California Plein-Air Revival
Encyclopedia
The California Plein-Air Revival is an art movement that began in the 1980s and its artists were inspired by the revival of interest in the works of the California Plein-Air School of 1900-1940. Many of the painters in this movement of landscape artists were either students of, or were influenced by, the Russian-born painter Sergei Bongart (1918–1985) or one of the two remaining active artists of the original Plein-Air school, Theodore N. Lukits (1897–1992) and Ray Stanford Strong (1905–2006), all three of whom emphasized working out of doors, directly from nature. Group exhibitions by several commercial galleries, the formation of a number of different artists organizations and the revival of the California Art Club all played a role in spreading the artistic philosophy and stylistic influences of the Early California painters and creating a commercial marketplace for artists who were part of the same tradition.
, William Wendt
, who came to Southern California from Chicago and Missouri-born Edgar Payne. These artists were all part of the California Art Club
, which was formed to disseminate the Impressionist style in Southern California. The California Plein-Air Painters had annual exhibitions at the California Museum of History, Science and Art and sold their work through a growing number of commercial galleries and they remained popular in the 1920s. The decline of the California Plein-Air Movement was gradual and as a more traditional, representational form of art, it eventually began to give way to more modern movements, both in the press and among collectors. The Great Depression was severe blow to the art market. The economy made life difficult for the artists and the lack of sales hastened the decline of the Plein-Air school. Then, modernism began to supplant the artists of the Southland art organizations in the museums and the larger exhibition venues. By the late 1940s, most of the artists who had exhibited extensively in the 1910-1930 had died and the remaining painters were often reduced to showing in lesser venues alongside amateur artists. By the 1960s, the California Plein-Air movement forgotten.
and Harvey Jones of the Oakland Museum of California
in Northern California
, dealers, collectors art writers began to recognize that a major movement of Impressionist-influenced painters had been active in California between 1910 and 1940. Interest in California's Plein-Air painters was aided by the historic preservation movement and interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement
in California, led my authorities like Robert Winters.
As interest in the American Arts and Crafts Movement
increased and historic preservation
became popular, a number of young curators, researchers, art historians and art dealers began to mount exhibits and write books and articles on California Plein-Air Painting. By the 1980s, there was a broad interest in California Impressionism. Now, there are dozens of commercial galleries specializing in this group of artists, a broad base of collectors, a number of museums with extensive collections and hundreds of scholarly and "coffee table" books on the movement. By the late 1970s, galleries and antique "pickers" were beginning to recognize that the Plein-Air School was good business as there were thousands of paintings coming out of the homes of aging residents and becoming available at auction, in flea markets and second-hand stores. The second generation dealer Jean Stern, who was then at the helm of the Peterson Gallery in Beverly Hills hosted retrospective exhibitions for Franz Bischoff and other artists of the Plein-Air school with small color catalogs, signaling that the early painters of Los Angeles were worthy of both scholarly and commercial attention. Jean Stern's younger brother George Stern, an attorney, opened the George Stern Gallery in Encino and Ray Redfern, another second generation dealer, took over the family firm from his mother and began to specialize in the works of the Laguna Beach painters. Marian Bowater opened the Bowater Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard's "Gallery Row"and began to specialize in Plein-Air Painters. The restorer Dee McCall also began to not only restore works by the California painters but sell them, eventually opening a retail gallery. There was also a great deal of interest in California paintings from the auction houses. The San Francisco firm Butterfield & Butterfield began to hold popular California auctions and the Pasadena firm John Moran Fine Art & Antique Auctioneers began to hold popular California Auctions at the California Center in Pasadena. In 1977 the Laguna Art Museum
hosted a retrospective for William Wendt, the most important figure in early Los Angeles painting,which was curated by Nancy Moure. The following year Moure released her landmark Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California Before 1930, which, for the first time allowed collectors to know whose work it was they were looking at. Moure also curated a retrospective exhibition for the Laguna Beach Museum with illustrations of works by dozens of painters who had been active there.
