Cecil Head

Farm Mural Study

Landscape with Cows, c. 1930s, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, signed lower middle About the Painting Landscape with Cows is a fine example of California Scene painting, the West Coast version of the American Scene genre practiced during the 1930s and 1940s by the likes of Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry. Armer stands out as one of the rare female oil painters working in this style in California, as most of her contemporaries were men whose fame largely depended on watercolor as a medium. Like many Regionalist painters, Armer heeded the call to paint the local scene during the 1930s and even in the depths of the Great Depression, she captured the natural beauty and abundance of the California ranch lands. For many migrants from the Dust Bowl and the southern parts of the United States, California was a golden land of opportunity. In Landscape with Cows, Armer plays on this theme by portraying the fields and distant foothills in a variety of golden hues. This work is a celebration of California’s unique geography, and it fits nicely into the grand tradition of American landscape painting. Armer’s spare treatment of the distant hills and buildings presages the abstract forms she later began to explore in earnest. Like many other artists working during the 1930s, Armer moved strongly towards abstraction by the 1940s, making her critically celebrated California Scene landscapes rare. About the Artist Ruth Armer...

This painting is part of our exhibition American Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Knight’s Lodging, 1941, oil on canvas panel, signed and dated lower left, 16 x 20 inches, exhi...

This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Factory Worker, c. 1936, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 18 ¼ x 36 inches; exhibited in City ...

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches unframed, 22 x 18 inches framed, signed and dated lower right, inscribed “Mother and Son by Herman Maril ‘31” and “property Edward B. Rowan Falls Church VA” verso Literature: i) Dows, Olin, Herman Maril, The American Magazine of Art, Vol. 28, No. 7 (July 1935), p. 407 (illustrated with the title “Mare and Colt...

This watercolor is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Circus Wagons, 1927, watercolor on paper, signed and dated lower left, 10 x19 ¾ inches (sight), provenance includes Stary-Sheets Art Gallery (Gualala, CA); J. Ralph & Louis Stone Foundation; presented in a newer metal frame behind glazing About the Painting Millard Sheets was only twenty years old and in his third year of studies at the Chouinard Art Institute when he painted Circus Wagons. Despite his youth, Sheets was already an accomplished artist who had publicly exhibited his work and won prestigious prizes. Within several years, he would have his first solo exhibition at one of Los Angeles’ premiere galleries and become a painting instructor at his alma mater. In Circus Wagons we already see Sheets deft handling of the watercolor medium and his interest in the California Scene. In this case, Sheets captures a back lot view of a traveling circus, a subject he sometimes returned to, including in a color screen print in the collection of the National Gallery. Sheets made a career by painting what he knew and observed firsthand. This approach allowed Sheets to capture with authenticity the details of each narrative. Even with a narrowly limited palette and an economy of brushstrokes, Sheets effectively depicts the southern California scene with its strong and mysterious shadows, as well as the workers and circus animals. Seen through the hindsight of his six-decade long career, Circus Wagons offers a fascinating insight into the early development of California Scene painting which would by the mid-1930s become the best recognized style on the West Coast. About the Artist Millard Sheets was the dean of California watercolorists. His list of accomplishments is so extensive that his entry in Who was Who in American Art is over forty lines. Born in Pomona, California, Sheets became a painter at an early age, winning a prize at the Los Angeles County Fair in 1918. By the mid to late-1920s, Sheets became a regular at art exhibitions in the western part of the United States, winning several additional prizes before he reached the age of twenty-five. Sheets studied at the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute from 1925 through 1929 with Frank Tolles Chamberlin and Clarence Hinkle and had his first solo show with Los Angeles’ Dalzell Hatfield Gallery in 1929. During the 1930s, Sheets was invited to exhibit at almost every major American Museum and in many ways, his work came to represent the California watercolor school...

This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Industry and Commerce, 1936, tempera on panel, 16 ½ x 39 ½ inches, signed verso “John Ballator, Portland Ore.” provenance includes: J.C. Penney Company, represented by Russell Tether Fine Arts Assoc.; presented in a newer wood frame About the Painting Industry and Commerce is a prime example of WPA Era muralism. Like a Mediaeval alter, this mural study is filled with icons, but the images of saints and martyrs are replaced with symbols of America's gospel of prosperity through capitalism. Industry and Commerce has a strong narrative quality with vignettes filling the entire surface. Extraction, logistics, design, power generation, and manufacturing for printing, chemicals, automobiles and metal products are all represented. To eliminate any doubt about the mural's themes, Ballator letters a description into the bottom of the study. Ballator also presents an idealized version of industrial cooperation, as his workers, lab-coated technicians and tie-wearing managers work harmoniously toward a common goal in the tidy and neatly designed environments. Although far from the reality of most industrial spaces, Ballator's study reflects the idealized and morale boosting tone that many mural projects adopted during the Great Depression. About the Artist John R Ballator achieved success as a muralist, lithographer, and teacher during the Great Depression. Born in Oregon, he studied at the Portland Museum Art School, the University of Oregon and at Yale University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Art. In 1936, Ballator was commissioned to paint a mural panel for the new Department of Justice Building in Washington DC, an important project that spanned five years with several dozen artists contributing a total of sixty-eight designs. Ballator completed murals for the St. Johns Post Office and Franklin High School, both in Portland, Oregon. He also contributed to the 1938 murals at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, Connecticut. During the late 1930s, Ballator taught art for several years at Washburn College in Topeka, Kanas, where he completed a mural for the Menninger Arts & Craft Shop before accepting a professorship at Hollins College...

