Wayman Adams

"Fox Trot" Wayman Adams, circa 1915 New Orleans Figures Dancing American Scene

circa 1915

Beatrix Sherman Hialeah Park Race Track, Florida, 1947 Signed lower right Oil on canvasboard 16 x 20 inches Beatrix Sherman (1894-1975), who changed her first name from Beatrice by...

William Gropper Senator Signed lower center Oil on board 16 x 12 1/4 inches ACA Galleries, New York Private Collection, New York Bonhams, American Art Online, August 23, 2023, Lot 3...

Frida Gugler Building the Westside Highway (Near the George Washington Bridge), circa 1935-37 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 20 x 28 inches Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the pain...

Hendrik (Henry) J Glintenkamp Clowns: Aren't We All?, 1942 Signed lower left; signed, titled and dated on the reverse Oil on Masonite 20 x 16 inches The painter and illustrator Henr...

This work is part of our exhibition - America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s Army Poker, c. 1943, probably tempera on board, signed upper right, 16 x 20 inches, inscribed verso a) “Army Poker / Mervin Honig / 421 W 42 St. N.Y.C.,” b) “Mervin Honig / US Army Air Force – Seymour Johnson Field – Goldsboro, NC / Circa 1943,” and c) “(This painting was done before men was (sic) shipped off to the Mariana Islands (Saipan) The Second World War.” Note: four pencil sketches for this work included Mervin Honig was a New York-based painter and illustrator who is best known for his realistic depictions of everyday life and sports themes. Honig was raised in Brooklyn and recalled almost never being without a paintbox in hand from the time he started elementary school. Honig had a deep reverence for the Old Master painters, Vermeer and Bellini, as well as the Americans Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins. He initially studied art from 1939 through 1941 with Francis Criss. At the outbreak of World War II, Honig worked as a mechanic for Republic Aviation, but in August 1942, he enlisted in the US Army Air Corps and was stationed at Seymour Johnson Field in Goldsboro, North Carolina. During the war, Honig began to exhibit nationally, including as part of the Portrait of America exhibitions which originated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and traveled around the country, as well as at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. He painted Army Poker in 1943 while stationed at Johnson Field. In this work, Honig draws inspiration from Paul Cezanne's The Card Players (Metropolitan Museum of Art), with a similar placement of the four figures, but Cezanne's table is replaced with an Army cot, the pipe rack with a soldier's mess kit and the drapery in the right background with a heap of discarded uniforms. Unlike the vibrancy of Cezanne's composition, the limited palette of Honig's work suggests the drabness and monotony of stateside Army life. After being discharged from military service, Honig furthered his studies with Amadee Ozenfant in 1946 and Hans Hoffman from 1947 through 1950. Additional exhibitions included the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Academy of Design, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Provincetown Art Association, and the National Academies Galleries of the Allied Artists Association. He was represented by the venerable Frank Rehn...

Chess Players WPA Depression Era Mid-20th Century American Scene Realism Modern. Signed upper right and verso 8 x 10 inches oil on board. BIO The son of a men's haberdasher, Mervin ...

Mid-century city life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Market Woman, where he depicts a woman with her shopping in 1955. An accomplished American Scene painter, Singer su...

Industrial Mural Study, Veterans Memorial Building, Santa Barbara WPA American Joseph Edward Knowles (1907-1980) "Study for Industry Mural, Veterans Memorial Building, Santa Barbara, CA" 19 1/2 x 50 1/2 inches Oil on board, c. 1930s. Estate stamp verso Framed: 27 x 60 inches The completed mural is currently hanging on the wall, part of the building actually, at the Veterans Memorial Building in Santa Barbara. A photo of the work insitu is included in the attached photos. BIO Joseph Edward Knowles was born in Kendall, Montana, on June 15, 1907. He grew up in San Diego, California. At age twenty, two years before the beginning of the Great Depression, he moved north to another town on the coast of California---Santa Barbara. There he began studying fine art at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts* (1927-1930), under the supervision of Frank Morley Fletcher, previously director of the Edinburgh College of Art. Fletcher, who was trained in portraiture, landscape painting, and woodblock* printing, was a great influence on young Knowles. It was there that Knowles learned the art of color woodblock printmaking, a medium in which he showed great skill. Not long after completing his studies with Fletcher, Knowles began teaching art. For a period of thirty years, from 1930 to1960, he taught at the Cate School in Carpinteria, California. In 1934-1935, Knowles traveled throughout Europe, further developing his artistic skills in England, France, and Italy. Upon his return, he continued to teach art at various schools and institutions: Cate School, Crane Country School, extension classes at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), and at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA). Knowles also served as an art education consultant for the County of Santa Barbara. In addition, he was founding co-director and president of the Santa Barbara Fine Arts Institute (1969-1972), which later developed a specialization in photography and became the Brooks Institute of Photography. Knowles died at his home in Santa Barbara on September 8, 1980. Much of Knowles' watercolor work is associated with what has been termed the "California School*," a loose grouping of artists throughout the state that included such figures as Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Dong Kingman, George Post, and the Santa Barbara painters Dan Lutz and Standish Backus, Jr. The California School artists, including Knowles, were known for their fresh, direct, spontaneous style of watercolor painting. Knowles and other members of the school found inspiration in nature and the built environment alike, emphasizing elements of design in their exuberant, boldly stated, colorful scenes from everyday life. While painting in a representational* manner, Knowles generally avoided photographic realism, preferring subjective interpretation of his subjects. In this, as well as in his experimental approach and vigorous brushwork, he displayed a strongly modern sensibility. Knowles often used the wet-on-wet watercolor technique as he painted seascapes and landscapes, mostly along the California coast. He also employed dry-brush* techniques in many of his paintings, often leaving some of the white of the watercolor paper exposed. Some of the latter depict trees and other forms in a broken and airy manner that recalls Cezanne. Knowles' colored woodblock prints are more reserved and exact in their draftsmanship than his paintings. Spare, clean, lyrical lines are drawn to illustrate floral motifs and boat scenes with a touch of asymmetry conjuring Japanese woodblock prints. His murals from the post-World War II period are considerably more modern in their approach and show an emphasis on design and color. PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS California Watercolor Society (1940 - 1955) Santa Barbara Art Association (Vice President - 1952) ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) - San Francisco, California San Diego Fine Arts Gallery (SDMA) - San Diego, California Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) - Santa Barbara, California Cowie Galleries - Los Angeles, California Gallery de Silva - Santa Barbara, California Bradley Galleries - Santa Barbara, California MURALS Westmont College - Ellen Porter Hall Mural - Santa Barbara, California Safeway Grocery (now Vons Grocery on West Victoria Street) - Exterior Tile Mosaic - Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara Bank & Trust - Interior Mosaic Panels, Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara Girls Club - Interior Mosaic Mural - Santa Barbara, California Ernest Righetti High School - Mosaic Mural - Santa Maria, California Shell Oil Company - Mosaic Panel - California Beckman Instruments, Corporate Headquarters - Mosaic - Fullerton, California STAINED GLASS WINDOWS, WALLS and PANELS Katherine Thayer Cate Memorial Chapel - Cate School, Carpinteria, California William S. Porter Memorial Chapel - Cottage Hospital, Santa Barbara, California La Rinconada Building - Santa Barbara, California ILLUSTRATIONS "California's Wonderful Corner: True Stories for Children from the History of the Santa Barbara Region," by Walter A. Tompkins (1962 & 1975) China Designs: Two sets of dinnerware for Winfield China...