In 1981 in conjunction with the Los Angeles Bicentennial, an exhibition of early California painting was held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and commercial venues like Peterson Galleries and Morseburg Galleries also hosted exhibitions that were part of the city's official activities. In 1982 the well-crafted book Plein-Air Painters of California: The Southland was published by Ruth Lilly Westphal. Written by Westphal, with introductory essays by Terry DeLapp, Thomas Kenneth Enman, Nancy Moure, Martin Peterson and Jean Stern, the book, which had short essays on dozens of painters, had the effect of separating the values of the painters whose works were included in book from those who were not, perhaps a mixed blessing, but it also gave new collectors a group of names to shoot for. Westphal followed the first book with Plein-Air Painters of California: The North, in 1986. Magazines like the California history magazine the Californians, Antiques and Fine Art, Art and Antiques and Tom Kellaway's reorganized American Art Review also played an important role in publishing articles on the California Plein-Air painters and carrying advertisements from the galleries that spread awareness of the movement. The museum exhibitions, new books and gallery scene exerted a strong influence on a number of painters who found themselves inspired by the painterly landscapes of the Early California painters.
was a painter from the Ukraine. He was thoroughly schooled in Russia in the years before World War II and then in Europe in the years after the war. He came to the United States, first settling in Memphis, Tennessee and then in Los Angeles, California. Bongart was a well-rounded painter and an influential teacher who taught hundreds of students. He emphasized working out of doors and during workshops and one-on-one instruction, he took students out in the field, demonstrating his broadly brushed technique and critiqued their works. Students of Sergei Bongart included his wife, Patricia LeGrande Bongart, the Thai-born painter Sunny Apinchapong Yang, Dan Pinkham, Dan McCaw, Joseph Mendez and Del Gish Theodore Lukits
was born in Transylvania, grew up in St. Louis and was trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied with a number of American Impressionist painters and advocates of Decorative Impressionism
. He moved to California
in 1921 and opened the Lukits Academy in 1924. Lukits did more than a thousand plein-air pastels on location and also took his students out on location, with an emphasis on capturing the more fleeting effects of nature. He taught until 1990 and some of his prominent students included Peter Seitz Adams
, Arny Karl
, Tim Solliday
. Another artist who played a key role was the Central California Coast painter Ray Strong who helped to found the Oak Group in the 1980s and inspired many of the painters from the Santa Barbara area. He was still painting at the age of 100.
was also still active painting works in pastel. This loose group of plein-air painters were exhibiting their work at a number of commercial galleries including Poulsen Galleries in Pasadena and Morseburg Galleries in Los Angeles. At the same time, a number of other out-door painters formed a new organization, the Plein-Air of America ("PAPA"). Meanwhile, the Annual Plein-Air Painters Festival in Catalina, organized by Denise Burns, with the assistance of Roy Rose was becoming more and more successful. In Santa Barbara, a group of younger painters was also coming together, grouped around the elderly regionalist Ray Strong (1905–2006). This group of artists was formalized as the Oak Group in 1985 and it spread interest in plein-air painting promoted environmental awareness on the Central California Coast.
. Because of the tremendous influx of academically trained Chinese painters in California, Adams and the CAC added painters like Mian Situ, Michael Situ, and Jove Wang to its roster. Some of the artists who had been vital members of the California Art Club prior to the Adams administration, such as Don and Wanda Duborow and Rolf and Evelyn Zilmner, who was Chairman of the Gold Medal Exhibition, played important roles in the revitalization. The re-organized California Art Club soon began organizing museum shows devoted to both its historic and contemporary members and soon the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, the Frederick R. Weissman Museum at Pepperdine and other institutions were hosting exhibitions. A newsletter with articles by recognized scholars and exhibition catalogs contributed to making the works of the CAC's plein-Air painters and other artists more widely known. The organization also held frequent "paint outs" where artists met and worked on location as a group. As the reorganized California Art Club matured, the emphasis on plein-air painting, the focus of many of the artists began to shift somewhat as more experienced figurative artists joined the organization. By 2000, the cut-off date for the artists on the list below, the California Art Club was an incredibly diverse organization, reflecting the tremendous strength of the Pacific Rim. There were young artists in their twenties and older painters in their eighties, men and women, artists from Europe, Russia, all over Asia and throughout the United States.
