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Now at the gallery
John W Hilton La Mananita
La Mananita
oil on masonite, 20 x 34
John W. Hilton
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Monthly - February 2014
Celebrating California Art,
Wednesdays through Sundays, 12:00 - 4:00
other times by appointment 707-875-2911 or 510-414-9821 (cell)
1785 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay, CA 94923
BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com
Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com
New at the gallery
Linda Sorensen Bali Hai
Bali Hai (Kauai)
oil on canvas, 18 x 24
Linda Sorensen
Preview our New Gallery Exhibition -- "A Sampling from our Collection" ... Spring 2014

John W Hilton with Pipe
"The Valley That Taught
Me To Paint"
by John W. Hilton
Desert Magazine
, March 1963

Scene Painting Header Thumbnail Irivine Musuem
California Scene Paintings
1920's - 1970's
Irvine Museum

Generals Bradley Patton and Eisenhower
Art and War,
Ike and the Monuments Men

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to the Gallery
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news from our
neighboring galleries
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John W Hilton With Pipe
John W. Hilton with pipeHilton's Business Card

The Valley That Taught Me to Paint
by John W. Hilton, Desert Magazine, March 1963

John W. Hilton received a world class art education from some very extremely well known American painters, and he was the school's only student!

Hilton's Art and Gem Shop at Valerie Corner on Hwy 99 in Thermal, California, was where the magic happened. Drawn by Hilton's hospitality, acclaimed masters Jimmy Swinnerton, Maynard Dixon, Clyde Forsythe and others were frequent visitors. Hilton learned from them all and enjoyed their friendship. Here, from a Desert Magazine Article published in March of 1963, Hilton tells his story of how he came to paint.

I would probably still be a diamond appraiser or jewelry designer if the depression had not kicked me out onto the desert. One morning I woke up with no job and payments due on just about everything I had, and now as I checked over my few assets I realized that rocks and semi-precious gems might be the answer. I had a back porch and backyard full of things from both California deserts from Death Valley to the Mexican border and began selling them off to the miniature golf courses that were mushrooming on vacant lots all over the Los Angeles area.

Then one day I happened to remember that the man at Fish Springs in the Coachella Valley owed me for some gems and minerals and I sure could use

Hilton Painting Desert Magazine March  1963
This Hilton Painting, "Contrasts," shows the desert in bloom
—with snow-clad Mt. San Jacinto in the background.
f.

that money, so I combined a rock-hunting trip with a bill-collecting expedition.

The man who owed me the money had died, however, and his daughter asked if I would take some of the stock from his curio store to settle the account. A few hours later I had my old pick-up loaded with an assortment of Indian baskets, funny-shaped concretions, potted cactus, beaded rabbits-feet and other odds and ends. It was better than no payment at all, and with luck I could find someone in Los Angeles to take the stuff off my hands.

I stopped with my load at Valerie Jean's Date Shop to get a cold drink, and the strange assortment of things attracted the tourists who were just beginning to get back onto the highways after the shock of the bank holiday (March 1933). First thing I knew someone bought a small Indian rug and someone else took a couple of potted cactus. Russ Nicoll, who owned and operated the little shop, asked what I was going to do with the rest of the merchandise. I said I thought I could probably find a buyer in town. He called my attention to the vacant corner across the street.

Valerie Jeans  Date Shop
Valerie Jean's, operated by Russ Nicoll
Leo Cotton
Robert Leo Cotton 1880-1946
California Trees and Hills, 1932
Kathi HIlton collection, Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery

"Why don't you start a curio store over there?" he ventured. "I wouldn't ask a cash rental -- just a small percent of what you take in -- and we could be a help to one another." I thought it over for a few minutes and drank a second grapefruit juice (on the house), then we shook hands and agreed on a lease. The understanding was that Russ would furnish the land and water and I would not sell dates, cold drinks, or date products; and he would not sell curios, cactus or rocks. This amazing verbal agreement stood up for nearly 10 years 'till I finally had made enough to buy the property

This is how I became part of the desert, and how it became part of me to the point where the long submerged desire to paint came out. I have never been the same since.

