Visiting Artists
Honoring The Visionary Spirit Of James Hubbell
Honoring the visionary spirit of James Hubbell, we invite artists to be inspired by the unique surroundings of Ilan-Lael. The captivating beauty of Ilan-Lael and Hubbell’s philosophy of connecting people with nature through art provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity for emerging and established artists to connect with our community. This can include lectures, workshops, residencies, and exhibitions. The program aims to foster artistic exchange, enrich the local art scene, and provide valuable experiences for artists and the public.
2026 Visiting Artist Fellows
Helen Shafer Garcia
Helen Shafer Garcia is a painter, mixed media, book arts, ceramics artist and award winning illustrator. Helen’s watercolor illustrations have graced the cover brochures, garden articles and advertisements of numerous international resorts and magazines for more than 40 years. Awards include four San Diego Press Club First Place Awards of Excellence in Illustration for San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine. Her works and articles have been published in Southwest Art, Cloth, Paper, Scissors, San Diego Home and Garden Lifestyles, and Studios Magazines. Helen holds a BA degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in illustration and ceramics. She is a signature member of San Diego Watercolor Society and teaches watercolor, book arts, and mixed media workshops internationally and across the US. International locations including New Zealand, France, Mexico and Canada
Rose Irelan is an award-winning American plein air painter known for her luminous landscapes and seascapes that explore the harmony of light, color, and atmosphere. Based in Southern California, she draws inspiration from the Pacific Coast, the deserts and mountains of the American West, Baja California, and her travels throughout Europe.
Rose studied Illustration and Fine Art at the Columbus College of Art and Design and has continued her artistic training with prominent master painters including Ray Roberts, Scott Christensen, Jill Carver, and noted colorist Daniel Pinkham, among others. Painting primarily from life, she combines direct observation with a refined understanding of design, value, and color harmony to create works that are both expressive and enduring. Her paintings have earned national recognition, including First Place in the American Impressionist Society All-Member Exhibit, the Seascape Award of Excellence from Oil Painters of America, multiple Plein Air Salon awards, and recognition from the Art Renewal Center. She has been juried into numerous national exhibitions and invitational plein air events, including Carmel Plein Air and Telluride Plein Air.
A dedicated educator for more than twenty years, Rose teaches drawing and painting through workshops, online courses, international retreats, and her private atelier, Art Journey. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the San Diego Chapter of the California Art Club and is an active member of several national arts organizations, including the American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, Women Artists of the West, and the American Society of Marine Artists.
Rose is also the steward of Casa de Claro, an artist retreat overlooking the Sea of Cortez in Baja California, where she hosts painting retreats and continues her lifelong exploration of light, color, and the poetry of the landscape.
I am a mixed media sculptor and fine artist with more than 30 years of professional experience in San Diego County. My work spans public art, sculptural installation, and studio based mixed media practice, unified by a deep exploration of light, materiality, and sensory experience. I have exhibited locally and nationally, received numerous awards, and created permanent outdoor artworks throughout the region, collaborating closely with engineers, project managers, municipalities, and community groups.
Light (physical and metaphorical) is the central thread in my work. The shifting nuances of daylight shape my visual language, while solar illumination and reflective materials animate my sculptures after dark. My techniques draw from mosaic, stainless steel plasma cutting, sand erosion glass carving, wood carving, and the integration of light interactive materials, allowing me to move fluidly between fine art and large scale installation.
My approach is rooted in observation, research, and responsiveness to place. Whether creating a public artwork or a studio based piece, I study the surrounding environment, its rhythms, and its cultural or architectural context. This process ensures that each work feels grounded, intentional, and attuned to its setting.
Across all formats, I strive to create artworks that invite curiosity, elevate everyday experience, and reveal the quiet magic of light and form.
Aline Mare began her career in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, coming out of a
background of theatre, experimental film, and installation art. She completed
undergraduate work at SUNY Buffalo’s Center for Media Studies and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. She has received several grants and residencies, including
FOCA Curator grant in 2025; Fourwinds in Auray, France; Art 1307 Residency In
Naples; Valparaiso Foundation in Mojacar, Spain; a Sino-American art tour in Shanghai; Starry Nights in New Mexico; Headlands Center for the Arts; Kala; Film Arts Foundation; New Langton Arts in SF; and a New York State Residency for the Arts. Her work is included in several private collections in the Bay Area, New York City, China, and Los Angeles. After experiencing the Altadena fires of 2025, she moved to Joshua Tree. She continues to expand her work, concentrating on mixed media and installation, exploring metaphors of nature and its transformative relationship to the human psyche and the state of our planet.
Willy lives and works on Palomar Mountain, creating art with wood and paint. He creates sculpture and furniture-ish objects, with a practice deeply connected to the land around him. Willy is intimately involved in the process of cutting down, milling, and memorializing oak trees affected by the gold spotted oak borer. His goal is to bring new life to these beautiful giants through art. Alongside his wood practice, Willy is a multidisciplinary artist who also paints, responding to the beauty of the land he lives on and funneling it through his subconscious emotions.
