Seascapes have always been popular among art lovers. They are an expression of the existential wonder we innately have for the sea.

Rachel Carson, American writer and marine biologist, speaking of her scientific writings quipped, "If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry."

The Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery collection includes many artists who, as Jack Kennedy put it, went "back from whence we came." As with Rachel Carson, our artists couldn't paint the sea, "and leave out the poetry."

This online exhibition is meant to offer a taste of how different artists express wonderment of the sea in style, theme, tone, and majesty. Its a way to consider the sea, "from whence we came."

This exhibition has only one painting from each of the featured artists. For paintings you find intriguing, click on the photo to go to the artists page. You may find more seascapes by the same artist. The paintings below are roughly arranged by the date of birth of the artists, beginning with the oldest born in 1844 to the youngest born in 1952.

John Appleton Brown (1844-1902) studied in the style of the Barbizon School, painting in the home of Jean Baptiste Camille Corot in 1874, the year before Corot's death. He lived and worked in New England, often painting with friends including impressionist Childe Hassam. He exhibited his work at the Paris Salon, The Boston Art Club, The Carnegie Institute, and the Art Institute of Chicago. This particular work has much in common with the sea paintings of his local contemporary Winslow Homer 1836-1910.

Napoleon Primo Vallejo (1850-1923) was born in Sonoma County in 1850, the youngest son of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Francisca Benicia Carillo Vallejo, in the same year California became a state. He had a passion for painting, making his studio out back of the family home in Sonoma, a small one-room cabin dubbed "Napoleon's Cottage." The cottage still stands today and can be visited. It is part of the Sonoma State Historic Park in Sonoma. Apart from painting, Napoleon wrote of his family's history, with some of his work published in the early 1920's in the San Francisco Chronicle.

James Everett Stuart (1852-1941) studied art in San Francisco with William Keith and Thomas Hill. He preferred a style in the tradition of the French Barbizon School, and loved painting wild places including Alaska and Yellowstone. He maintained a studio near Union Square in San Francisco and was a member of the Bohemian Club. His works were prized, with some hanging in the White House.

James Gale Tyler (1855-1931) was a self taught painter, gaining much success in New York City and Connecticut. An avid fan of yacht racing, Tyler painted every America's Cup sailing race between 1900 and 1930. His sailing illustrations were published in Literary Digest, Harpers and Century Magazine. His marine paintings are prized for their emphasis on mood rather than detailed realism.

Frederick Stymetz Lamb (1862-1928) was born into a family with a national reputation for stained glass. His father Joseph and his Uncle Richard began J. & R. Lamb Studios in New York, alongside competitor Tiffany. Growing up in the business, Frederick became the company's head of design, supervising a staff of skilled craftsmen. Frederick studied at the Art Students League and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He was known for his murals and stained glass. His talents were noticed by Jane and Leland Stanford. In the 1890's, Frederick came to California, hired by Jane Stanford to design and install all the stained glass in the Stanford University Chapel. In 1922, Frederick moved to California for the climate, living in the Berkeley Hills while making summertime painting excursions to the Mendocino Coast. On one of those excursions in 1928, he died.

Jean Mannheim (1863-1945) As a young man, Jean Mannheim deserted the German Army and fled to Paris. While there, he studied at the Ecole Delecluse and the Academie Colarossi. In the late 1880's, he emigrated to the United States, first to Chicago and Decatur, Illinois, and then on to Pasadena in 1908. He settled on the rim of the Arroyo Seco, and developed a bright style influenced by Southern California light.

Nels Hagerup (1864-1922) Nels was born in Norway to a prestigious family including Norwegian composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg. He studied art at the Royal Academy in Berlin and later with Carl Locher in Copenhagen. To earn passage to America, Nels worked as a merchant seaman. He left ship in Portland, Oregon, and became one of the founders of the Portland Art Association. He then moved to San Francisco in 1892, buying a home in the Sunset District a few blocks from Ocean Beach and a block south of Golden Gate Park. When not painting, he worked as a stevedore.

Stephen Seymour Thomas (1868-1956) studied at the Art Student's League in New York at the age of 16 and, at the age of twenty, began six years of studies at the Academie Julien and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He was famous as a painter of portraits. In 1915, at the age of 47, he moved to La Crescenta north of Los Angeles. He won many European competitions and exhibited at the Paris Salon for 20 consecutive years. He painted portraits of many influential people including President Woodrow Wilson whose portrait hangs in the White House. He spent summers in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and loved spending time in Monterey and Carmel. In 1938, he visited Hawaii to do commissioned portraits, and while there, painted Makapuu Point, Oahu, Hawaii. In La Crescenta, he befriended a young neighbor, Walt Disney artist Joshua Meador.