First, I started with pastels which had been an earlier hobby. An art editor, Leo Cotton, dropped in and we got acquainted because he too was interested in pastels. In fact, we looked-up old formulas and made pastels which had the colors we could not seem to find in commercial sets. Then Leo took up oil painting and I followed suit. About then Charlie Safford, who had some art education, and Fred Chisnall, who was a graduate of Otis Art Institute, started coming by and we would take painting trips together. Then, as if rolling a snow ball, more artists started dropping in and using my growing rock shop as a gathering point -- "Smoke Tree George" Frederick, Maynard Dixon, Jimmy Swinnerton, Clyde Forsythe. Some weekends were a regular artists'

Fred Chisnall Selling Paintings
Fred Chisnall, selling paintings by the roadside,
an entrepreneurial spirit John Hilton admired.
"Smoke Tree George" Frederick
"Smoke Tree George" Frederick
photo from Blue Coyote Gallery

convention, and gradually some of the techniques of those fine painters began to rub off on me.

A little at a time I found the ability to put down on canvas at least a fraction of the beauty of this land. The vast distances, the blue-gray hazes, the blush of a sunrise all cried to be painted and more and more I neglected the gem-cutting and Indian goods to go out with this strangely assorted bunch which eventually included such notables as Nicolai Fechin, Henri De Kruif, and occasionally Conrad Buff. Actually, the desert painters as we know them today had found each other through the rankest amateur because I had a centrally located place where they could all camp in the yard and cook spaghetti and sing at the top of their lungs.

I learned a great deal from all of these fellows, but the thought of copying any of their styles never entered my head -- or theirs. In the final analysis, they taught me informally about composition, color harmony, drawing, and the handling of paint; but it was the desert itself that taught me to really paint pictures that people would buy and hang on their walls.

It was on the days that I went out alone that I followed the advice of Maynard Dixon and spent all day painting bushes and throwing the sketches away, and

painting clouds and discarding them too. I became familiar with the great, wonderful land around me a piece at a time. A rock at a time, a bush at a time, a mountain or the Salton Sea -- each in its turn became mine as I discovered by trial and error how to get it down on a sketch board.

Then came a day when I was out in the backyard under my jalopy putting in some new con rod bearings.

Maynard Dixon
Maynard Dixonn
Jimmy Swinnerton
Jimmy Swinnerton

Suddenly I became aware of a pair of feminine feet and some rather nice silk clad ankles to match.

Then a sweet voice said, "I can't seem to find anyone to wait on me and I would like to buy that picture you have on the mantelpiece."

I came out from under that flivver in one quick movement and stood there blinking at Mrs. Weed from Palm Springs. I could hardly believe anyone would really part with cash for a painting of mine. My first customer smiled and insisted, "Come on, tell me how much you want for it."

Portrait of Clyde Forsythee by Norman Rockwell
Portrait of Victor Clyde Forsythe
by his NY studio-mate and friend, Norman Rockwell

I thought fast. I calculated the cost of repairing the car, paying the light bill, and getting those new school shoes for my son Phillip.

"Its not framed," I said. "But if you want it the way it stands, it will be thirty dollars." Mrs. Weed peeled off three tens and handed them to me. I stood ten feet tall. The beautiful desert shone around me and the sky over my head seemed a little bluer than I had ever seen it before. I was a professional artist!

What is more, my first customer insisted that I bring some things up to her friend, Harriet Day, who ran a gallery for Nellie Coffman in the Desert Inn. It was with considerable fear and trembling that I finally presented myself to the Desert Inn Gallery a couple of weeks later. I had worked feverishly to put the elements I had learned together into pictures that might sell. I realize now that it took a kind of clairvoyance for Mrs. Day to look at those paintings and decide that I could paint the desert, but she suggested some changes here and there in three of them and when I had worked them over she hung them in the gallery. Mrs. Weed brought in some house guests and they bought the paintings.

Ed Ainsworth editor LA Times
LA Times editor, Ed Ainsworth
Author of the book, Painters of the Desert

It was the next year that I had a great fire of my worst paintings and invited all my friends to see them go up in smoke on New Year's Eve.

This led to my first national publicity break. Someone told George Hicks about my custom and he used it in a New Year's cartoon of his "Strange As It Seems" series. About the same time Ed Ainsworth, who was doing a column in the Los Angeles Times, dropped in with Parker Lyons. Ed became fascinated with some magnetic iron ore I had brought in from what is now the Kaiser Iron Mine.

Nocolai Fechin self portrait
Self Portrait, Nicolai Fechin

His "Along Camino Real" column opened the next day (which happened to be the first day of trout season) with the following: "I met a man down on the desert yesterday who does a strange kind of fishing. He doesn't fish for fish, he fishes for rocks and he uses rusty nails as bait. "He went on to tell how I "hooked" iron ore, and this was the beginning of a series of nice mentions in Ed's column.

