Now at the Gallery Jun Jul 24

		Phone Voicemail text 707-875-2911	*Now at the Gallery*	About Us	E-Mail US	Google Maps to our gallery
Linda Sorensen Paintings .com	Joshua Meador Collection				Vintage Prints

Now showing at the Gallery
(August through September, 2024)

Joshua Meador and
his artist Friends

1580 Eastshore Rd
Bodega Bay, CA 94923
707-875-2911

Google Maps
to our gallery

Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com

with 30+ paintings by
Joshua Meador (1911-1965)
and his artist friends ...

Conrad Buff (1886-1975)
Stephen Seymour Thomas (1868-1956)
Ralph Hulett (1915-1974)
Bennett Bradbury (1914-1991)
- - - - -

plus early 20th century watercolors
by Sonoma County's "wizard of watercolor"
Grace Allison Griffith (1885-1955)

and contemporary paintings
by Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's resident artist
Linda Sorensen

*Ralph Hulett* 1915-1975
Ralph in studio working on background watercolors for Disney's 101 Dalmations	Sierra Bridge (offered unframed) watercolor, 22 x 30	The Open Gate watercolor, 22 x 30
Gullery 20 x 30	During Philip and Libby Meador's 2007 visit to our home, Philip Meador shared fond memories of Ralph Hulett. He told me stories of how the the Meador and Hulett families would take painting excursions together to either on the California Coast or the Eastern Sierra. While Ralph and Josh would go off and paint for the day, Philip enjoyed the company of Ralph's two sons. Joshua Meador and Ralph Hulett were co-workers, a professional relationship which quickly lead to a life long friendship. Josh had been at the studio for two years when Ralph Hulett arrived. Ralph painted watercolor backgrounds used in the studio's feature length films.
As a fine art painter, Ralph was well known in the post war California scene painting movement. He trained at the Chouinard Art Institute with Millard Sheets and Phil Dike. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society (AWS) and the California Water Color Association (CWA). He is known for his LA urban scenes, knotted freeway interchanges, old LA's hills, old houses and tunnels. He also enjoyed painting excursions, especially to the coast of California. Ralph's IMDB list of credits is most impressive. He began with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as an assistant artist (not credited), but followed with a long list of Disney hits including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, and One Hundred and One Dalmations.

*Seymour Thomas* 1868-1956
Seymour Thomas in Paris with the camera he used in his portrait work	Makapuu Point, Oahu 1938 watercolor, 15 1/2" x 25 1/2"	Carmel Dunes, 1951 watercolor, 18" x 24"
Monterey Coast watercolor, 8" x 10 1/2"	Seymour Thomas was 43 years older than Joshua Meador. Long before Meador was born, Seymour Thomas was a painting prodogy. In 1884 at the age of 16, Seymour Thomas entered the Art Students League in New York and 4 years later he enrolled in the Academie Julian in Paris. Paris remained dear to his heart, and he competed in the Paris Salon 20 consecutive years. Over a long and distinquished career, he painted many high commission portraits, among them a portrait of President Woodrow Wilson which hangs in the White House collection.
When Seymour Thomas was 45 years old in 1915, he and his wife Mary Loudon Blount Thomas moved to La Crescenta, California where they had a beautiful hillside home and studio. He often made painting excursions to other locales, including his favorite destination, Carmel, California and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. In 1938 and 1939, he and Mary lived in Hawaii where he tried to fill a demand for his portraits. After having lived in La Crescenta over 20 years, Mary and Seymour Thomas welcomed new neighbors, a young couple from Chicago named Libby and Joshua Meador. When Linda Sorensen and I hosted Libby and Philip Meador at our home in 2007, they saw two two of our Seymour Thomas paintings hanging on our wall. They spoke glowingly about the warm welcome Helen and Seymour Thomse welcomed them to La Crescenta and told how Seymour Thomas introduced Josh to the Los Angeles art community. Libby told us that even though there was a big age difference, once Seymour and Josh began talking art, they were like long lost friends.

