Angelica Schuyler Patterson

Japanese Woman with a Basket

early 20th Century

A beautiful watercolor painting of a brown Carmel house with a white picket fence in front by Lillie Esther (Hillman) Heebner, a Watsonville, Monterey Bay area, California watercolor artist. Unsigned, but acquired with a collection of her work. Lillie (Lil) E. Heebner was guided through life by her creativity. Even at 92, she never felt old, and often said so. She met every situation in life—including death—with ingenuity. Although born in Richmond, Lillie lived in Watsonville all her life. Her father, Frederick H. Hillman, grew up on a strawberry ranch in Pajaro, graduated from Watsonville High School in 1916, and served in France during World War I. He later worked for Martinelli's Apple Cider plant and became foreman. Lillie's mother, Esther C. Hobson, moved as an infant from Bakersfield to Santa Cruz with her family in 1901, when they founded Hobson's Bath House at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk...

John B. Monaco 1916 painting and study of the John Singleton Copley portrait of John Hancock. San Francisco artist and San Francisco city documen...

A wonderful portrait of a woman from the 1950's with beautiful blonde hair wearing a white colored shirt. The impressionistic style is very attractive with fast brushwork and dashing...

Wonderful 60's chic is on full display in this beach scene. It's masterfully designed. The beautiful model horizontally fills the center space while supporting players fill background spaces. The style is very flat with lots of gray muting the colors and defining the artist's palette. Fuch's was a giant talent who is overlooked by today's art world participants. His style could be described as a post-post impressionist. This particular work is so deftly designed and exhibits the most intriguing positive and negative spaces. The model is rendered with loose, quick and authoritative brush strokes which give an air of chic confidence. Most of all, it's her dreamy blue eyes that truly captivate the viewer. All parts of the eye ( Iris, Pupil, Sclera ) are composed of a soft robin's egg blue which is in counterpoint the pink day-glow color on her lips. She looks at you. You look back and the process is repeated and repeated. Fuch's not just a great painter, designer, academic artist but a brilliant and innovative colorist as well. To demonstrate how great this simple work is, out of a world population of 7.2 billion people, as a betting man, I would say there may be no other artist who could render a scene this good. An artist such as Peter Doig, who does nice and beautiful work, may come close to the talent of Fuchs. Bernard Fuchs American, 1932 - 2009 Girl at the Beach...