Out of all this I started writing a little myself. My first published story appeared in Touring Topics (now Westways). "The Ways of the Desert Turtle" and in it I recorded, for the first time in print, the incubation span of desert turtle eggs and a lot of other facts that have been quoted and misquoted hundreds of times since.

This attracted the attention of Randall Henderson down in Imperial Valley who was starting a small magazine about the desert. Randall bought and re-wrote many a story from me for Desert. He swore he was going to teach me to write a decent
Desert Painting by
Desert painting by Henri De Kruif

article, and I guess it about broke his heart that he always had to correct so much of my copy. In the next several years there was a personal outpouring of several hundred articles on rocks, artists, and other desert subjects, and finally an article in the Saturday Evening Post on jumping beans, and a book on Sonora, Mexico.

Writing gave me a great deal of satisfaction and helped to pay the light and grocery bills, but painting never ceased to be my main objective. The desert is like an inexhaustible mine of beauty, and all a man has to do is dig it out. I guess I painted a thousand smoke trees, yet there were never two alike nor will there ever be. Sand dunes are more or less the same shape but they change with each gay-flowered outfits if the rains are right.

A man could paint sand dunes the balance of his natural life and never scratch their possibilities. The same goes for the rugged mountains of the desert, the broad bajadas, the cactus, ocotillo, yuccas, the gnarled ironwoods and the golden paloverde that hangs out the bright banners of spring.

My life as a painter of the desert has not been a dull one, nor do I expect it to be. It is a long way from a palm-thatched rockhouse built by my own hands to a one-man show in the Grand Central Art Galleries of New York or a painting trip half-way around the earth for the Air Force.

Although I now live on the High Desert near Twentynine Palms and paint deserts from northern Utah to southern Sonora and Baja California, I can never forget that it is only a short way back to the valley where two snow-capped mountains guard the pass, where a sea below the level of the sea mirrors rose-colored mountains reflected in the sunset, where canyons of wild palms still beckon and dunes still put on their spring finery.

I shall always remember -- with fondness -- that it was this valley the Mexicans once called "The Hollow of God's Hand" that really taught me to paint.

Conrad Buff Self Portrait
Conrad Buff, Self Portrait,
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Collection
John W. Hilton's Page on our Site | Back to the Top

Emil Kosa Jr Near Modesto
Near Modesto, Emil Kosa Jr., 1940
oil on canvas, Mark & Janet Hilbert Collection
California Scene Paintings 1920's - 1970's
at The Irvine Museum
Horses and Hills Millard Sheets 1932
Horses and Hills
, Millard Sheets, 1932
Oil on canvas, Collection of Ray Redfern

California Scene Paintings: 1920s-1960s  shows city and rural scenes done in and around LA and San Francisco. Amazingly stylized, these scenes show California and its citizenry going about the business of life. Curated by Gordon J. McClelland, here are some of the exhibition's highlights.

Paradise_Phil_Ranch_Near_San_Luis_Obispo_480.jpg
Phil Paradise, Ranch Near San Luis Obispo, 1935
Blair_Lee_Mary_by_the_Sea_480.jpg
Lee Blair, Mary by the Sea, 1934 (Mary Blair was a concept artist for
Walt Disney and worked on Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Cinderella.)

During the Great Depression, artists were hired by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to create "uplifting" scenes meant to raise people's spirits in the midst of challenging times.

Artists were asked to paint contemporary scenes of cities and rural areas, and especially to show people about the business of living. Many scenes showed people at work, striving together to overcome hard times.

Of course, when we look at these paintings 80 years or so after they were created, we find them to be an amazing visual record of an America now past. The cars, the architecture, and the dress of the people has changed greatly over the intervening years. Although artists weren't aware of it at the time, they were on-the-scene historians conveying the heart and soul of a generation who met extraordinary hardship with life affirming resilience. There may have been a depression in the economy, but this was certainly a high time in art.

The California Scene painters continued after the depression documenting an ever changing California landscape, including the building of its freeways, drive in restaurants, and the California beach scene. These paintings show the evolutionary stages

Preston Blair Bunker Hill 1938
Preston Blair, Bunker Hill, 1938
Click Photo for link,
courtesy of CaliforniaWatercolor.com

of cars, trains, barns, roadways, bayside piers -- points in time which serve as markers in the time line of California's remarkable story.