The Original California Plein-Air School
There were a number of influences that gradually led to a revival of interest in artists working directly from nature rather than from photographs or other reference. A major influence in what has been described as the Neo-Plein-Air Movement or the Plein-Air Revival was the rehabilitation of the artistic reputations of original painters of the California Plein-Air School. These were artists, also known as California Impressionists, who were active painting in California in the years after the turn of the 20th century. Few of these artists were natives; most had migrated from the East, the Midwest or Europe. From their training in the United States or in some cases Europe, they brought the tradition of working directly from nature or “en plein-air” as the French referred to it. Some of the original California Plein-Air Painters were inspired by the plein-air work of the Barbizon School, but most of them worked within the broad movement now known as American Impressionism. For stylistic comparisons to the contemporary adherents to this style, a few of these painters were: California-born Guy RoseGuy Rose
Guy Rose was an American Impressionist painter who is recognized as one of California's top impressionist painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
, William Wendt
William Wendt
William Wendt was an American landscape painter. He was called the "Dean of Southern California landscape painters."Wendt was a founding member of the California Art Club, along with his wife Julia Bracken Wendt, and served as its president for six years.Wendt built his studio in Laguna Beach,...
, who came to Southern California from Chicago and Missouri-born Edgar Payne. These artists were all part of the California Art Club
California Art Club
The California Art Club , founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. It celebrated its centennial in the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved from the Painters Club of Los Angeles...
, which was formed to disseminate the Impressionist style in Southern California. The California Plein-Air Painters had annual exhibitions at the California Museum of History, Science and Art and sold their work through a growing number of commercial galleries and they remained popular in the 1920s. The decline of the California Plein-Air Movement was gradual and as a more traditional, representational form of art, it eventually began to give way to more modern movements, both in the press and among collectors. The Great Depression was severe blow to the art market. The economy made life difficult for the artists and the lack of sales hastened the decline of the Plein-Air school. Then, modernism began to supplant the artists of the Southland art organizations in the museums and the larger exhibition venues. By the late 1940s, most of the artists who had exhibited extensively in the 1910-1930 had died and the remaining painters were often reduced to showing in lesser venues alongside amateur artists. By the 1960s, the California Plein-Air movement forgotten.
The Rehabilitation of the Early California Impressionists
From the time that interest in the first generation of Plein-Air Painters began to wane, there was little interest in Early California paintings for many years. When the Southland painters of the 1920s were discussed, they were often derisively referred to as The Eucalyptus School because of the popularity of that tree in many of their works. With art historians like Nancy Moure, leading the way in Southern CaliforniaSouthern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
and Harvey Jones of the Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland Museum of California or Oakland Museum is a museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California located in Oakland, California....
in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
, dealers, collectors art writers began to recognize that a major movement of Impressionist-influenced painters had been active in California between 1910 and 1940. Interest in California's Plein-Air painters was aided by the historic preservation movement and interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
in California, led my authorities like Robert Winters.
As interest in the American Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
increased and historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
became popular, a number of young curators, researchers, art historians and art dealers began to mount exhibits and write books and articles on California Plein-Air Painting. By the 1980s, there was a broad interest in California Impressionism. Now, there are dozens of commercial galleries specializing in this group of artists, a broad base of collectors, a number of museums with extensive collections and hundreds of scholarly and "coffee table" books on the movement. By the late 1970s, galleries and antique "pickers" were beginning to recognize that the Plein-Air School was good business as there were thousands of paintings coming out of the homes of aging residents and becoming available at auction, in flea markets and second-hand stores. The second generation dealer Jean Stern, who was then at the helm of the Peterson Gallery in Beverly Hills hosted retrospective exhibitions for Franz Bischoff and other artists of the Plein-Air school with small color catalogs, signaling that the early painters of Los Angeles were worthy of both scholarly and commercial attention. Jean Stern's younger brother George Stern, an attorney, opened the George Stern Gallery in Encino and Ray Redfern, another second generation dealer, took over the family firm from his mother and began to specialize in the works of the Laguna Beach painters. Marian Bowater opened the Bowater Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard's "Gallery Row"and began to specialize in Plein-Air Painters. The restorer Dee McCall also began to not only restore works by the California painters but sell them, eventually opening a retail gallery. There was also a great deal of interest in California paintings from the auction houses. The San Francisco firm Butterfield & Butterfield began to hold popular California auctions and the Pasadena firm John Moran Fine Art & Antique Auctioneers began to hold popular California Auctions at the California Center in Pasadena. In 1977 the Laguna Art Museum
Laguna Art Museum
The Laguna Art Museum is a museum located in Laguna Beach, California on Pacific Coast Highway.An exhibition titled ...
