As we look forward to the inauguration later this month,
we take a look back at the last painter to hold the Oval Office, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

We knew him as a giant of public life, Commanding 5-star General and a two term President, but the role in life which brought him the greatest satisfaction and pleasure was his more private life as a painter. So says The Eisenhower College Collection, The Paintings of Dwight D. Eisenhower published in 1972 by the Nash Publishing Company.

Ike's other recreational pursuits were his love of

hunting, reading Western stories, and playing golf, but painting provided an outlet for his endless supply of curiosity and his fascination with color. When he was dissatisfied with a painting, he would destroy it. But more often than not, he was pleased with his work and would offer his finished pieces as gifts to his friends. For Ike, painting was an expression of his private self, an absorbing inner challenge which served to counterbalance the challenges of public life. There never was an exhibition of his works. But in 1967 at the age of 77, Ike consented that a number of his paintings be published in The Eisenhower College Collection.

Ike is thought to have gained an appreciation of how painting could provide a creative diversion from the pressures of public life from Winston Churchill. Ike had met the Prime Minister on many occasions in the days prior to the invasion, in North Africa, at Portsmouth in the Overlord days, and weekly dinners at Number 10 Downing Street. Churchill told Ike of a period of pressure during his earlier political life, when he sat down at a box of his children's watercolor paints. He felt that the unforgiving nature of watercolor was not for him, but he soon decked himself out with a full set of oils, easel, and brushes.

It was at this point that Churchill, this lion of World War II, this British Bulldog sat helpless and cowardly in front of a blank canvas. But he soon overcame the block, and painted freely from then on. He gave Ike a piece of advice. Ike later translated the PM's British English into Ike's Americanized vernacular, "Look, don't be afraid of the darned thing. Go ahead and do it. Just take a brush and start putting something on the canvas."

Ike came to painting later in life. At the end of World War II, he had not yet touched a brush to canvas. But that soon changed. He painted during his tenure as President of Columbia University, and at the White House, he kept a small second floor room at a high level of security. No one could enter when he was not there, and precious few could enter when he was there. This was Ike's White House studio, where canvas, paints and brushes remained at the ready. He said of the room, it was a prime requirement for amateur painting for fun that no one be able to see "how badly you were doing."

Ike would spend hours in the room on rainy Sunday afternoons when he couldn't play golf, and often steal a moment when he would enter for a brush stroke or two.

Ike told a New York Times reporter in 1967 that painting was the best way to relax. He went on to explain, "You put the surface of your mind on the canvas while the rest of your mind is making decisions."

For this story,As John's one man show was beginning in New York, he made the trip down to Washington for Ike's Second Inaugural. He brought with him a painting entitled Twentynine Palms Oasis, giving it to Ike as a gift from the entire community back home. Ike accepted, and placed his Hilton painting in the Oval Office. After Ike died in 1969, Mamie Eisenhower donated the painting to the Eisenhower Memorial Hospital in Palm Desert, CA. we'd love to show you a photograph of Twentynine Palms Oasis, but for now, it appears the painting may be misplaced, or hanging on an unlisted wall in an administrative corner of the hospital.

A member of the Eisenhower Hospital Auxiliary is sleuthing about to locate and photograph the painting for us, and we will post it if it can be found.

Hassam created the work in 1917, just months before the U.S. entry into World War I. The scene depicts the pre-war patriotic fervor expressed in a display of American flags on Fifth Avenue in New York. In the 1880's, Hassam had studied in Paris at the Académie Julian, and this painting perhaps expresses his feelings about America's participating in the war to end all wars.

Today, Hassam's paintings reside in most of America's fine art museum collections. But this current popularity of his work belies the tale of his frustration with the changing tastes in art away from his beloved impressionism.

As the 19th century was drawing to a close, Hassam retreated from the New York art world to the tranquility of eastern Long Island to the village of East Hampton, a modest and quiet place in 1898. There he painted the rural scenes before him, the tree lined streets of the village, farms, houses, horses pulling carts, windmills and shipyards.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Hassam Page | Metropolitan Museum of Art Film of Childe Hassam (RealPlayer Required)| TOP

The Chicago Art Institute's famed collection of Impressionist and Post Impressionist works recently returned to eleven renovated and expanded galleries. Works by Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh are now home to stay.

The new galleries are rearranged in a manner to help the viewer appreciate the chronology and story of Impressionism and Post Impressionism, and will include never-before displayed works. The renovated galleries of the Impressionist and Post Impressionist collection is one of several signal events leading to the May opening of the Chicago Art Institute's new Modern Wing. The new wing will house contemporary art, modern art, architecture and design, and photography.

Among the newly exhibited objects is a buffet cabinet carved and painted by Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard in 1888. Paintings by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre Aguste Renoir have been reframed, giving them a new appearance. A selection of decorative arts and paintings by Swiss Artist Ferdinand Hodler (circa 1900) leads from the Impressionists and Post Impressionists, a tasteful stepping stone into the Modern Wing of the Museum. Chicago Art Institute | TOP

This just in from Ann Japenga in Palm Springs. Simlar to recent efforts to demolish the Rancho Dos Palmas home of John W. Hilton, another desert artist's historic home and gallery is in peril.