This exhibition includes famed artists such as Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Emil Kosa Jr., Milford Zornes, and Rex Brandt, who have long been the face of this art movement. But also included in this exhibition are other artists who received little attention during their lifetimes. Only now are they being recognized for their important contributions to the California Scene Painting movement.

A large format book, titled California Scene Paintings, accompanies the exhibition and visually documents artworks from this period and connects them to California's history. You may order this book from the Irvine Museum's bookstore.

California Scene Paintings 1920-1970 is at the Irvine Museum through May 8th. We strongly encourage you to visit and see these marvelous paintings in person. The exhibition includes works by these artists carried by our gallery, Milford Zornes, Ralph Hulett, Maurice Logan, Robert E. Wood and Phil Dike.

Our gallery offers the watercolors of Jean Warren who studied with both Milford Zornes and Robert E. Wood. Drop by and consider a California Watercolor for your collection.

Norris_Ben_Discouraged_Workers_320.jpgBen Norris, Discouraged Workers 1936
Phil Dike California Holiday 1933
California Holiday, Phil Dike, 1933
Oil on canvas, The E. Gene Crain Collection
Reep_Edward_Cafe
Cafe, Edward Reep, 1947
Watercolor, Collection of Van and Diane Simmons
Waiting for the Call Elmer Plummer
Waiting for the Call, Elmer Plummer, 1935
Watercolor, Collection of Jeff & Bernadette Olsen
Dike_Phil_Plaza_on_Sunday_320.jpg
Phil Dike, Plaza on Sunday, 1942
Askenazy_Mischa_Sunset_Boulevard_320.jpg
Misha Askenazy, Sunset Boulevard
Brandt_Rex_Rain_After_Frost_320.jpg
Rex Brandt, Rain After Frost, 1937
Dike_Phil_California_Holiday_320.jpg
Phil Dike, Early Days, Big Beach, 1940
The Irvine Museum | California Watercolors.com | Phil Dike | Milford Zornes | Ralph Hulett | Maurice Logan | Robert E. Wood | Jean Warren Watercolors | Back to the Top

Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts
Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts
Leader of the "Robert's Commission"
Art and War,
Ike and The Monuments Men

In the midst of World War II, President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower strived to avoid harming art treasures, and worked to recover art which had been looted by enemy forces. A special Army group enlisting the services of museum curators, artists and experts was created to carry out this mission. They were called the "Monuments Men," and their story is to be told in the new film "The Monuments Men" which opens February 7th.

In April of 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt established The American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas. This entity was in short order referred to as the Roberts Commission, taking the name of its appointed leader, Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts. The Roberts Commission's charge was to promote the preservation and recovery of cultural properties in war areas including Europe, the Mediterranean and the Far East theaters of operation, so long as the mission did not interfere with military operations.

The Commission's mandate relied on Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower to achieve the goals outlined be the Roberts Commission.

Ike gave orders, forbidding U.S. forces in engaging in looting, destruction of art or to billet troops in structures of cultural significance. Ike cited that this was the first time in history any army attempted to fight a war while reducing damage to cultural monuments and property. In a letter dated December 29, 1943, Ike expressed his thoughts regarding the term "military necessity."

Ikes orders for commanders to not destroy cultural entities
Ike's letter to his commanders,
"We are bound to respect those monuments so far as war allows."

Generals Bradley, Patton and Eisenhower
Generals Bradley, Patton and Eisenhower
inspecting recovered art treasures


He said that when the term "military necessity" was used in the context of preserving artistic treasures, he advised his commanders that "we are bound to respect those monuments so far as war allows." Pictured below are Ike's orders dated December, 29, 1943.

Ike told his commanders that they were not to be "indifferent" to the need to protect art treasures. He said, "If we have to choose between destroying a famous building and sacrificing our own men, then our men's lives count infinitely more and the buildings must go. But the choice is not always so clear-cut as that. In many cases the monuments can be spared without any detriment to operational needs. Nothing can stand against the argument of military necessity. That is an accepted


General Eisenhower making an address
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2, 1946.

principle. But the phrase "military necessity" is sometimes used where it would be more truthful to speak of military convenience or even of personal convenience. I do not want to cloak slackness or indifference."