hosted a retrospective for William Wendt, the most important figure in early Los Angeles painting,which was curated by Nancy Moure. The following year Moure released her landmark Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California Before 1930, which, for the first time allowed collectors to know whose work it was they were looking at. Moure also curated a retrospective exhibition for the Laguna Beach Museum with illustrations of works by dozens of painters who had been active there.
In 1981 in conjunction with the Los Angeles Bicentennial, an exhibition of early California painting was held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and commercial venues like Peterson Galleries and Morseburg Galleries also hosted exhibitions that were part of the city's official activities. In 1982 the well-crafted book Plein-Air Painters of California: The Southland was published by Ruth Lilly Westphal. Written by Westphal, with introductory essays by Terry DeLapp, Thomas Kenneth Enman, Nancy Moure, Martin Peterson and Jean Stern, the book, which had short essays on dozens of painters, had the effect of separating the values of the painters whose works were included in book from those who were not, perhaps a mixed blessing, but it also gave new collectors a group of names to shoot for. Westphal followed the first book with Plein-Air Painters of California: The North, in 1986. Magazines like the California history magazine the Californians, Antiques and Fine Art, Art and Antiques and Tom Kellaway's reorganized American Art Review also played an important role in publishing articles on the California Plein-Air painters and carrying advertisements from the galleries that spread awareness of the movement. The museum exhibitions, new books and gallery scene exerted a strong influence on a number of painters who found themselves inspired by the painterly landscapes of the Early California painters.
Teachers Form a Bridge Between the Plein-Air School and the Plein-Air Revival
Several older artists served as the bridge between historic Plein-air painting traditions in the United States and Europe and younger generations of artists. Sergei BongartSergei Bongart
20th Century Russian painter Sergei Bongart was born in Kiev in Ukraine. He studied art in Kiev, Prague, Vienna and Munich, before emigrating to the United States in 1948. Bongart lived 6 years in Memphis, Tennessee, location of his sponsor. In 1954 he moved to Los Angeles where he founded an art...
was a painter from the Ukraine. He was thoroughly schooled in Russia in the years before World War II and then in Europe in the years after the war. He came to the United States, first settling in Memphis, Tennessee and then in Los Angeles, California. Bongart was a well-rounded painter and an influential teacher who taught hundreds of students. He emphasized working out of doors and during workshops and one-on-one instruction, he took students out in the field, demonstrating his broadly brushed technique and critiqued their works. Students of Sergei Bongart included his wife, Patricia LeGrande Bongart, the Thai-born painter Sunny Apinchapong Yang, Dan Pinkham, Dan McCaw, Joseph Mendez and Del Gish Theodore Lukits
Theodore Lukits
Theodore Nikolai Lukits was a California portrait and landscape painter. His initial fame came from his portraits of some of the most glamorous actresses of the Silent Film era, but since his death, his Asian-inspired works, figures drawn from Hispanic California and his pastel landscapes have all...
was born in Transylvania, grew up in St. Louis and was trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied with a number of American Impressionist painters and advocates of Decorative Impressionism
Decorative Impressionism
Decorative Impressionism is an art historical term that is credited to the art writer Christian Brinton, who first used it in 1911. Brinton titled an article on the American expatriate painter Frederick Frieseke, one of the members of the famous Giverny Colony of American Impressionists, "The...
