His keen eye, his sense of color, composition, texture, and his observations of light and atmosphere all added up to paintings of exquisite beauty and harmony.

His works are a crowning achievement, balancing both representational and abstract aspects of his subjects.

What did Claude Monet think of his accomplishments? On the wall of the exhibition is a quotation offered with humility and humor, "Beyond painting and gardening, I am good for nothing." But after seeing these paintings, I think he had lots to say, and he said it visually. All we need to do is open our eyes.

Monet lived at Giverny for over 40 years, from 1883 until his death in 1926. At first he rented, and eventually he purchased the Giverny property. He renovated the house, using colors from his own palette. He had the shutters and doors painted green, the dining room a bright yellow and the kitchen blue.

Outside, he created his two magnificent gardens. The one closest to the house was dedicated to a wide variety of exotic flowers, chosen for their color and their season, meant to provide an abundance of color throughout most of the year. Across the railroad tracks, Monet had the Epte River diverted to create a pond in which he grew a wide variety of "Nymphaeaceae" (water lilies). He lined the path surrounding his pond with weeping willows, Japanese maples, wisterias and azaleas. At one end, he had a Japanese bridge built, and in another shaded corner, he had a decrative boat nestled in the shoreline greenery.

Earlier in Monet's career, he established the practice of painting the same subject in series, under different light and atmospheric conditions, such as his series of the British Parliament Buildings on the Thames, his Haystack paintings, the exterior of the Rouen Cathedral, and a series of weeping willow trees as an homage to French soldiers who had died in World War I.

Of water lilies, Monet said, "Water lilies are an extension of my life. Without the water lilies, I cannot live, as I am without art."

Again, Monet spoke of water lilies, "It took me some time to understand my water lilies… I cultivated them with no thought of painting them… One does not fully appreciate a landscape in one day… And then, suddenly, I had a revelation of the magic of my pond. I took my palette. From this moment, I have had almost no other model."

Monet was influenced by Japanese prints. He loved the Japanese reverence for nature, their deep underlying sense of nature's primacy. In 1895, he had the Japanese Bridge built at one end of the lily pond.

In 1899, he did a series of 12 paintings featuring the arching bridge in his garden which he exhibited at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris in 1900.

Monet had two large wisteria, one lavender and one white, arched over the Japanese bridge. The lavender wisteria usually blooms the first two weeks of May, followed by the white.

In these two paintings, Monet frees himself almost totally to the abstract. These large canvases are his emotional response to what he sees before him.

Monet was deeply concerned about France's involvement in World War I. His younger son Michel served in the French army. His close friend and admirer George Clemenceau was the French Prime Minister.

As the French nation endured the deprivations and sacrifices of the war, Monet committed himself to painting a series of weeping willow trees as an homage to the French Soldiers killed in the war.

When World War I began, Monet was 74 years old, and 78 when it finally ended. It was a time of deep stress and sacrifice for him.

During the war, Monet's staff at Giverny was either called into military service or fled the area due to the advancing German army.

Monet remained, though, and could hear distant artillery fire. He stayed, perhaps out of kinship with his son who was fighting on the front, or maybe to share the fate of his beautiful and beloved gardens.

It is thought the shadowy colors of and writhing curvy rythyms of his weeping willlow paintings express a mood of grief and sadness. Its Monet's response to the carnage and suffering endured by his countrymen, and the stresses and sacrifice it caused for him.

This is a marvelous Bay Area exhibition, and is not to be missed!

The photos in the article are small, whereas the paintings in this exhibition are large and impactful canvases. It must be seen in person. As you stand before these paintings, you stand in Monet's own footprints. You have the opportunity to see, to listen, to feel what he was feeling in the moment he painted them.

Like I said at the beginning, Monet greets with a "Bienvenue," and wishes you a "Au Revoir." Visiting this exhibit is like a visit with a good old friend.

The art world is lots of things, but one thing it is not is fair. There are many artists of merit who receive little or no recognition. Conversely, there are some artists with little merit which garner far more attention than they deserve. California's early women artists were seldom recognized due to their gender. This exhibition goes a long way to giving attention to them, greatly deserved and far too long denied.

This exhibition is based on the 4-volumne work by Maurine St. Gaudens, Emerging from the Shadows: A survey of Women Artists Working in California, 1860 to 1960. Maurine also curated this exhibition, gathering examples of many of the wonderful paintings and sculptures to give us all a sense of the richness and diversity of California's women artists.

Ruth Miller Kempster (1904-1978) was an artistic force. Her images tell the story of women with sharp edged poignancy and dignity.

In Housewife c1935, the woman is looking directly at the viewer with a blank but confident stare, wide eyed and unashamed. She's wearing a bright red dress, but it is hidden by an apron, the armor of domesticity. Behind her right shoulder, her daughter assists, like a little apprentice, putting away dried dishes just washed by her mother. In the background is the husband, the breadwinner, deeply absorbed in his paper, supposedly concerned with the important business of the world after having been served his dinner.