During the war, Ike spent many hours with Winston Churchill who painted for relaxation. Either explicitly or implicitly from Churchill's example, Ike learned from the magic of painting as recreation to balance the demands of leadership. After the war, Ike took Churchill's advice and began painting. Perhaps his experience protecting and recovering art treasures during war helped nurture his love of painting, a hobby which helped sustain him during his presidency and throughout his retirement.

Eisenhower's portrait of Winston Churchill
Eisenhower's portrait of Winston Churchill


Monuments Men, Official Trailer, Opens in Theaters, Feb 7

While President, Ike would visit Palm Springs to play golf, but also used these excursions to pursue painting. He would visit desert artists such as John W. Hilton and Paul Grimm, enjoying their camaraderie and painting tips.

Through Roosevelt's "Roberts Commission," Eisenhower's leadership, the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program was established. Known as the Monuments Men, the group of about 400 service men and civilians worked with the military to safeguard historic and cultural monuments, and worked to find and return works of art stolen by the Nazis or works hidden for safe keeping.

The Monuments Men debuts February 7th. It stars George Clooney, John Goodman, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray and Bob Balaban. It is billed as being a comedy / drama, but we have high hopes that it will convey the great story to be told here.

On the one hand, people can create beauty, creating the best of human aspirations. On the other hand, people get entangled in war, becoming participants, willingly or not, in desecration, destruction and death. The legacy of the Monuments Men is that if war needs to be waged, it must be fought to preserve the best of what we are and what we create.


Support the Monuments Men Newsreel
Website for The Monuments Men (the movie) | Back to the Top

* * * *
News from our Gallery
  • Gallery Hours are from 12:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M., Wednesday through Sunday. We are also available for scheduled appointments, especially for those who wish to view the gallery on Mondays or Tuesdays. Please call Dan at the gallery and schedule a visit, or call him on his cellphone, 510-414-9821.
  • Calabi Gallery has moved from Petaluma to Santa Rosa near the Museum - see information below in the gallery list.
  • The building that houses our gallery will be for sale, but don't let the expected for-sale sign confuse you. We are still operating as usual!
  • Renoir Napkin Painting
    Paysage Bords de Seine by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
    (“On the Shore of the Seine”)

    Bargain Hunters Nightmare ... Federal Judge Leonie Brinema has ordered that a ‘Flea market’ Renoir painting stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art way back in 1951 must go back to its original home.

    Martha Fugua claims to have purchased the painting at a flea market in 2009, but buying a stolen piece of art wasn't a strong enough of a claim, and Fugua offered no challenge to the Baltimore Museum. The painting is tiny, painted on a linen napkin. It is believed Renoir presented the painting to his mistress.

Back to the Top

What's showing in Bodega Bay?
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Sign Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery
1785 Coast Highway One, Bodega Bay,
CA 94923, 707-875-2911 | Map & Location
Celebrating Early California, Western and American Art
- original paintings by famous artists of the past
Now showing ... (a) five motifs sampling the gallery's collection; (b) contemporary heritage artists;
plus Bodega Bay resident artists
Jean Warren (watercolors), Diane Perry (photography), and Linda Sorensen (oil paintings)
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Exterior
Reb Brown Sign Thumbnail

The Ren Brown Collection
MEZZOTINT MAGIC
Holly Downing, John Edwards, Katsunori Hamanishi,
Shigeki Kuroda, Takahiro Sato & Mikio Watanabe
http://www.renbrown.com | Back to the Top

Ren Brown Collection

Local Color Gallery

Local Color Artist Gallery
"Et-Cetera"
Gallery Hours, daily 10 AM to 5 PM except Tuesdays
1580 Eastshore Dr., Bodega Bay
707-875-2744 | http://www.localcolorgallery.com
| Back to the Top

J C Henderson Neptune's Ocean
What's showing nearby?
in Sonoma, Napa & Marin Counties
Christopher Queen Gallery

IN DUNCANS MILLS Christopher Queen Galleries
150th anniversary of our Grand Piano -- Feb 2014
http://www.christopherqueengallery.com |707-865-1318| Back to the Top

Self Portrait of Xavier Martinez
Bobbi & Ron Quercia

IN DUNCANS MILLS Quercia Gallery
"Free Flight II ... Whimsy"
Hours: 11am-5pm, Thur - Mon (707) 865-0243
http://www.quercia-gallery.com | Back to the Top

Quercia Gallery Duncans Mills
Annex Galleries Santa Rosa IN Santa Rosa The Annex Galleries
specializing in 19th, 20th, and 21st century American and European fine prints
now showing ... Stanley William Hayter and the influence of Atelier

