November 18, 2004


Local artist known for impressions of the New Almaden area

By Jeanne C. Lewis
Staff Writer

Gillian Lane Altieri’s interest in art began as a young child in Hull, England, selling her first street scene at age 8 to her father’s friend. The family moved to America when she was 12 years old, settling in Connecticut. Altieri relocated to California in 1980 and when she had her daughter in 1986, the New Almaden resident found more time for her artistic side.

Now, Altieri is known in the area for her artistic impressions of the New Almaden area. Recently the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation and New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association presented Altieri’s pastels, watercolors and oils at Casa Grande. The exhibit featured cottages of Almaden Road and England in pleasing-to-the-eye, brightly colored renditions. “Everyone is artistic, but some people pursue it more than others,” the petite Altieri commented while applying finishing touches to a Casa Grande painting. “There is a need in people to create.”

Kitty Monahan, NAQCPA president, noticed Altieri’s flair with a paintbrush and asked her to create portraits of the bygone mining managers from archival black and white photos.

Altieri’s “Cactus Shadows.”

Hanging in the replicated mine manager’s office of the Quicksilver Mining Museum are Altieri’s renditions of James Randol, Henry Halleck, Samuel Butterworth and Robert Bulmore, which add a personal history to the elegant and stately decorated room.

“Oh, look, it’s the Carson adobe,” Nancy Mapes remarked, gazing at Altieri’s vision of an Almaden home in the historic district named “Cactus Shadows.”

Altieri adds a touch of New Almaden’s geology when she paints portraits or the homes of the historic New Almaden district. She recovers rocks of cinnabar, grinds them down to powder, and mixes the contents with linseed oil to create her own paint. The bright vermillion graces the paintings Altieri creates of the area, flowers, a man’s tie or the brick of Casa Grande.

Altieri says that she uses the right side of her brain when she paints. The left side she applies to her position of dosimetrist at the California Endocurietherapy Cancer Center in Oakland.

A signature member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, Altieri has won awards and had local exhibits. State Farm Insurance Company commissioned her for a series of landscapes of the south bay communities; St. Joseph Cathedral, Santa Clara Mission,

Paul Masson Winery, Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen, New Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum, and even Manley Donuts. She loves to do landscapes and specializes in painting cottages.

To contact Gillian Lane Altieri regarding commissioned work or instruction, call (408) 268-2990.