BBH_Gallery_Monthly_Mar

CARE AND FRAMING OF COLLECTIBLE WATERCOLORS

An exhibition of California Style Watercolors is a good opportunity to discuss some issues regarding the framing and preservation of older watercolors. Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery has as part of its mission statement to get the vintage paintings "ready for their next 100 years." This has particular applicability because when these watercolors were originally framed, people did not always understand about the effects of time, sunlight, and acid materials. It is very common when you take older watercolor framing apart to find lines of "matt burn", stain from cardboard, corrugated, or wood backing, and various harmful tapes and glues.

The short course on renewing old framing is: Don't have the glass touching the watercolor, but instead create an air space using spacers in the frame, or an edge of matboard under the glass. If the watercolor paper is close to the wood of the frame, isolate the wood with acid-free lining materials. The matboard that touches the watercolor must be acid-free, and if any other material such as a wood filet would touch the watercolor, it must be backed with an acid-free lining. Have any glue or old tape removed from the front and back of the watercolor. Have it hinged (usually from the top only) rather than taped or glued to acid-free backing material. The back of the framing should be sealed to discourage entry of moisture or particulates (or even little bugs).

This is the "basics" and not the whole story, because there are various degrees and standards that can be met. There are also various conservation possibilities concerning removal of "matt burn" and overall acid "time staining" both to eliminate the distraction of extraneous marks, but also to restore the artist's intended color balance. There are choices of glass that provide differing degrees of protection from UV damage, and different degrees of clarity, but museum glass is not only expensive but also requires special handling.

Keep your watercolor out of direct sunlight. No matter how much protection your glass or plexi offers, sunlight is the enemy of watercolors. Keep it away from any situation where condensation might form inside the glass, such as taking it from an environment that has some moisture, and baking it in the back of your parked car. Condensation might dot the glass on the inside, or it might drop on the paint. Don't place or store the watercolor face down; instead, remember that it is held lightly in place and can shift if you subject it to forces for which the mounting system was not designed. For the same reason, remember to keep the hinged edge up so that the weight of the paper does not distort to the side, etc.

Don't scrub the glass or plexi, nor use chemicals for cleaning. Don't even touch museum glass with your bare fingers. Keep it away from where kitchen, fireplace, or other atmospheric substances may coat the glass. Pressurized air, used from the proper distance, is a good way to dust and yet preserve both the glass and the framing.

Milford Zornes	Bold Depictions of California and Californians WPA California Style Watercolors A Truly Californian Art Form
	When artists first came to the Golden State, their European training and traditions were used to interpret paintings of California’s natural beauty. But because California’s scenery was different from Europe and so diverse, California painting soon began to take on new styles and a Californian look better suited to this new land.
In the realm of watercolor painting, this is especially true. At the turn of the twentieth century most of our early watercolor painters were trained in Europe or New York. Their watercolor paintings began as elaborate pencil drawings with areas of their compositions showing a high degree of detail. To these drawings were added carefully applied watercolor, rendering a tight appearance in the final painting.
Maurice Logan	But from the roaring mid 1920s through the post war mid 1950’s, watercolor painting in California took on a bold new look. Most artists used a large, full sheet format, with free ranging broad brush stokes of vivid color. They painted scenes of everyday California life, city street scenes, sights of industry, Californians in their daily work routine, and scenes of California beaches, harbors, and vast open landscapes, often showing farm and ranch livestock scenes.
Watercolor artists in California established a statewide community by forming the California Watercolor Society in 1921. Artists including Marion Wachtel, Oscar Borg, William Ritschel, Karl Yens, Hanson Puthuff and Dana Bartlett formed their organization and began exhibiting their work together. But as the roaring twenties continued, some of the new bolder watercolor artists joined the CWS, and established their newer style among art lovers. Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Lee Blair, Tom Craig, Barse Miller, Paul Sample, Hardie Gramatky and Emil Kosa Jr. were among the earlier practitioners of this new style.		Phil Dike
Milford Zornes	They used pencil sketching very little, if at all, and often allowed the white paper to become a color value in their large 20” x 30” full sheet paintings. As their works accumulated, art critics and museum curators noticed this fresh, bold, and California regional style. Popular exhibitions of this work showed up all over America in both galleries and museums.
All of California shared in the California style. In Northern California, San Franciscans George Post, Dong Kingman, and Maurice Logan preserved some fantastic scenes of the period of the city of San Francisco, the Bay, and the surrounding region. Back South, the movement attracted new adherents, Milford Zornes, Mary Blair, Ejnar Hansen and Standish Backus.		Paul Sample
Lewis Suzuki	Art cannot be separated from the times in which it was created. In the 1930’s the Great Depression colored the art world. During these desperate times, buyers did not exist, and artists could not make a living. Along came the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, which was set up to put Americans back to work rebuilding America’s infrastructure. People worked on a wide range of construction projects, building schools, post offices, bridges, roads, dams, and working on our national parks. Artists of all kinds were hired by the WPA to inspire workers to work hard and pull together to help rebuild America. Painting artists were used to paint large public murals and mosaics, and many of these were done using the new California style. Americans were depicted in these works of art being about the task of working together to rebuild the nation.
At this time, animation was establishing itself as part of the film industry. Walt Disney and other producers of animation employed California style artists to give an authentic feel to their films, what the artists often called “getting the smell of the place." Ralph Hulett was one such Disney artist who was quite skilled at this.		Ralph Hulett
Robert Landry (San Diego Watercolor artist who worked as a staff artist for the Air Force and later the Pentagon)	Again, world events intruded into the art world. World War II slowed and changed the California Style Watercolor movement. As people from all walks of life ceased peacetime endeavors and went to war, so too did the artists. Oftentimes, they had artistic duties in the military. Some of these watercolor artists made paintings of the action and were published to help give people a sense of what was happening in the war. Other artists worked on training films and did technical drawings for the military, while others created war related posters.
When the war ended, returning artists found the art world changing rapidly. Art schools swelled with hopeful GI students, and America was ready for a new reality, a peaceful expansion unparalleled in history. California art began to embrace newer abstract styles. Artists such as Alexander Nepote and Stanton McDonald Wright became key figures in the development of abstract art on the Pacific Coast. Some of the adherents of California Style Watercolors formed smaller organizations to preserve their California Style. Artists such as Maurice Logan, Rene Weaver, and Harold Gretzner formed a group in Northern California, while in the South, Emil Kosa Jr., Ralph Hulett and Standish Backus continued an effort to reestablish the form.		Alexander Nepote
Thelma Speed Houston	Today, there is a resurgence of appreciation for the WPA California Style Watercolor Movement and the artists who created it. In their time, they were bold statements of a contemporary California life, but today, they preserve for us scenes of a California busy building itself, growing in bold new diverse directions as diverse and bold as California’s geography.
When Europeans first arrived, California was a land of promise, home of the California Dream. The scenes depicted in these California Style Watercolors exhibit the builders and scenes of that dream. It's a dream we’re reforming for ourselves, and touching base with the artists of the California Watercolor Movement can only inspire us to do our task well.		Elmer Stanhope

Coming in May & June '08
California Paintings, San Francisco and North	Nels Hagerup