"California School", The Private Collection of E. Gene Crain
by Gualala Arts Center
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This catalog accompanies an exhibition at the Gualala Arts Center entitled: "California School", May 24, 1986 to July 20, 1986. 64 pages, by the Gualala Arts Center, OUT OF PRINT. 78 black and white illustrations, 30 color illustrations, softcover - $25.00 Buy this book: Price: $25.00
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About This Book
In the spring of 1976 an exhibition entitled California White Paper Painters was held at the Art Gallery of California State University in Fullerton. The exhibition of works in transparent watercolor honored in part those artists who, in the 1930s and 1940s, began a tradition of painting primarily in that medium, which has come to be known as "The California School" or "California Style". It was these artists who defied the notion that watercolor was basically a sketching medium, not suitable for "serious" painting.Rather they found that the layers of transparent pigment, when applied with bold, free brushstroking and in strong values, produced a uniquely expressive painting.
The origins of The California School lie with the formation of the California Water Color Society which was founded in Los Angeles in 1921. The founders were painters who worked primarily in oil but who recognized the artistic possibilities inherent in watercolor which made it an ideal medium for conveying the subtle nuances of the California light. Through the Society they planned to present to the public works in that medium to be considered as finished paintings.
It was not, however, until the late 1920s, when Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Barse Miller and Phil Paradise joined the Society, that the evolution of a clearly definable style began. Sheets, Dike and Paradise had all studied at the Chouinard School of Art (later Choinard Art Institute).Miller, who had studied at the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of FIne Arts, came to Los Angeles in 1924 and began teaching at Chouinard in 1927. One of the influential teachers at Chouinard was Clarence Hinkle (1880-1960) who employed an impressionistic, broken brushstroke in both his oils and watercolors. The earliest works of both Dike and Sheets show Hinkle's influence.
As early as 1929 Dike and Sheets were exhibiting in national watercolor exhibitions. Dike, who studied at the Art Students League from 1928 to 1929, exhibited at the combined exhibition of the New York Watercolor Club and the American Watercolor Society, and both artists had works in The Ninth International Exhibition of Watercolors, Pastels, Drawings and Miniatures at The Art Institute of Chicago. The next two decades would prove to be the most historically significant for the group, a time when their reputation would be established and their influence felt.
California Watercolor - California Art Book