The Annex Galleries is a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA).
http://www.AnnexGalleries.com | Back to the Top
Lee Youngman Photo Thumbnail
Lee Youngman

IN CALISTOGA the Lee Youngman Gallery
Featuring the work of contemporary painter Paul Youngman,
and the works of famed painter, Ralph Love (1907-1992)
http://www.leeyoungmangalleries.com | Back to the Top
Left ... Lee Youngman, Right ... Paul Yougman


Paul Youngman
Linda Ratzlaff

IN GRATON Graton Gallery
http://www.gratongallery.com

Graton Gallery | (707) 829-8912  | artshow@gratongallery.com
9048 Graton Road, Graton CA 95444 | Open Wednesday ~ Saturday 10:30 to 6, Sunday 10:30 to 4


Bodega Landmark Gallery Thumb IN BODEGA Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection
17255 Bodega Highway Bodega, California USA 94922 Phone 707 876 3477
http://www.artbodega.com | Lorenzo@ArtBodega.com | Back to the Top
BBHPhoto Dennis Calabi

NOW IN SANTA ROSA Calabi Gallery | http://www.calabigallery.com
* Dennis has recently relocated his unique and extremely special fine art gallery to Santa Rosa.
456 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401 | email: info@calabigallery.com | 707-781-7070


Sebastopol's own famed master conservator Dennis Calabi brings his rare knowledge and experience
to present a tasteful and eclectic array of primarily 20th century artwork.

http://www.calabigallery.com |Back to the Top


Easton Crustacean Dancing Dream 144
Easton, Crustacean Dancing Dream, American Alabaster
Vintage Bank Petaluma Thumbnail IN PETALUMA Vintage Bank Antiques
Vintage Bank Antiques is located in Historic Downtown Petaluma, corner of Western Avenue and Petaluma Blvd. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Warren Davis and the rest of the team at Vintage Bank Antiques has assembled a spectacular inventory of paintings. From the 18th Century to Contemporary Artists. We have paintings to suit every price point and collector level.
If you have a painting for sale, please consider Vintage Bank Antiques. Contact Warren Davis directly at WarrenDavisPaintings@yahoo.com
101 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, CA 94952, ph: 707.769.3097
http://vintagebankantiques.com | Back to the Top
Petaluma Arts Council Art Center IN PETALUMA Petaluma Arts Council
"... to celebrate local artists and their contributions and involve the whole community


Petaluma Art Center
Photo:Anita Diamondstein
* * * * *
Links to current museum exhibits relevant to Early California Art
The Greater Bay Area

The Walt Disney Family Museum
This museum tells Walt's story from the early days.
(on the Parade Grounds) 104 Montgomery Street,
The Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129
-- view location on Google Maps
--

Disney Museum Exterior Thumbnail San Francisco
de Young Museum
Georgia O'Keefe
and Lake George
Opens Feb 15

De Young Museum Thumbnail
San Francisco
California Historical Society

CURRENT EXHIBITION
Juana Briones y su California
Pionera, Fundadora, Curandera

through Jun 8
California Historical Society Thumbnail

San Francisco
Legion of Honor

Permanent European and Impressionist Paintings

Matisse from SFMOMA, Nov 9 - Sep 7

Anders Zorn: Sweden's Master Painter through Feb 2

San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum
San Francisco
Contemporary Jewish Museum
Jason Lazarus: Live Archive through Mar 23

San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum Thumbnail

Oakland
Oakland Museum of California

ongoing Gallery of California Art
-showcasing over 800 works from the OMCA's collection

-A Cinematic Study of Fog in San Francisco through Jun 29

Oakland Museum Thumbnail

San Francisco
SFMOMA

Currently closed for a major expansion
http://www.sfmoma.org/our_expansion

See the Legion of Honor for
Matisse from SFMOMA

Santa Rosa
Sonoma County Museum
Camellia Has Fallen:
Contemporary Korean Artists Reflect on the Jeju Uprising
through May 4


Sonoma County Museum Thumbnail

Santa Rosa
Charles M. Schultz Museum

"Starry, Starry Night"
through Apr 27

Starry Starry

Moraga
Hearst Art Gallery

From Swords to Plowshares
Metal Trench Art from WW I

Hearst Art Gallery Thumbnail
Sonoma
Mission San Francisco de Solano Museum

featuring the famed watercolor paintings
of the California Missions
by Christian Jorgensen