. He moved to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1921 and opened the Lukits Academy in 1924. Lukits did more than a thousand plein-air pastels on location and also took his students out on location, with an emphasis on capturing the more fleeting effects of nature. He taught until 1990 and some of his prominent students included Peter Seitz Adams
Peter Seitz Adams
Peter Seitz Adams is one of California’s most recognized landscape and figurative painters and an important figure in contemporary Southern California art. He is the longest serving President of the California Art Club and a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena...
, Arny Karl
Arny Karl
Arny Karl was one of the key artists in the early stages of the California Plein-Air Revival, which started in the 1980s and continues to this day...
, Tim Solliday
Tim Solliday
Tim Solliday is a contemporary California Plein-Air Painter and Western Artist who is known for his San Gabriel Valley landscapes and his paintings of American Indians and other western subjects. He studied with the California Impressionist portrait and landscape painter Theodore Lukits in the...
. Another artist who played a key role was the Central California Coast painter Ray Strong who helped to found the Oak Group in the 1980s and inspired many of the painters from the Santa Barbara area. He was still painting at the age of 100.
Origins of the California Plein-Air Revival
In the 1970s, there was a small movement of painters in California and the west working in the plein-air tradition, some of them aging artists who were active in the latter days of the original movement and a few young painters in their twenties and thirties. Some of these artists were active with the California Art Club and its membership of aging painters. However, there was little forward momentum or interest from art galleries or collectors. In 1985, a painter named Denise Burns formed the Plein-Air Painters of America (PAPA) and in 1986, she and a group of painters began holding an annual exhibition on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California. By the late 1980s, because of the tremendous interest in the early California Plein-Air Painters and steadily increasing prices, collectors gradually became interested in younger painters who were working in the same tradition. In the case of Peter Seitz Adams (b. 1950), Arny Karl (1940–2000) and Tim Solliday (b. 1952) the artists were students of one of the original Plein-Air painters, the portrait artist and plein-air pastelist Theodore Lukits as referenced above and these three artists had been sketching together since the 1970s. In the case of Dan Pinkham, Joseph Mendez and Sunny Apinchapong-Yang, they had studied under the Russian Impressionist Sergei Bongart (1918–1985) while the Ojai painter Richard Rackus (b. 1922) had studied in the late 1930s and early 1940s when many of the original California Impressionists were still teaching. Al Londerville, who had studied with both Theodore Lukits and Nicolai FechinNicolai Fechin
Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin was a Russian-American painter known for his portraits and works featuring Native Americans. After graduating with the highest marks from the Imperial Academy of Arts and traveling in Europe under a Prix de Rome, he returned to his native Kazan, where he taught and painted...
was also still active painting works in pastel. This loose group of plein-air painters were exhibiting their work at a number of commercial galleries including Poulsen Galleries in Pasadena and Morseburg Galleries in Los Angeles. At the same time, a number of other out-door painters formed a new organization, the Plein-Air of America ("PAPA"). Meanwhile, the Annual Plein-Air Painters Festival in Catalina, organized by Denise Burns, with the assistance of Roy Rose was becoming more and more successful. In Santa Barbara, a group of younger painters was also coming together, grouped around the elderly regionalist Ray Strong (1905–2006). This group of artists was formalized as the Oak Group in 1985 and it spread interest in plein-air painting promoted environmental awareness on the Central California Coast.
