Peter Adams

Philosophers' Wall; Shasta Caves

Acquired by the gallery directly from the artist UNFRAMED: 20" x 16" FRAMED: 27" x 23" x 2.5" Exhibited "The Diverse Environments of the Arroyo Seco" organized by California Art C...

Acquired by the gallery directly from the artist UNFRAMED: 24" x 30" FRAMED: 27" x 33" x 1.5" Artist Statement "This wonderful spot is on a ranch just outside Sonora, Ca, in the foothills of the Sierra. An early rain when the fall color is at it’s peak is always a time to ones easel ready to catch that moment before the leaves drop and the water more than trickle." — Ray Roberts

Signed lower right: "Atherton", inscribed "John Atherton Original Tempera 7/28/50" on verso. Artwork measures 16" x 20" and framed 20" x 24" x 2 ½" About this artists: John Atherton (1900-1952) did not show an early aptitude for art; rather, his first love was nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. Born in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1900, he learned to fish with his father from the age of four. Later the family moved to Spokane, Washington, and when he was old enough, Atherton worked at a variety of jobs to help support his family. One such job, in the sorting plant of a lead and silver mine, paid $4.25 a day—a good wage, though he never had time to spend his money, since he worked seven days a week. After serving in the Navy for a year during World War I, Atherton was determined to get an education. He worked as a sign painter and played the banjo in a dance band, finally accumulating enough money to enroll in the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once there, he worked like a fiend, attending classes both during the day and at night, getting the best training available. Though he had always intended to be a fine artist, Atherton’s first jobs were for commercial art firms. In 1929, using the prize money won for a painting he entered in an art competition, Atherton and his wife moved to New York City. Though the economic situation was difficult in those years, he managed to keep going by taking commissions for magazine illustrations, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post. In 1938, an artist friend suggested that he use the same flat, decorative style as his commercial work for his gallery paintings. This was a breakthrough for Atherton; soon afterwards he held a one-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and his paintings began to be collected by museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Atherton’s reputation increased to a national scale when he designed the art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 World’s Fair that strikingly depicted Earth and its atmospheric layers in the lap of Liberty. Atherton was highly influenced by the magic realist...

Beautiful original abstract painting perceived as "Cascades or Waterfalls", created by C. Azuelos using oil on rice paper. This artwork is professionally framed. Measures: 24 1/...