Frances Upson Young (1870-1950) studied at the Cleveland Art School and continued her studies in England in Ainwick and Oxford. Her husband was the first city attorney for the City of Hollywood in 1903 before it became part of Los Angeles. She studied with Paul Lauritz and Anna Hills, and was a member of the Laguna Arts Association.

Florence Young (1872-1974) studied at the Art Students League in New York and privately with William Merritt Chase. She maintained her studio in Chicago where she studied with Nicolai Fechin at the Art Institute of Chicago. She then settled just south of Pasadena in Alhambra, a hotbed of artistic activity. Just five blocks away from Florence's home and studio on a street named Champion Place (aka Artist's Alley), lived a group of her artist friends, Clyde Forsythe, Sam Hyde Harris, Frank Tenney Johnson, and Jack Wilkinson Smith. Also associated with this "Artist Alley" group was Norman Rockwell, Clyde Forsythe's studio mate from his New York days, who would visit Artist Alley each winter to escape Massachusetts winters.

Arthur Merton Hazard (1872-1930) left Boston at the age of 51 in 1923 and moved to California for his health. He is known for his California Landscapes. His painting excursions frequently found him on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. His portraits of Hollywood elites included one of Douglas Fairbanks. While on vacation in Paris, he died the day after Christmas, 1930.

Leon Lundmark (1874-1942) studied art at the Stockholm Fine Art Academy in Sweden before emigrating to America, settling in Chicago. His first job was working for the decoration department at the Pullman railroad carriage shops. He won local exhibitions including exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago. When in his sixties, he moved to Altadena, California, often painting seascapes. He died at the age of 66, just over three years after coming to California.

Dedrick Brandes Stuber (1878-1954) attended the Art Students League in New York and was influenced by Barbizon painters Camille Corot and Charles Francois Daubigny. He came to LA in 1920 and enjoyed painting California and Arizona landscapes. He was a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association. One of his paintings resides in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection. He sold in prestigious galleries in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Davis Francis Schwartz (1879-1969) was born in Paris, Kentucky. He studied at the Art Institute in Chicago. He worked as a commercial illustrator for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. At the age of 24, he moved to LA, working at first with the LA Times. In 1924 at the age 45, he moved to San Francisco. He established his studio in the Ferry Building. Besides his painting, he acted as custodian of the huge relief map of the State of California, some two football fields in length, which required a lot of artistic maintenance. He worked in oil and in watercolor, winning many awards. He was a member of the Carmel Art Association.

Richard Dey De Ribcowsky (1880-1936) was born in Bulgaria. He studied in Paris, France, Florence, Italy and St. Petersburg, Russia. He moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina where he founded the Argentinian incarnation of the Academy of Beaux Arts in 1904. In 1920, he moved to New York. From his home and studio, he traveled widely, including to Venice, Italy, where he painted two of the paintings in Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's collection. In the 1920's, he moved to Los Angeles until his death in 1936 at the age of 56.

Ferdinand Burgdorff (1881-1956) Cleveland, Ohio native Ferdinand Burgdorff studied in Paris. After returning home, in 1907 he headed west, working on the railroad in Arizona between Yuma and Calexico before arriving in California. At the age of 30, he returned home to Cleveland and sold many of his old works to finance a round the world trip. He especially wanted to see Greece, Egypt and the ancient desert worlds. Back in the U.S. he painted in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and in a region called Sandia west of Albuquerque. Eventually, he settled in Carmel, building a house on Rondo Road. He became an illustrator for Sunset Magazine, creating romantic and realistic scenes filled with drama and enticement. At the time of his death at age 94, he was the oldest active painter in the Carmel Art Association.

Anna Althea Hills (1882-1930) studied at the Art Institute in Chicago and Cooper Union in New York when she was a teen. In 1908 at the age of 26, she commenced four years of study at the Academie Julian in Paris and in England with John Noble Barlow. In 1913 at age thirty-one, she came to Los Angeles. By 1914, she had settled in Laguna Beach, and helped organize the Laguna Beach Art Association, serving six times as its president. In California, Anna departed from the dark tonal qualities of earlier works and used brighter colors in a more impressionistic style. Her favored themes included trees along the coast and California desert scenes. Tragically, she died in 1930 at the age of 49. He obituary in 1920 listed her cause of death as "flu heart." Today we know people with heart disease are at greater risk of experiencing a heart attack while suffering from the flu.