The Re-Organization of the California Art Club
By the early 1990s, Peter Seitz Adams and a number of other Contemporary Traditional Artists saw the need for an organization that could help to bring order to what they saw as the reemerging traditional art movement in California. Adams, his wife Elaine and Jeffrey Morseburg had been discussing the need for an organization that could mount exhibitions and promote the artists who were reviving California Plein-Air Painting. In 1993, when Verna Guenther, who was a member of the historic California Art Club, came to Morseburg to see if he knew anyone younger who would be capable of taking over the venerable organization that then consisted of an aging cohort of painters, Morseburg suggested Peter and Elaine Adams. The Adams saw the value in taking over an existing organization to promote traditional fine arts rather than forming a new one. Peter Adams soon accepted the Presidency of the California Art Club and has served in that capacity since that time. In order to reorganize the California Art Club, Adams recruited most of the active professional landscape and figurative painters that he knew. The core group of artists who became members of the reorganized California Art Club primarily consisted of students of Theodore Lukits or Sergei Bongart. Among the first group of painters to join the CAC included Tim Solliday, Bill Stout, Stephen Mirich, Steve Houston, Dan Goozee, Dan Pinkham,Sunny Apinchapong, Richard Rackus (b.1922) and the Russian painters, Alexander Orlov and Alexey SteeleAlexey Steele
Alexey Steele is an American painter of the Russian Representational School and a Soviet Art scholar. He moved to Los Angeles in 1990. Steele gained recognition for his unusual multi-figure compositions of an exceptionally large scale. His areas of expertise also include portraits, nudes and...
. Because of the tremendous influx of academically trained Chinese painters in California, Adams and the CAC added painters like Mian Situ, Michael Situ, and Jove Wang to its roster. Some of the artists who had been vital members of the California Art Club prior to the Adams administration, such as Don and Wanda Duborow and Rolf and Evelyn Zilmner, who was Chairman of the Gold Medal Exhibition, played important roles in the revitalization. The re-organized California Art Club soon began organizing museum shows devoted to both its historic and contemporary members and soon the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, the Frederick R. Weissman Museum at Pepperdine and other institutions were hosting exhibitions. A newsletter with articles by recognized scholars and exhibition catalogs contributed to making the works of the CAC's plein-Air painters and other artists more widely known. The organization also held frequent "paint outs" where artists met and worked on location as a group. As the reorganized California Art Club matured, the emphasis on plein-air painting, the focus of many of the artists began to shift somewhat as more experienced figurative artists joined the organization. By 2000, the cut-off date for the artists on the list below, the California Art Club was an incredibly diverse organization, reflecting the tremendous strength of the Pacific Rim. There were young artists in their twenties and older painters in their eighties, men and women, artists from Europe, Russia, all over Asia and throughout the United States.
Plein-Air Shows
A key component of the California Plein-Air Revival are the frequent plein-air exhibitions held in or around picturesque areas of the state. In most of these exhibitions, the painters bring their materials and blank canvasses or panels on which to paint. Then, they have a specified number of hours or days to complete their works before an exhibition is held. This type of exhibition is largely credited to Denise Burns and the Plein-Air Painters of America and the early exhibitions that it promoted on Catalina Island. The concept was conceived of as a way to emphasize the spontaneous nature of plein-air painting, the way that paintings are executed in a number of hours, while conditions stay consistent. In addition to the popular shows on Catalina Island, the philanthropist and art collector Joan Irvine Smith sponsored plein-air shows that were organized by the California Art Club at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Capistrano had been a popular location for the California Impressionists of the 1920s and these exhibitions were very successful for both the artists and collectors. Other plein-air festivals were held in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Santa Ana, California.Recognized Artists of the California Plein-Air Revival Active Before 2000
- Meredith Brooks Abbott
- Peter Seitz AdamsPeter Seitz AdamsPeter Seitz Adams is one of California’s most recognized landscape and figurative painters and an important figure in contemporary Southern California art. He is the longest serving President of the California Art Club and a member of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena...
- Sunny Apinchapong-Yang
- John Asaro
- Brian Blood
- Denise Burns
- Marcia Burt
- John Budicin
- Cathy Cadieux
- June Carey
- John Comer
- Carole Cooke
- John Cosby
- David Damm
- Karl Dempwolf
- Dennis Doheny
- Ron Elstad
- Esther Engelman
- David Gallup
- Lynn Gertenbach
- Dan Goozee
- Robin Hall
- Anita Hampton
- Glenna Hartman
- Donald Hildreth
- Jeffrey C. Horn
- Gregory Hull
- Ray Hunter
- Richard Humphrey
- Jack Johnson
- Sharon Burkett Kaiser
- Arny KarlArny KarlArny Karl was one of the key artists in the early stages of the California Plein-Air Revival, which started in the 1980s and continues to this day...
