|
Born in
Cleveland, Ohio, he studied at the Cleveland School of Art and in Paris
with Rene Menard and Florence Este. In 1907, he headed West with the
intention of becoming a desert landscape painter. He lived in box cars
with railroad builders on the stretch of line between Yuma and Calexico
and traveling by wagon or horseback, accompanied surveyors on many trips
into the desert. Of this time he wrote: "There were such exciting
things to see and paint, undisturbed by a single human within miles"
("Widening Horizons"). He also worked for a period in Santa
Fe, New Mexico, where he painted the sandy wastes near Albuquerque in
the region known as the Sandia. He then moved to California where he
was an illlustrator for "The Sunset" magazine, then a new
publication. Many of the paintings he had made earlier were reproduced
in this magazine. In California, he first lived in Carmel where he was
an active member of the Carmel Colony. He later settled in nearby in
Pebble Beach, building a home on Rondo Road. In 1911, he took an exhibition
of his desert paintings back to his home town of Cleveland, and sold
enough to finance a two-year trip around the world. His main objective
was to see Greece and Egypt because they were ancient desert worlds.
He also painted along the Nile, which reminded him of the Colorado River.
When he died, he was the oldest working artist on the Monterey Peninsula,
having painted many coastal views and abandoned mining towns in pastel,
oil and watercolor. From 1907 to 1924, he made numerous painting trips
to the Grand Canyon and the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. His work was
both realistic and romantic, conveying a sense of mystery and drama
in his landscapes.
|
|
|