*Conrad Buff* 1886-1975
Conrad and Mary Buff in studio collaborating on a children's book	Self Portrait oil on board, 11 1/2" x 14"	Portrait of Mary Buff (Conrad's wife) oil on paperboard, 30" x 24"
*Mountain River* oil on paperboard, 12" x 16"	From a cave oil on paper, 9" x 12"	Soon after Joshua and Libby Meador moved to Hollywood, they met Mary and Conrad Buff. They became life long friends. Conrad was 25 years older than Josh, yet they became a life long friends.
The Buffs lived in Eagle Rock and the Meadors in nearby La Crescenta, and they visited each other often. Conrad introduced Joshua around the LA art community and told Josh of his earlier days in LA with his artist friends, Edgar Payne and Maynard Dixon

*Bennett Bradbury* 1914-1991
Portrait of Bennett Bradbury by Christian von Schneidau, 1893-1976	Beach Sentinels, Carmel Peninsula oil on canvas, 22" x 32"	Dusk, China Cove, Point Lobos oil on canvas, 22" x 32"
Hawaiian Shore, N Maui across to Molokai oil on canvs, 20" x 30"	Laguna Beach Coastline oil on canvas, 18" x 24"	Between 1955 and 1960, Joshua Meador maintained a residence and studio in Carmel Highlands. He rented an old firehouse, making use of the living quarters upstairs while using the garage below for his spacious studio.
The fireman's sliding pole was still in place and used on occasion. Bennett Bradbury was a frequent guest. Prior to meeting Joshua Meador, Bennett Bradbury lived in Honolulu for eight years after WWII. He maintained a studio and gallery at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, selling paintings to the nascent Hawaiian tourist trade. When he returned to California, he worked at Disney Studios where he met and became friends with Joshua Meador. He spent a great deal of time in Carmel where he painted and taught. Bradbury lived in Laguna Beach and was an active member of the Laguna Art Association. He had a flare for entertaining and cooking, and was prized by his circle of artist friends for the tasty feasts he hosted. He came from an artistic family. His mother was Elfrida Bradbury, a grand opera star of the Boston Opera Company, and his grandfather, Alwin Schroeder, was acclaimed as the greatest cellist of his time.

... also on view, these 32 paintings by Joshua Meador (each thumbnail below links to that paintings page on our site)
Full Bloom, 20 x 27 Holton hand carved walnut frame	*To Water*, 22 x 30	*Boats in Monterey,* 20 x 27	Bay Frontage, Monterey Bay 18 x 24
*Carmel Coast II*, 24 x 34	*San Pedro Boats*, 22 x 30	*Mendocino Coast*, 24 x 36	Cannery Row, 22 x 30 (today, this is the location of the Monterey Bay Aquarium)
*Caspar Point II*, 24 x 36	Windbreak, 22 x 30	Riverside Store, 20 x 27 Russian River c 1950-55	*Hill Village, 1951*, 20 x 27
Inner Harbor, Bodega Bay 18 x 24	Bodega Bay View, 18 x 24	Side of a Hill, 18 x 24	Point Arena Light, 12 x 16
Genesis, 27 x 40	Shorewise, 18 x 24	*In the Country*, 18 x 24	Old Virginia City, 20 x 27
Road to Mt. Whitney, 20 x 27	Captain Vallejo's House, 22 x 30 (this building still stands on the plaza square in Sonoma))	Park, 22 x 30 (believed to to be a scene from Sonoma Plaza in the early 1950's )	*Storm Surf Crashing*, 6 x 8
Beached Boat, 6 x 8	Wave Surfing Gulls, 6 x 8	Sunshade, 6 x 8	Sandpipers, 6 x 8
*Wintertide,* 6 x 8	Estuary Seabirds, 6 x 8	*Milling Tide*, 6 x 8	City Dwellers, 6 x 8