In Marta, aka Bohemian, c1930, the woman is again dressed in red, or half dressed in red. She seems unexcited about dressing for what the day has in store for her. She stares at her white blouse she's about to put on, draped across the chair, as if contemplating why she's about to prepare for the day's unpleasantries. There's a strength about her, a determination, her hands on her hips and foot upon the bed, as if it were a defeated enemy.

In her Self Portrait, c1950, we see Ruth older, still with her eyes looking directly at the viewer, competent, confident, and perceptive. Her paintbrush is in hand, readied to state her case.

Over the years, one of Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's, featured artists has been Florence Young (1872-1974). Prior to viewing this exhibition, we have long thought of her as being primarily a landscape artist. But in this exhibition there were a half dozen or so of her paintings done in L.A.'s Chinatown during the early 1930's, the depression era.

These paintings show the Chinese residents in a respectful manner, going about their daily business with red stuccoed buildings, narrow streets, all festooned with clothes lines filled with laundry in every scene.

Her paintings are reminiscent of the paintings by the Ashcan painters in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Florence Young was born in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, and studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Student's League in New York. In New York, she may have been influenced by the Ashcan School. She did study with William Merritt Chase and Russian portraitist Nicolai Fechin. In 1920, she had moved to Long Beach, CA, and by 1930, had relocated to Alhambra just south of Pasadena where she remained the rest of her long life.

Florence had long been confused with another California artist, Frances Upson Young. For more on this remarkable story, read our article Maurine St. Gaudens, artist sleuth and "The Case of the Amalgamated Phantom." (link above)

Florence was active in a number of artist associations including the Women Painters of the West, the Valley Artists Guild and the Society for Sanity in the Arts, along with fellow Alhambra artist Sam Hyde Harris. She exhibited widely in the Los Angeles area. Her work is in the collections of the Orange County Museum of Art and Pomona College, Pomona, California. Florence died February 10, 1974 at the age of 101.

Mary Blair (1911-1978) ws born in Oklahoma with the name Mary Browne Robinson. She grew up in Morgan Hill, California, and attended nearby San Jose State College. At age 20, she earned a scholarship to the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. There, she met and married fellow student Lee Blair. Mary's forte was watercolor. She showed her work in the Philip Isley and Tone Price Galleries in LA as well as the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas.

The art market in the depression years wasn't enough to support Mary and her new husband Lee. They supplemented their fine art with commercial art. They found jobs in animation, first working for Ub Iwerks Studio and Harman-Ising Animation before finally finding positions at Disney Studios. Lee was hired full time by Disney in 1938 and Mary in 1940.

In 1941, both Lee and Mary Blair accompanied Walt Disney on his famous trip to South America, part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor" policy. (See our article, July Issue, 2018) This trip was eye-opening for Mary. She was influenced by the South American art culture. After the trip, her style and palette became wildly colorful. In short order, Walt Disney saw her talent and elevated her to be responsible for the color styling on Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. In 1964, she helped create It's a Small World, first exhibited at the 1964 World's Fair in New York and later at Disneyland.

In 1970, Mary and her husband retired to the beachside community of Soquel just south of Santa Cruz. In 1978, she suffered a stroke and Mary passed away at the age of 66.

Henrietta Shore (1880 - 1963) was born in Toronto in 1880. At the age of 20, she attended the New York School of Art where she studied briefly with William Merritt Chase, Frank V. Dumond. In 1902, she studied with ashcan painter, Robert Henri. In 1905, she went to England and studied at the Heatherly Art School in London where she came to know John Singer Sargent, a major influence on her work.

In 1913, Henrietta visited Los Angeles, and began the process of establishing her residency to become an American citizen. She became involved in the LA art community and helped found The Los Angeles Art Society. In 1930, she left LA and built her permanent home in Carmel.

Henrietta exhibited her work in LA and New York, and had solo exhibitions at San Francisco's Legion of Honor and the de Young Museums.

Almira A. Judson (1872-1945) was born in Milwaukee, WI and raised in Minnesota. On her first of three trips to Europe, she took art lessons at the Academie Julian in Paris with Edouard Krug. She also studied at the Women's Academy in Munich, then in Florence and again in Paris at L'Academie Colarossi.

In 1902, her aunt owned homes in San Francisco and Santa Barbara. Almira divided her time between the two homes. She was a member of the San Francisco Art Association. She exhibited at the Salon in Paris, and with art organizations in San Francisco. She painted in a pointillist style, incorporated dashes of contrasting color. But portions of a scene often incorporated areas of a single color with heavy impasto.

Boza Hessova, also known as Beatrice Hess (1899-1981), was a painter and designer born in Kralove, Dvur, Czechoslovakia on January 16, 1899. Hessova studied at the Prague Art Academy under Vacha and Kalvoda. Coming by way of Paris, she immigrated to America in 1913. For several years she worked in Chicago for the Marshall Field department store and executed murals in local churches and cathedrals. In 1928 she moved to Los Angeles where she painted portraits and landscapes. From 1948-63 when she was 49 to 64 years old, she worked for the Marine Museum in San Pedro, California. She died in San Pedro on July 5, 1981 at the age of 82.