Vira Ustianska is a Ukrainian artist and art teacher. She was born in Zaporizhzhia in 1988. From 1996 to 2000, she studied fine arts at the children’s studio of the Shevchenko district. From 2000 to 2004, she attended the Zaporizhzhia Children’s Art School. From 2006 to 2009, she studied at Zaporizhzhia Art College, majoring in Design. She began participating in exhibition activities and plein air events in 2008.
She received her higher art education at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, where she studied easel painting in the portrait workshop under the guidance of Prof. Chaus V.N. and Prof. Ganotsky V.L. (2009–2015).
Vira is an active member of several professional art organizations, including the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (since 2013), the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild (where she serves as a board member), the American Impressionist Society, the California Art Club, Oil Painters of America, the East County Art Association, and the Kensington-Talmadge Business Association.
Vira has received over 17 awards and recognitions in the United States and internationally. Among them are First Place in the Plein Air Contest and multiple First Place awards at the San Diego County Fair (including Pet Portrait and Oil Representational categories), Second Place at the Viva Art Juried Exhibition and the Big Bear Plein Air Festival, Third Place at the Olaf Wieghorst Museum’s Mary Jane Parkinson Legacy Exhibition, as well as the Award of Excellence at the 26th Annual National Juried Exhibition of the American Impressionist Society. Her work has also been recognized with multiple Honorable Mentions and Top Finalist placements at PleinAir Salon competitions, along with distinctions from the Oceanside Museum Plein Air Festival and other juried exhibitions.
Marshall Williams is a photographer who draws on a keen sense of spatial awareness, light and gesture to create visual narratives of people and places and the world we live in. His most recent fine art series, Taco Stand Vernacular, has been shown in many galleries as well as featured in San Diego Magazine in the fall of 2025 and in other publications. In his fine art work, Williams seeks out the beauty and the mystique in the magnificent as well as the mundane. He draws on a long time love of Black and White and credits the mid century urban landscape photographs of Max Yavno as an early inspiration.
Williams is currently a Visiting Artist Fellow for the Ilan-Lael Foundation, which preserves the home and studios of world renowned artist and architect, James Hubbell. Williams serves on the board of Medium Photo and is an active member of APA, San Diego. Williams studied at Brooks Institute of Photography. Upon graduating he apprenticed for photographer and educator Dean Collins before establishing his own commercial photography studio in San Diego. Professionally his 35 year career has been diverse with a wide range of clientele from advertising print campaigns to commercial food accounts and luxury resort and real estate development clients.
Williams was born in Santa Barbara, CA in 1965 and has been a lifelong resident of Southern California. Along with his wife Kathy, they raised their two daughters in a century old home in the uptown neighborhood of San Diego, just down the street from Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo. Today they enjoy making art, entertaining with friends and keeping up with their now grown daughters who are out in the world.
Past Visiting Artists
2025 Fellows
The Artist Fellow class of 2025 offers a unique blend of fresh perspectives and legacy carrying, as some of these artists were taught by James Hubbell himself and now serve as full-time studio artisans. Each artist was invited to visit Ilan-Lael, Hubbell’s art-filled and historically designated home and studios located in Santa Ysabel, CA, to seek inspiration from the unusual architectural and serene natural landscapes to create unique works. These artworks debuted at the Foundation sponsored Harvest Moon Dinner on October 5th, also held on the property amidst Hubbell’s art and architecture. Following the dinner, all artworks, including select works by James Hubbell were available for viewing and sale at Sparks Gallery in downtown San Diego.
2026 Visiting Artist Fellows: Donna Cosentino (photography), Brennan Hubbell (sculpture), Mati Rosa Moon (mixed media mosaic), Cindy Mushet-Shriver (stained glass), Joe Skoby (ceramics), Dan Thoner (woodworking), Toni Williams (painting)
Read Ilan-Lael: A Sancutary of Artistic Inspiration by Visiting Artist Liaison, Rhi Burmeister
2024 Fellows
We were honored in 2024 to present seven immensely talented and prominent artists as part of our inaugural Ilan-Lael Visiting Artist Program. We welcomed each artist to the property where James Hubbell lived and created for over 50 years (as many times as they wanted) to seek inspiration to create one or more artworks. Their artworks — paintings, photographs, and poetry (in broadside form) — debuted in an exhibit at Ilan-Lael during the annual Harvest Moon Dinner in September. The Artist Fellows exhibit then opened at the Santa Ysabel Gallery, followed by another another exhibition at Union Hall Gallery in downtown San Diego.
Ilan-Lael Visiting Artist Fellows 2024 included poet Karla Cordero with print- maker Sibyl Rubottom, photographers John Durant, Robert Treat, and Linda Todd-Limon, along with painters Mark Fehlman, Joe Garcia, and William Gullette.