Harry Linder (1886-1931) was born in Helsinki, Finland and emigrated to Chicago with his parents when he was an early teenager. Five years later, he settled in Long Beach, CA and remained the rest of his life. He opened a frame shop and studio in Long Beach, an establishment that was frequented by many of his artist friends including Guy Rose. He was exceptional in his pastel scenes. Harry died at the age of 45. Little is published of his life and career. We are on the lookout to learn more.

Paul Lauritz (1889-1975) grew up in Norway. At age sixteen, he made his way to Vancouver, B.C., and then south to Portland, Oregon and a brief trip to Alaska. He settled in Los Angeles, opened his studio, paid his way by painting portraits and established his reputation painting landscapes of scenes around California. He taught at the Chouinard School of Art and the Otis Art Institute. He was a member of the Laguna Art Association, the Royal Society of Art in London, and the Salmagundi Club in New York. The painting above, Passing Storm, Carmel is published in Painters of the Desert 1960, by LA Times columnist, Ed Ainsworth. This famous book chronicles the lives of significant painters of the American deserts.

Karl Schmidt (1890-1962) During the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, 51 year old Commander Karl Schmidt's officer housing on Ford Island received considerable shrapnel damage. It was located just a short walk from where the U.S.S. Arizona was docked. Serving in the Bureau of Aeronautics, his specialty was lighter-than-air aircraft. Karl was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He studied in England. While there, he painted coastal scenes in Cornwall in the Southwest of England and in Brittany in France. At the age of 25, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1925. He exhibited in LA's best galleries and his pieces were exhibited in California museums.

Leon Dolice (1892-1960) At 28, Leon Dolice emigrated to New York in 1920. He settled into the Bohemian life of Greenwich Village, and included among his friends ashcan painter George Luks. He first found success with his etchings, but in the depth of the depression in the late 1930's, he turned to doing pastels, linocuts and oil paintings. He is best known for common street scenes of New York.

Harry Emerson Lewis (1892-1958) Harry Emerson Lewis grew up in Kansas and Michigan. He studied at Northwestern University. During WW I, he used his art skills as an instructor in camouflage. After the war, he remained in Europe, studying in Florence and at The Sorbonne in Paris. Returning to the U.S., he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1924, he moved to Hollywood, and soon after settled in San Francisco, living in Corte Madera. In 1945, he moved back to Laguna Beach. He is best known for his watercolor landscapes, but also produced fine works in oil.

Justin Faivre (1902-1990) was born in Matthews, Indiana and grew up in Portland, Oregon. During the Great Depression, Justin moved to LA before settling in the Bay Area. He exhibited his oils and watercolors at the Oakland Art Gallery which later to become the Oakland Museum. His first studio was in Oakland and then he settled in Alameda. Faivre's work was greatly influenced by the Society of Six, a group of six Oakland painters influenced by the French Fauvists. The six included Selden Connor Gile, August F. Gay, Maurice Logan, Bernard Von Eichman, William H. Clapp, and Louis Siegriest.

His oils were known for their textural effects, thick impasto, and rich colors, showing the influence of Paul Cezanne and and Henri Matisse. His subjects included still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and marine scenes. While in his later years, his shed containing many of his works was burglarized, and he died penniless.

Edmond Woods (1905-1990) studied with Maurice Braun in San Diego in 1926 and continued his studies in Los Angeles at the Otis Art Institute and the Chouinard Art Institute. He settled in the San Diego area. He was a student of native American cultures, and is known for both his harbor depictions and landscapes of the desert Southwest. Reflecting his artistic interests, he was a member of numerous art associations, including the La Jolla Art Association and the Desert Art Center in Palm Springs. This painting was part of a painting exchange between friends and fellow artists, John W. Hilton and Edmond Woods.

Ralph Love (1907-1992) is best known for his paintings of the Grand Canyon. Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater owned several of Love's Grand Canyon paintings, and called him "the finest living American artist I know, and I could look at his work all day long." Another celebrity client was Earl Stanley Gardner who commissioned Ralph to do a painting of his ranch, after both gentlemen were featured in the publication of the Frontier Museum of Temecula, California. The most notable center of Ralph's art world was his Art Shack in Temecula, CA which he opened in the mid 1950's. This was his studio and classroom, a sanctuary where Ralph painted while listening to classical music, and where his violin was close at hand for him to play while he awaited the next wave of inspiration.