Carl Glen Bray came to the California desert during the depression. In classes sponsored by the WPA, he studied painting with Maynard Dixon and Russell Swan. He became a popular lecturer for college classes, television shows and art groups. In 1956, he settled a home and art gallery in Indian Wells and had developed a close friendship with artist/engraver Fred Chisnall. Fred Chisnall was an artist credited by John W. Hilton as his most demanding and most effective art teacher.

Adele Ruxton of the Indian Wells Historic Preservation Foundation wrote the Indian Wells City Council about the matter in a January 7 letter. Here is the text of that letter.

Re: Carl Glen Bray House and Gallery -- Please let it be noted that the Indian Wells Historic Preservation Foundation, at its regular meeting on January 6, 2009, approved a motion to request that the City of Indian Wells maintain a 90 day moratorium on the possible demolition of the Carl Bray House and Gallery. It was only on the morning of the meeting that the board learned of the fact that the city had purchased the house from the seller. It had always been the hope that whoever owned the property would work with the IWHPF to help preserve an important and historic site within the city limits.

At this point in time we want only to hear of the city’s intentions and to ask that at some point “our side” can be presented for review. In the event that the buildings must come down, we will need the time to photograph, describe, register, etc. so that the site may become one to be recognized with some kind of distinctive marker. And we would like to see that the Carl Bray Gallery sign be a part of the Indian Wells archives.

Do bear in mind that the Bray house and gallery are one of a kind and have been a travel stop for thousands of tourists over the years. To remove the landmark might be detrimental to the integrity of the city and the hope to preserve its legacy.

We ask of you again to honor our request for a moratorium.

Carl Bray-- now age 91--is painting every day. He lives northwest of Palm Springs in Banning, CA.

Ann Japenga is a Palm Springs writer specializing in stories about the California deserts and the West. As a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, she developed a love for tales tied to the Western landscape. After moving to Palm Springs more than a decade ago, she zeroed in on “deserata”--the natural and human history of the California deserts from the San Gorgonio Pass to the Colorado River. Learn more of Ann Japenga on her website, http://www.annjapenga.com/index.html | TOP

• Reminder: This year's Los Angeles Art Show will be held January 21 to 25, and will be in a different location - the LA Convention Center. Check LAARTSHOW.COM.
  
• Our next exhibition will start Friday, January 16, 2009, and will be a celebration of spectacular works, primarily from our Early California collection of California Impressionists - museum-quality works and framing (by painters whose works are found in museums). Watch for the exhibition preview page on our website starting that week.
  
• Here is a word of welcome to the new art and framing gallery in Bodega Bay - Smith & Kirk Fine Art and Custom Framing Gallery. See the links below. Gary Smith does most of the custom framing for our gallery, and we highly recommend him. We enjoy acquiring Libby Kirk's creative fused glass pieces, and they make excellent gifts.
  
• Now Bodega Bay has five art galleries, all located together at the far North end of town past the sharp (and deep) canyon curve in Hwy 1. Travelling North on Hwy 1, you first encounter The Ren Brown Collection and Smith & Kirk in the same complex on the left side of the road, and then soon arrive at the left turn for Eastshore Road down to the fishing boats and Bodega Head. On the right side of Eastshore Road you find Branscomb's charming bed & breakfast, that includes art in its corridors and rooms - particularly the whimsical works of Ed Dechant. Then sharing a parking lot one building further down Eastshore Road is our building - the Blue Whale Building. On the upper parking lot is Local Color Gallery, and the lower rear parking lot is where Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery is found. We're the hardest to find but well worth the search - we hope you agree!
  
• Booklets of our recent exhibitions are available. Pick them up at the gallery or send us your mailing address. Painters of the Desert; Regionalist Watercolors; 19th Century Paintings of Northern California; Painters of Carmel plus other Master Painters of the Sea. We plan to do a booklet of California Impressionists, so let us know if we should mail you a copy when it is done.
  
• The gallery has a very large collection of reference material, including several videos about particular artists and artistic movements (plus Sister Wendy, of course), and many books including a huge volume about Edward Hopper. There are also various slide shows available, such as Milford Zornes. On a rainy day or any other gallery day, please accept our invitation to sit down and browse for a while, or have a DVD shown for you. Because of lack of shelf space and our use of these books elsewhere, usually the gallery has only a selection of volumes most pertinent to the current show, but please speak up and tell us in advance about what you may wish to look through. We will put together a bibliography soon for you to access.
  
• See the video on our Alexander Dzigurski page entitled The Palette & Symphony.
  
• We just received two beautiful new seascapes, and still have a good selection of small, affordable works by Alexander Dzigurski II. We are adding a third desert work by Kathi Hilton, daughter of John W. Hilton.
  
• Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery is a member of the Sonoma County Gallery Group, which publishes a map of fine art galleries and has a website with information on a wide variety of current exhibitions. http://www.scgg.org . We are also members of the Petaluma Arts Council.
  
• Our Archives page has links to our previous gallery exhibits and monthly newsletters. Back to the Top