• Hardie Gramatky, Painter (1907-1979) - A Retrospective View

    California Watercolor

  • $22.00

 

Works from 1928 - 1978

36 pages, limited availability.

42 color illustrations, softcover - $22.00 

The following pages and the show that accompanies this catalog are a great opportunity to look into the life, work, and spirit of one of America’s pure artists. The Hardie Gramatky story is lovingly told by his imaginative daughter, Linda Gramatky Smith, who has worked with her mother Dorothea (Doppy) Gramatky to bring us an inside look at the career of this genius. We will enjoy the closeness of family, the always inquisitive and self-demanding nature of the man, and the spontaneous way in which Hardie lived his life. This is an inside view that lends itself to freely rejoicing in the accomplishments of this great painter. We feel lucky to represent Hardie Gramatky’s paintings, but we are even more fortunate to be able to share the love he generated in the people who were closest to him. 

Hardie’s paintings rank him among the best of any to paint in watercolor. His colors are rich, and his style unique. His early career was praised by critics across the land, and he exemplified as well as anyone the quality of work that made the “California School of Watercolor” painters nationally renowned. His early scenes were direct, spontaneous results of being excited and challenged by the world around him, which he loved emphatically. The work of his later years, once he moved to the East Coast, grew in vitality, quality and color.

His career in illustration and children’s books was rewarding to him and his family, economically as well as in building a national recognition. His stories of “Little Toot” rank him among the top children’s book writers in the Country’s history. He will always be remembered for those wonderful contributions to our national heritage. He deserves mostly to be remembered for the paintings he so magnificently created. Linda describes in the text of this catalog the need Hardie had to communicate through his paintings. The fact that he could write ideas in some instances and not others, but through his painting he could always find the words, is testament to his seeing his art as an important form of communication.

The legacy Hardie Gramatky left behind will warm our souls and viewing appetites for many centuries to come. We are extremely privileged to bring a small but significant example of his paintings to share with the world now.   David Stary Sheets.

California Watercolor – California Art Books