Milford Zornes (1908-2008) was a giant among California watercolor painters. He rose to notoriety during the Great Depression with his scenes of New York. By 1933, he was receiving awards for his watercolors which he produced for the WPA. He won a one-man show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. One of his watercolors was chosen by President and Eleanor Roosevelt to hang in the White House. Over the decade of the thirties, he was active in the California Watercolor movement, and was president of the California Watercolor Society. In WWII, he was drafted and assigned to be an official artist in the China, India, and Burma theaters of operation. Most of the works he produced in this period were turned over to the Pentagon, but he did have a one man show in Bombay. After the war, he settled in Claremont, California, and spent much time painting, teaching, and traveling. He invented a traveling classroom, taking his watercolor students to exotic travel destinations for his painting workshops. In 1963, Zornes purchased the former home and studio of Maynard Dixon near Salt Lake City to use as a location for regular watercolor workshops. He purchased the home from Edith Hamlin, Dixon's widow.

Isabel Lockwood (mid 20th century) Although we don't have dates for her, we do believe she would have been born in the early 20th century. During World War II, there is record she corresponded with Olive May Graves Percival who was an LA artist and photographer. In 1954 she won first place at the Alameda County Fair (Daily Review, Hayward, CA, June 14, 1954). In 1957, she held a one woman show of oils and pastels at the Alameda Art Association. In 1958, she became a director of the Alamda Art Association. Her California Seascape Nocturne pictured above was shown at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, but no dates are given.

Alexander Dzigurski (1911-1995) loved painting the sea. He was known as one of America's best painters of seascapes. One of his paintings was used in a scene in the Sergio Leone film, Once Upon a Time in the West. During World War II, young Alexander and his family escaped from the Nazis in their native Slovenia. They hid out becoming part of the expatriate community in Vienna. After the war, they made their way to Italy. Positano, Italy (above) was painted during that stay. In America, he settled in Mountain View in the Bay Area, creating dazzling scenes of the Sierra and the Pacific. Today, his son Alexander Dzigurski II carries on his father's legacy.

Joshua Meador (1911-1965) is the featured artist of our gallery. He had an impressive two pronged career. He was Walt Disney Studios' Director of Animation Effects for nearly 30 years, and was a well known California painter of landscapes and seascapes. Of all his subjects, Josh's favorite subject was painting the sea. His favored locations along the Coast were Bodega Bay, Carmel and Monterey, and towards the end of his life, Mendocino and Caspar. His stylized landscapes were done with exceptionally bold and skillful use of his palette knives, where he would allow colors "to mingle" to achieve his effects. Mendocino Coast (above) is but one of many of Joshua Meador's paintings we offer, and Genesis a near-monumental work.

James March Phillips (1913-1981) could not recall a time when he wasn't interested in drawing and painting nature. His formal art training didn't begin until he was 32 years old when he studied at the Jean Turner Art Academy, working with Louis J. Rogers, Alfred Owles and Baron J. Paget Fredericks. His delayed start was due to James' army combat service in Europe during World War II. He is noted for his technique and ability to express his subjects realistically, yet reflect a personal interpretation. He strived to portray his subjects in their true color and form. He often expressed that his greatest challenge as an artist was to recreate nature in true perspective. He has gained recognition in watercolor, and was represented by the finest galleries in the West. 

Bennett Bradbury (1914-1991) was a member of the Laguna Beach artist community. After working for Walt Disney Studios, he dedicated himself full time to his painting. Leaving Laguna Beach for eight years, he maintained a studio at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. He returned to Laguna Beach, continuing his painting and teaching seminars on the Monterey Penninsula. He moved to Carmel in the 1970's and remained there until his death. Bennett was the son of a musical family, his mother being a grand opera star of the Boston Opera Company, and his grandfather, Alwin Schroeder, was acclaimed as the greatest cellist of his time.

Thelma Speed Houston (1914-2000) was born in the Bronx, and studied at New York's Pratt Institute. She became a textile designer for A. Sulka and Company of New York and Paris, and later on a colorist for the St. Andrews Textile Company of New York.

By the 1940's she had relocated to San Diego, California, and produced expressionist watercolors often of the San Diego cityscape. She traveled and painted in other parts of California, spent time on Maui, and enjoyed painting and traveling the world. A true enthusiast, she also taught and was a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association, and is fondly remembered as having painted "a watercolor a day for fifty years."

