Charles L. Honn Botanical Garden
The Botanical Garden
The Gazebo
'The Barn'
The Back Porch
The Lisa Kelly Mural
The Diane J. Ellias Mural
The Botanical Garden has been described as a “hidden gem” in Pleasant Valley. The cycles of native plants, flowers and trees make the garden appealing in every season. Plants are identified with signage. It has been designated as an urban bee lab for UC-Berkeley.
The garden is open during regular museum hours, and museum members may reserve time in the garden outside of regular museum hours.
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Monarch butterflies thrive on the numerous wild tropical milkweed plants.
Visitors find the area relaxing just to sit, eat lunch, or watch the monarchs float over the garden.
The Gazebo is a 27' Amish Gazebo beautifully set in the middle of the garden. The gazebo can be reserved by PVHS Museum Members for small meetings or weddings; contact Joy at pvhBill@gmail.com, or leave a message using the 'Contact Us' form at the bottom of this page. To become a PVHS Museum Member, and make a reservation, is quick and easy, simply visit the Membership page of this website using the Membership button:
'The Barn', set alongside the garden walking path, is a 20' x 6' newer addition to our display areas. Four large viewing windows allow the visitor to view the extensive vintage collections from ranch, farm, garden, garage, kitchen and wood shop. Solar-powered lighting highlights the objects. The 85 lb. iron sign from the 1898 dedication of the Santa Clara River Bridge, naming the Ventura County Supervisors, hangs on the back wall.
The Lisa Kelly Mural
The Lisa Kelly Mural, located on the museum building east exterior wall, is a montage of Camarillo's sites and landmarks from the early 1900s. Completed in 2017, the mural depicts early Camarillo's agriculture based economy.
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Lisa Kelly, born in Fremont Ohio, currently lives in Ventura California. Her professional artist career began with canvas art in 1979, and expanded to mural art in 1993. ◊ Lisa has exhibited canvas art in shows and galleries in Soho New York City, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills Ca, Sacramento California, Palm Springs Desert Museum, Ojai, Ventura, Oxnard, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara California. ◊ Lisa has created murals in and outside Kona Hawaii, Honolulu Hawaii, Carlsbad California up to Seattle Washington and East over to Las Vegas Nevada and just about everywhere in between.
The Lisa Kelly Mural is the only mural in Camarillo that depicts history of Pleasant Valley. ◊ Many visitors drive into the parking lot just to view and photograph the mural as it is available for viewing when the museum is closed. Viewing is better in the morning as the mural faces east into the morning sun (as when the below photograph as taken). ◊ With current museum building expansion soon to happen, many have expressed concern that it will be preserved. The mural will be preserved, and the new building is designed to feature it.
Lisa Kelly Links
www.channelislandsharbor.org/listing/lisa-kelly-art-studio
www.facebook.com/Murals-by-Lisa-Kelly
The Diane J. Ellias Mural
The Diane J. Ellias Mural is located behind the Chumash Indian Exhibit at the east end of the Garden's ornamental dry creek. The mural is an extension of the Garden; capturing both the distant landscape view from the garden during Camarillo's early days (farmlands and Pleasant Valley's eastside hills), and capturing a foreground view incorporating Garden highlights (flowering plants and pollinating insects) seen in spring and summer seasons.
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Diane J. Ellias
Art Bio:
"As a child, I often saw images in shadows, folds of fabric and clouds. This evolved into a recognized talent for drawing and painting that was nurtured throughout my childhood in Michigan, earning acknowledgements and awards."
"Early on, I earned an Associate of Arts degree in Graphic Arts, and later an Associate of Science degree in Radiologic Technology. I passed a state and national board exam to get my license in Radiologic Technology, along with licenses in Fluoroscopy, Mammography and Computed Tomography. Until my retirement, I worked at a hospital scanning away. Again, it is the images. So here I am, technical and artistic, logical and abstract, pursuing my passion of creating artwork."
"Acrylic painting and drawing are my favorite mediums right now. Also, I find mixed media interesting, such as incorporating x-ray images into artwork at times. Art is a subject that has a growth line; the more you do, the better you get. Art is also emotional for me, as it probably is for many artists. Sometimes a block develops, similar to a writer’s block. To continue to push forward past that block is my challenge. Sometimes we must do what we fear the most, and then success usually follows."
Mural Vision:
"The Pleasant Valley Historical Museum wanted a mural painted on an 8 foot by 20 foot building in the garden area of the museum property. They asked me to be the artist to paint it and I was honored. Since there is a dry creek running through the garden that terminates at the building, the one request was that the dry creek continue on into the painting. My goal was to create a view with depth to extend the garden, along with painting detailed images in the foreground."
"So, research on the project began. I wandered around the garden to get a feel for the area. It is lush with ferns, flowers and trees with plenty of monarch butterflies and bees in the air. After acquiring a brochure of the plants in the garden, I decided to incorporate a few of them into the mural. The Manzanita tree, Western Red Bud tree, Deer Grass, Salvia, Encelia Californica and Milkweed were those that I chose."
"To create a feeling of distance, the eastern mountains of Camarillo are included with the eastern hills of Camarillo (pre-development) and some farmland. The view from Lewis Road, west of Pleasant Valley Road shows these mountains and hills very well."
"Also, the ‘barn’ is in the garden, so I thought, let’s put it in the mural, along with a Camarillo white horse peeking from a broken board…maybe wanting to eat some of those flowers!"
"Painting in such a tranquil environment has made this a very enjoyable project."
Diane J. Ellias Links
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/diane-ellias