"Apaches" is an oil on canvas painting by Olaf Wieghorst. The painting is signed on the lower left, "O-Wieghorst". The framed piece measures 25 1/2 x 29 3/4 x 2 in. “When the time comes for me to put away my palette and unsaddle my pony for the last time, I hope that my canvases will in some small measure add to the historical recording of an era, the cowboy, and the great American West.” ~ Olaf Wieghorst Wieghorst worked with the mounted patrol of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Cavalry (1920-1922) with occasional interludes as a wrangler on ranches in the western states. Wherever he went, he sketched and painted the Western culture he loved, often selling his work as calendar and magazine illustrations. His work appeared in Zane Grey...

Painted en plein air in rural america, a horse stands alone on a dirt culdisac. A tall pinwheel tower stands central to the composition. A trailer and car parked beneath the horizon....

An oil painting by Contemporary American Realist painter Joe Paquet. Painted on site, or en plein air, a pastoral landscape features a vibrant grassy hillsi...

Friends and family enjoying the setting sun at Lake Tahoe with early evening light and majestic alpine mountain ridge in the distance. Willard Dixon is one of the finest American contemporary realist painters living today. The artist has painted Northern California coastal landscapes for over 35 years and his work captures the undeniable beauty of the West with its grand and humble spirit. Dixon’s work can be found in numerous distinctive private and public collections, as well as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Oakland Museum of California. Tahoe Evening is 35 x 55 inches. The work of art comes to you framed in a light wood floater frame and is ready to hang and enjoy for years to come. Artist signed and dated. Condition is excellent. SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Oakland Museum The Utah Museum of Fine Art The San Francisco Art Commission AMA Headquarters, washington, D.C. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., S.F. CA. Transamerica Headquarters,S.F., CA. San Francisco International Airport IBM Corporation, San Jose, CA. Pacific Bell SELECTED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Mr. Harrison Ford Mr. Peter Duchin Ms. Linda Ronstadt Ms Faye Dunaway Mr. Peter Morton Mrs. H.J. Heinze Mr Rupert Lowenstein Mr. Chappy Morris Mr. Griffen Dunne Margy Boyd Caroline Graham Mr. Richard Baker Ms. Sabrina Guinness Mr. Peter Asher...

Bolinas Lagoon - is an Iconic water scene featuring two birds at the silvery water's edge. The painting was created in 2020 by celebrated American realist artist Willard Dixon, who has captured the undeniable beauty of the west for the past 35 years. Dixon’s work can be found in numerous distinctive private and public collections, as well as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as the Oakland Museum of California. The work comes framed is a contemporary hard wood frame. Bolinas Lagoon is 45 x 51 inches. With framing, it is 46 x 52 inches. Signed and dated by the artist. From Andra Norris Gallery in Callifornia. Willard Dixon Born: Kansas City MO, 1942 Education: Art Students League, New York, NY Cornell University Brooklyn Museum School San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. 1969 Awards and Commissions N.E.A. Fellowship Grant- 1989 California Supreme Court Mural Commission- 1998 Las Vegas Federal Courthouse Commission, G.S.A.-1998 Teaching 1989-90: San Francisco State University 1975: San Francisco Art Institute Realism Seminar 1974-76: Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA 1973-74, 1976: California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA 1971-72: California State University, Hayward, CA One Man Exhibitions 2015: Willard Dixon Portraits College of Marin Fine Art Gallery, Kentfield 2014: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2008: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2005: Fischbach Gallery, NYC,NY 2005: Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004: Fischbach Gallery, NYC, NY. 2002: Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2002: Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA 2001: Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000: Fischbach Gallery, NYC , NY 2000: Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA 1998: Hackett Freedman Gallery, SF, CA 1997: Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1996, 1995: Contemporary Realist Gallery (now Hackett Freedman Gallery) 1994: Fischbach Gallery 1993: Contemporary Realist Gallery 1992: Fischbach Gallery 1991: Earl McGrath Gallery, 454 North, Los Angeles, CA 1990: Fischbach Gallery 1989: William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1988: Gallery 454 North, Los Angeles, CA 1987: Fischbach Gallery 1987: Gallery 454 North 1986: William Sawyer Gallery 1985: Fischbach Gallery 1984: Harris Gallery, Houston, Tx 1984: William Sawyer Gallery 1983, 1982: Fischbach Gallery 1981: William Sawyer Gallery 1980,1979: Tortue Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1976, 1975: William Sawyer Gallery 1973, 1972: William Sawyer Gallery Selected Group Exhibitions 2017: SHIFT / with Elizabeth Barlow, Kim Frohsin, Erin Parrish...

James Fairman "Sunset" c. 1880 Oil on Canvas Signed Lower Left Site: 32.5 x 29.5 inches Framed: 46 x 42 inches James Fairman worked as a landscape painter, critic, lecturer, musicia...