her book, “Frank A. Vanderlip: The Banker
Who Changed America,” is a panoramic view of the man and his vision
for developing the area from Portuguese Bend to Malaga Cove. It was a vision
interrupted by that little bump in history called The Great Depression.
Capturing a Vision: The Portuguese Bend Tradition, curated by Katrina
Vanderlip, paired with Inhabit: The Olmsted Brothers on the Palos Verdes
Peninsula, curated by Hilarie Schackai, opens Friday, March 16, from 6 to 10
p.m., with Palos Verdes Wild! a farm-to-table and foraged feast with Chef
Paul Buchanan of Primal Alchemy Catering. The seasonal produce as well as
the wild ingredients are entirely from local sources. Tickets, $125. The Palos
Verdes Art Center is at 5504 W. Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. (310)
541-2479 or go to pvartcenter.org. PEN
24 Peninsula • February 2018