- Glen Knowles
- Calvin Liang
- Simon Lok
- Kevin McPherson
- Joseph Mendez
- Stephen Mirich
- Darryl Millard
- Don Munz
- Craig Nelson
- Daniel W. Pinkham
- Richard Rackus
- Gerald Rahm
- Diana Reineke
- Jeff Richards
- Rodolfo Rivademar
- Ray Roberts
- Junn Roca
- Bjorn Rye
- Martha Saudek
- Richard Scholss
- Frank Serrano
- Mian Situ
- Michael Situ
- W. Jason Situ
- Skip Smith
- Tim SollidayTim SollidayTim Solliday is a contemporary California Plein-Air Painter and Western Artist who is known for his San Gabriel Valley landscapes and his paintings of American Indians and other western subjects. He studied with the California Impressionist portrait and landscape painter Theodore Lukits in the...
- Cathy Springs
- Aaron St. John
- Arthur Tello
- Thomas Van Stein
- Sarah Vedder
- Paul Youngman
- Joseph Yuhasz
See also
- California Plein-Air PaintingCalifornia Plein-Air PaintingThe term California Plein-Air Painting describes the large movement of 20th century California artists who worked out of doors, directly from nature in California, United States. Their work became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California in the first three decades after the...
- California Art ClubCalifornia Art ClubThe California Art Club , founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. It celebrated its centennial in the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved from the Painters Club of Los Angeles...
- French Impressionism
- American ImpressionismAmerican ImpressionismImpressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...
- California TonalismCalifornia TonalismCalifornia Tonalism was art movement that existed in California from circa 1890 to 1920. Tonalist are usually intimate works, painted with a limited palette. Tonalist paintings are softly expressive, suggestive rather than detailed, often depicting the landscape at twilight or evening, when...
- California Art ClubCalifornia Art ClubThe California Art Club , founded in 1909, is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. It celebrated its centennial in the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved from the Painters Club of Los Angeles...
- American Barbizon schoolAmerican Barbizon schoolThe American Barbizon School was a group of painters and style partly influenced by the French Barbizon school. American Barbizon artists concentrated on painting rural landscapes often including peasants or farm animals....
- Barbizon SchoolBarbizon schoolThe Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
- William WendtWilliam WendtWilliam Wendt was an American landscape painter. He was called the "Dean of Southern California landscape painters."Wendt was a founding member of the California Art Club, along with his wife Julia Bracken Wendt, and served as its president for six years.Wendt built his studio in Laguna Beach,...
- Edgar Payne
- Guy RoseGuy RoseGuy Rose was an American Impressionist painter who is recognized as one of California's top impressionist painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
- Theodore LukitsTheodore LukitsTheodore Nikolai Lukits was a California portrait and landscape painter. His initial fame came from his portraits of some of the most glamorous actresses of the Silent Film era, but since his death, his Asian-inspired works, figures drawn from Hispanic California and his pastel landscapes have all...
- Sergei BongartSergei Bongart20th Century Russian painter Sergei Bongart was born in Kiev in Ukraine. He studied art in Kiev, Prague, Vienna and Munich, before emigrating to the United States in 1948. Bongart lived 6 years in Memphis, Tennessee, location of his sponsor. In 1954 he moved to Los Angeles where he founded an art...
- Ray StrongRay StrongRay Stanford Strong was an American painter from Corvallis, Oregon. His paintings usually depict the California landscape.-External links:* Oregon Historical Quarterly, 109.1. The History Cooperative*...
External links
- California Art Club Official Site
- Plein-Air Painters of America
- Laguna Plein-Air Painters
- Irvine Museum, Collection of California Impressionism
- Museum, Collection of California Impressionism
- Weisman Museum, Pepperdine, Venue for Plein-Air Exhibitions
- Web site Devoted to the Life and Art of Theodore Lukits
- Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Collection of Plein-Air Pastels from artists of the Plein-Air Revival