About The California Style

In the period between 1850 and today, California has been the home to a large number of extremely talented and versatile watercolor artists. While some became nationally and internationally recognized, most were largely overlooked until recent years. Since the 1970s, art collectors and museum curators have developed a serious interest in California watercolors and have been seeking these works to collect and display.

The group of artists working in this style often chose to paint watercolors depicting scenes of everyday life in the cities and suburbs of California. They were considered an important part of the American Scene or Regionalist movement that swept across the United States during the mid part of the twentieth century. The best of their works were painted directly with little or no preliminary pencil drawing, had bold design, creative use of the white paper as a “color” and featured the transparency of this unique medium. With the increased popularity of watercolor painting in recent years, the innovations of the California style have become part of the mainstream of American art.

"California Watercolors 1850-1970" by Gordon McClelland & Jay T. Last.