Robert Landry (1921-1991) studied art in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. He was a staff artist at the Pentagon working for the graphic arts department. He then was director of the Federal Aviation Agency and worked at Convair Astronautics. In retirement, he lived in the San Diego area, and was a member of the San Diego Watercolor Society. He taught painting workshops at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove with Jade Fon. Landry's other talent was as a piano player, able to play up-tempo riffs of 1930's standards for hours without repetition. While teaching an art class together on the north shore of Oahu in 1970, Robert Landry began by quoting Albert Einstein, "Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge limits us to all we know and understand,

while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand." He then encouraged his students to paint a dry landscape before them as if it were raining.

Jack Laycox (1921-1985) was born in Auburn, CA. He was an engineer, and did technical drawings for the Atomic Energy Commission. Laycox worked in both oil and watercolor. A recent exhibition at the Hilbert Museum in Orange, CA was of stunning cable car scenes in San Francisco. He and his sculptor wife maintained a studio in Walnut Creek before relocating to Carmel.

Robert E. Wood (1926-1999) After World War II, Robert began studying watercolor painting and was influenced by Rex Brandt and Phil Dike. By the late 1940's, he was painting regional subjects near Claremont, where he was attending college, and harbor subjects near Corona de Mar and Newport Beach. By the 1960's, he was one of the premier California Watercolorists of the post-war era. While most of his works were done with transparent watercolors, he frequently incorporates opaque colors or other complimentary mediums if they improved a specific work of art. His paintings often balance areas of pure abstraction with stylized but recognizable subject matter. He taught at the University of Minnesota, Otis Art Institute, Scripps College and the Brandt-Dike Summer School of Painting. He exhibited his works in New York City at the National Academy of Design and in commercial art galleries. He was also an active member in the American Watercolor Society and served as its vice president. On the West Coast, he exhibited regularly with the California Watercolor Society, West Coast Watercolor Society, and in prestigious galleries. From 1950 onward until his passing, his work was offered in over eighty-one one-man shows."

Robert Gray (1929-2011) Robert Gray studied with Rex Brandt, Robert E. Wood, Morris Shubin, Milford Zornes and Robert Uecker. His daringly inventive landscapes show sophistication of form, composition and color, reflecting the influence of those he studied with, but creating a style uniquely his own.

Robert was born in Phoenix in 1929, and after growing up in Arizona and serving a stint in the Navy, Robert attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He worked as a graphics designer in the LA area before retiring to San Luis Obispo County in 1974, opening his own gallery and small motel alongside Morro Bay. His works reside in many renowned private collections and in galleries throughout California.

California American School, (circa 1940) This stunning, but unsigned painting possesses masterful style and execution. It bears a Linder's Art Shop ink-stamped paper label on the top stretcher bar. Harry Linder's art shop in Long Beach was frequented by many of Harry's artist friends, including Guy Rose. We have seen a similar painting to Sailboats in San Pedro Harbor by Sam Hyde Harris, and although we cannot know for certain, we speculate this could have been done by one of Sam Hyde Harris' students. The brush strokes of the water, boats, and dock structures are fat, long and confident, and appear to eliminate at least one candidate that the palette suggests. The sky is relatively flatly applied, which may eliminate others. The size of the painting is not standard for most 20th Century works of this type, and may be an additional clue. It is a very successful painting that draws the viewer into the scene and strongly suggests the quiet solitude and atmospheric of the past in that Southern California locale.

Linda Sorensen (1945-) is co-owner of Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery and an active Sonoma County artist. Linda always has been a painter. As a child, she was scolded for drawing in academic classes. While a student at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960's, she painted in an abstract expressionist style and exhibited.

After her career in law, she and husband Dan moved to Bodega Bay, and following a passion for aty, established a gallery. Linda resumed painting in earnest and has developed a multi layered flowing style, with compositions she frequently describes as having "swoopage."

Dave Dalton (1952-) Born in Pontiac, Michigan, and after receiving a degree in fine arts, twenty-five year old Dave Dalton visited the galleries of Carmel, California in 1977, and was impressed with the artistry and especially the seascapes of of Alexander Dzigurski. Inspired, he soon decided to move to Southern California and dedicate his artistic life to painting the sea. He taught art by day and painted by night, and his hard work paid off. Today his work is recognized and prized by galleries, collectors, art lovers and sea lovers throughout the west and beyond.

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art

... IN GRATON, CA ...
Linda Sorensen's studio and our gallery's showroom is located Graton.

... IN YOUR HOME ... Call or email for a an appointment. If appropriate, we'll bring the art to you (up to 200 miles from Bodega Bay).

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