Studio Lone Mountain

Art studio, gallery, and zendo of Debra Jan Bibel Eventually retirement dictated a change of direction. research in microbiology. Patterns of form make existence.

Studio Lone Mountain is the abode and workplace of Debra Jan Bibel, painter and photographer, retired medical scientist and editor, sometime poet, and constant Zen practitioner. The early studio space was once a library dedicated to the history of medical microbiology and immunology, known as the Elie Metchnikoff Memorial Library, housing some 1,200 books, numerous articles, and objects related to

the fields. Bibel was a working scientist at the time, and besides research, she wrote articles and two books on the history of these sciences. The library contents were sold to a rare books dealer in southern California. As she was always an artist, as her father and uncle, the one time hobby transitioned to a serious, professional endeavor. Bibel’s more formal art studies began with the works and writings of Piet Mondrian, pioneer geometric abstractionist, a hard-edge painter. Her rubric became morphology, the science of shape and form as it relates to function, which was her Ph.D. Squares, rectangles, stripes, circles, and lines were the initial building blocks and focus. They in turn were the components of a city synthesis, using actual locations as models. Mondrian was a Theosophist in Paris, and his grid paintings of line and bold primary colors had spiritual and architectural purposes toward clarity of mind. Bibel, a Zen Buddhist, similarly developed her art to depict, by analogy, altered perception of structures after intense meditation. The rigidity of line and ruler has a counterpoint of bush and ink on rice paper, with the flowing curves of Chinese calligraphy and the controlled accident of sumi-e drawing. The seemingly opposite yet maintains balance and harmony and also introspective, perceptive qualities. Recent paintings merge the two sides by encompassing these approaches with acrylic on canvas. The latest series of paintings emphasizes the abstract quality of the actual, when reduced to elementals by shape and altered by hue. We are conditioned via culture and biology to define relationships and construct categories. Drummers are keen to rhythms in daily life; meditators are alert to the passing parades of sound and color; scientists examine the ideals of mathematics in behavior of objects and the paradoxical emptiness of matter. As the title of her website [www.lonemountain-art.com] expresses, Bibel’s experimental morphological art evolves. What will develop with this new direction is unknown, especially to herself. Debra Jan Bibel has a personal page on Facebook as well and that features her Amazon reviews of musical albums.

05/24/2026

I had stopped painting with the publication of my art book, and now an octogenarian, it seemed time........but boredom and the urge of creativity has taken me, after 6 months, back to the brush and paint. Stay tuned.......

01/17/2026

My 64-page, paper-bound, book of my recent paintings is available for purchase. Please visit my website for details: www.lonemountain-art.com/book.html

12/31/2025

I own a wire/metal sculpture but do not know the artist. My father purchased it from a decorator's showroom in the San Francisco Furniture Mart during the late 1970s or early 1980s. No artist name or mark is found; only the decorator firm had a label. Any clue about the artist?

12/02/2025

Last painting of the year: Horton's Spheres. This is probably the first and only painting of these structures, although you may find many photographs, commercial and artistic, and also 3-D models. Built to contain liquified fuels under uniform pressure, they are painted white or pale hues to reflect light and heat. Size of art: 36 by 36 inches.

Leon Bibel, Forgotten Artist of the New Deal

11/15/2025

One hour talk by Professor Richard Haw on WPA New Deal artist Leon Bibel, my uncle:

Leon Bibel, Forgotten Artist of the New Deal Artist Leon Bibel, like many of his generation, survived the Great Depression because of the New Deal. He worked on murals funded by the Public Works of Art ...

10/14/2025

My new painting: Talus. For more information, see my art website, www.lonemountain-art.com/fresh.html

10/04/2025

My painting Iguazu will be exhibited at the Sausalito Center for the Arts Center Open. [their first]
It is a juried show. Sausalito, CA, is an art town, and it is an honor.

Exhibit from October 17 to November 16, 2025

09/12/2025

A new painting. My style, but real-real, not like abstract-real as my last work, Lizard. I find this almost surrealistic. Title is "The Circle of Still Life." Note East-West blend.

08/11/2025

A new painting. It may seem abstract but it is essentially real. Check my comment below for title. Click on image for enlargement.

07/08/2025

New painting. It seems abstract but it is entirely representational and in scale. Title is "Ironside Mountain Lookout". 40 × 30 in. [Visit my art website www.lonemountain-art.com for all my works.]

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Telephone

+15104443435

Website

http://www.lonemountain-art.com/

Address

Oakland, CA