By Tim Clarke
Rebuilding Together Mountain Communities
I had a chance to sit down with Robin Lyles, owner of The Lake House in Cedar Glen, to talk about her First Friday events and her support of mountain charities. We sat down in front of the fireplace in the comfy sofa and chairs in a living room type atmosphere of her gallery and began to chat.
Robin and her husband, John, came up to the mountain for good 20 years ago from Orange County after successful careers in restaurant management for her and architecture for him. They remodeled the site inside and out to create the gallery space merged with a store of unique food items and utensils with a cocktail chic vibe. Opening in May of 2004, design work and growing sales made it all work.
Then, the recession of 2008-2009 took the wind out of sales and Robin had to come up with an idea to get people through the doors again. The lighting bolt came in the form of an e-mail from a gallery owner friend in Illinois of all places.
Her friend had sent her a flier about a “First Friday” event she was putting on and Robin picked up the ball and ran with it. Ideas flew around the room: She would create a party atmosphere with food from her vast restaurant experience and have a couple of artists each time, showing and hopefully selling their work. Truly a mountain art experience changing each month.
In 2014 she decided that the commissions that she was receiving at her special Friday events could go to selected mountain charities. Robin freely admitted that these events weren’t totally altruistic but beneficial to the charity by increasing donations and to the Lake House by broadening the customer base – a merger of both charity and commerce.
Surviving through Covid, Snowmageddon and whatever comes next, the giving will continue and is now in its 15th year. This year’s recipients are, from July to December, Blue Jay Jazz Foundation, Lauri Carleton Memorial Fund, Rim of the World Educational Foundation, Lake Arrowhead Rotary Foundation, Mountain Communities Hospital Foundation and Rebuilding Together Mountain Communities (formerly Christmas in April).
My organization, Rebuilding Together, is the last First Friday event of the year and I encourage all who read this to come and support this truly noble organization of dedicated volunteers who help needy homeowners in our mountain communities. Save the date, Friday, Dec. 6, from 4 to 7 p.m. and support our mountain communities.
The featured artists at the December event are Robert Boatman and Linda Brown.
Robert Boatman finds inspiration for his oil paintings in the mountains, rural countryside and the California coastline. After retiring from a career in architecture, he how finds time to follow his passion for art and spending time with family.
A Southern California native, Linda Brown grew up with equal passions for nature and art. Becoming a professional landscape artist was inevitable. Essentially self-taught in the basics of oil painting, she has been painting most of her life.
Linda’s style of realism captures the special feeling of a place and celebrates all the colors, textures and moods of nature. In particular, the way sunlight plays on a surface, be it a mountain range or a single stone, will capture her heart and demand to be painted.
The Lake House is located at 28966 Hook Creek Road in Cedar Glen; call (909) 337-7676 or visit lakehousecollection.com for more information.
0 Comments