Mission San Francisco de Solano in Sonoma CA

Sonoma
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

551 Broadway, Sonoma CA 954
Site and Senses: the Architecture of Aidlin Darling Design
Dec 20 - Mar 2
(707) 939-7862

Sonoma Museum of Art Exterior Thumb
Ukiah
Grace Hudson Museum

http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org

Grace Hudson Museum Bolinas
Bolinas Museum

featuring their permanent collection,
including Ludmilla and Thadeus Welch, Arthur William Best, Jack Wisby, Russell Chatham, Alfred Farnsworth.
Elizabeth Holland McDaniel Bolinas Embarcadero thumbnail

Walnut Creek
Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts

New Neon: Light, Paint & Photography
through Feb 23

Lesher Ctr for the Arts Walnut Creek CA

San Jose
San Jose Museum of Art

approximately 2,000 20th & 21st century artworks including paintings, sculpture, new media, photography, drawings, prints, and artist books.

San Jose Museum of Art Thumbnail

Monterey
Monterey Museum of Art

Extraordinary People
Portaits of Yousuf Karsh

http://www.montereyart.org

Monterey Museum of Art

Palo Alto
Cantor Art Center at Stanford University

Rodin! The Complete Stanford Collection

Cantor Art Center at Stanford University
Sacramento
Crocker Art Museum
Permanent Collection
-coming in Feb '16 ...
Jules Tavernier, Artist and Adventurer

through May 11

http://www.crockerartmuseum.org Sacramento
Capitol Museum

Governor's Portrait Gallery
Permanent Exhibits

Capitol Museum Sacramento Thumbnail
Stockton's Treasure!
The Haggin Museum

"if you've not visited yet, you must go!"
-Largest exhibition of Albert Beirstadt paintings anywhere,
-Joseph Christian Leyendecker,
(Norman Rockwell's mentor)
see our Newsletter article, April 2011
   
Southern California (and Arizona)

Los Angeles
Los Angeles Museum of Art

Art of the Americas, Level 3:
Artworks of paintings and sculptures from the colonial period to World War II— a survey of of art and culture
& "Levitated Mass"

Los Angeles County Museum of Art Irvine
The Irvine Museum
California Scene Paintings 1920's - 1970's
through May 8
Irvine Museum Thumbnail

Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara
Museum of Art

Santa Barbara Museum of Art Thumbnail

Palm Springs
Palm Springs Art Museum

Permanent Collection
American 19th century Landscape Painting


Palm Springs Art Museum Thumbnail
San Diego
San Diego Museum of Art
Permanent Collection
San Diego Museum of Art Thumbnail

Pasadena
The Huntington Library

American Art Collection

Paintings by John Singer Sargent,
Edward Hopper, Robert Henri, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, William Keith, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton and many more.

Huntington Library Art Collection Pasadena

Pasadena
Norton Simon Museum

-Permanent collection
European Impressionists and Post Impressionists
Dutch master paintings

Norton Simon Museum Pasadena Pasadena
Museum of California Art

Picturing Mexico, Alfredo Ramos Martinez in California
through Apr 20

Pasadena Museum of California Art Exterior thumb
Prescott, AZ
Phippen Museum

National Parks of the West

Nov 2 - Feb 23

Phippen Museum Entrance Hwy 89
 
& Beyond
Seattle, WA
Seattle Art Museum


Seattle Art Museum

Portland, OR
Portland Art Museum

Permanent Collection: American Art

Portland Art Museum Thumbnail

Washington D.C.
The Renwick Gallery

Permanent ... Grand Salon Paintings
from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Renwick Gallery Washington DC Chicago, IL
Art Institute of Chicago
Permanent collection:
the Impressionists
Art Institute of Chicago Thumbnail
Cedar Rapids, IA
The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Grant Wood: In Focus

is an ongoing permanent collection exhibition.


Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Washington D.C.
The National Gallery

Permanent collection
American Paintings


Tha National Gallery Washington DC Thumbnail

Philadelphia , PA
The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia Museum of Art Thumbnail
Philadelphia , PA
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Campus
Barnes Foundation Campus Philadelphia Brooklyn, NY
The Brooklyn Museum
American Art
Permanent Collection
The Brooklyn Museum Thumbnail
New York , NY
The Whitney Museum of American Art

The largest selection of works by Edward Hopper
The Whitney Museum of American Art New York