The Peninsula Museum of Art will honor the life and art of founding PMA Board member Arabella Decker with the dedication of “Arabella’s Gallery” onSunday July 31 from 2 - 4pm. The gallery will open with the exhibition “Arabella Decker: In Memoriam,” featuring paintings and sculpture by Decker alongside family memorabilia.
Born and raised north of Chicago, Arabella Decker moved to San Francisco after high school, then to Moss Beach before designing and building her home on Montara Mountain. As a Coastsider, she was instrumental in the founding and development of the Coastal Arts League in Half Moon Bay in 1979. During her colorful life, Decker was an outspoken artist and advocate for free public access to art. Three of her large bronze sculptures, including "The Pumpkin Mover," a two-ton statue of a farm worker lifting a pumpkin, were donated to Half Moon Bay parks.
Animals were another major interest: she rode horses on Peninsula trails and bred, trained, and showed Doberman Pinschers. Later, Decker established a herd of rare Caspian horses at her home in Lake Wales, Florida.
Arabella Decker expressed her personal definition of art this way: “Art is a power trip that controls the viewer... Therefore, art has to accomplish three things: It has to amuse the eye, move the soul and make the heart feel."
The artworks in this exhibition have been loaned to the Museum by the Coastal Arts League, Brian Connors, James Daugherty, Kendra & Walt Davis, Alysanne McGaffey, Rosalind & John Powell, and BJ Stevenson.
Arabella Decker
Arabella Decker's Woman With Horse