Hazel Coldwell Clark Pletsch (1891-1967). Hazel was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. There, she studied with Thomas Fripp of the Royal Water Color Society. At the age of 15, her family relocated to Los Angeles where she continued her art studies at the Otis Art Institute. She was married twice, divorcing her first husband after 16 years in 1931. Her second marriage to Ernest V. Pletsch occurring around 1945 lasted until his death in 1967. She was active in Los Angeles art associations and is known for her oil and watercolor paintings of Southern California landscape and seascape scenes.

Matilda Lotz (1858-1923). Matilda has a life story worthy of a novel or good movie. Here's a taste ...

She was three years old when the Civil War began. Her parents had just emigrated to Tennessee from Germany. Her father Albert built their family house the same year she was born. When Matilda was six, her family's home was the scene of a Civil War battle. Just prior to the battle, Matilda's younger siblings, twins Julius and Julia, went to play in a nearby stream and died in the water poisoned by Confederate troops. Her father took the remainder of his family to a neighbor's farm where they hid out. When they returned home their land was littered with the dead, and their house was severely damaged. Although Matilda's father made immediate repairs, the family never recovered from the war. The moved on. For a brief time, they stayed in Memphis, but soon left for California by covered wagon. Today, the Lotz family house in Tennesse is a National Monument.

The family settled in San Jose in 1870. In 1874, Matilda, now 16 years old, attended the California School of Design and studied with Virgil Williams for six years. She continued her studies in Paris, becoming lifelong friends was Rosa Bonheur 1822-1899, a well known painter of animals. Although Rosa was 36 years older than Matilda, Matilda was heavily influenced by her. From that time on, Matilda spent most of her time in Europe. Although she revisited California, she traveled the world, viewing wildlife, painting commissions for wealthy Europeans and European royalty. In California, she did commissioned work for George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's father and for Governor Leland Stanford.

Ruth A. Lindsay (1888-1982) was born in Ada, Ohio and raised in Goshen, Indiana. She left rural life to study art in New York at the Art Students League and other elite Eastern art schools. She later studied for two full years at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium. In 1912, she returned to the United States and married Harry W. Lindsay. In 1920, the couple moved to Pasadena where she taught art and gained a reputation for her portraits. She was a member of the Laguna Art Association, the Pasadena Society of Artists and the Women Painters of the West.

Vivian F. Stringfield (1881-1933) was born near San Louis Obispo. As a child, her family moved to Los Angeles. She attended UC Berkeley and then studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art and then on to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Vivian is known for her adherence to the California Arts and Crafts Movement. She was an excellent colorist, with flat, muted Fauvist-like colors. Like so many artists of her time, she studied Japanese block prints. Her favorite landscapes were California seascapes, rolling hills and fanciful plants.

Elise Cavanna Seeds (1902-1963) was born in Germantown, PA. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts . In New York, she studied dance with Isadora Duncan. She performed in New York and in Europe. For a time, she worked with W.C. Fields in the Ziegfeld Follies. In 1926, she began to work as an actress in movies. W.C. Fields convinced her to move to Hollywood and continue working in films. Her career in film lasted until 1945. She's known for her eccentric personality, her six foot tall stature, her embrace of the unorthodox and her purple tinted hair.

Although painting was just another of her varied artistic channels, she did murals for the WPA, including two murals of prehistoric animals for the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art. She is regarded for her modernistic abstractions.

Anna Lee Stacey (1865-1943) was born in Glasgow, Missouri and studied at the Pritchett Institute in Kansas City. There, she married one of her teachers, John F. Stacey. They moved to Chicago where Anna studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. The couple wintered in Pasadena and often visited Europe. They eventually settled in Pasadena. She is known for her California landscapes, seascapes and portraits.

Ella Moen Odorfer (1901-1986) was born in Bottineau, North Dakota. Ella's artistic talents were apparent early on, but little opportunity existed for her in in North Dakota. When she enrolled in the University of North Dakota, she was an active member of the sketch club. She was influenced by cubism and created texture with heavy impasto of long parallel lines done in large blocks of color.

Beyond Linda's studio, her paintings are currently showing at:

Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection,
located in the town of Bodega, west end of town a half block from the Casino, and just across from the General Store and the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department.

Corrick's "Art Trails Gallery,
located in downtown Santa Rosa on 4th Street, just steps from Santa Rosa's reopened Town Square.

6th Street Playhouse, The Red Shoes Gallery
6th Street Playhouse, The Studio Gallery,
52 W. 6th Street, Santa Rosa.

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art

... IN GRATON, CA ...
Linda Sorensen's studio and Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's showroom is now located in Atelier One, Graton. You may view all paintings in Linda Sorensen's or Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's online offerings. Call or email for an appointment.

... 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).

... ON LINE ... Call or email about pieces which interest you. We offer FedEx shipping (included in price) in the U.S. for major purchases.