Derk Smit Art

Sweeping mid-century landscape of a lake and snow-capped mountains by Lillian Josephine Heath (American, 1864-1961). A gigantic, snow-covered mountain dominates the upper portion of the composition, rising above the rest of the landscape. In the shadow of the mountain is a valley lake, filled with snowmelt, with several smaller mountains in between. Signed "Lillian Heath" lower left. Displayed in a giltwood frame. Image, 20.5"H x 28"L. Lillian Heath was one of the Jolly Daubers at the turn of the 19th-century and as a young student, married the senior artist and instructor, Frank Heath in Santa Cruz, California. Artists Frank and Lillian [Heath] by Margaret Koch [transcribed from Santa Cruz Public Library website]….Frank L. Heath courted Lillian Dake Storey during painting trips around Santa Cruz County back in the 1890s. Those were the years when Lillian was riding a saddle horse daily from Santa Cruz to the Powdermill where she taught school. Today [1974] the Powdermill is Paradise Park. Frank's actual proposal of marriage was delivered at Rocky Falls, a beautiful scenic place on Carbonero Creek. There he had constructed a painting platform with a perfect view of the rushing waters, and it was there that he asked Lillian in that formal day and age, to be his bride. Frank was nearly 40 years old at the time, and Lillian was about 32. She had always been interested in art and had talent to a large degree. She took a year's leave of absence from teaching school to travel alone to New York where she visited relatives and stayed to study china painting and the painting of miniatures which is an art in itself. ‘When I returned from New York I enrolled in the art classes of a Santa Cruz artist who was making a name for himself,’ she once said with a smile. The artist was Frank L. Heath, and that was the start of their romance, she told me in 1959. She accepted Frank's proposal at Rocky Falls. At the Heath home on Third Street, Beach Hill, Frank added a wing with a large studio workroom downstairs and several bedrooms upstairs. That was his wedding gift to his bride. ‘The Studio’ had a fireplace and big bay windows that looked out over the town of Santa Cruz and back to the mountains they both loved and painted many times. Lillian painted a set of tiles for the fireplace; they showed darting swallows in the clouds above a stream where song birds perched on tulles and water lilies floated. In 1897 Lillian and Frank were married in the First Methodist Church and they moved into the home on Beach Hill, a house she continued to live in for 64 years. Frank's father, Lucien Heath, was the first Secretary of State of Oregon. He came to Santa Cruz from Oregon in 1866 with his wife, Jane, and sons, Frank and Henry. A daughter, Lina, had died in Michigan where the Heaths lived before crossing the plains to Oregon in 1852. [?] In Santa Cruz Lucien Heath opened one of the early hardware stores on Pacific Avenue in partnership with John Byrne...

Autumn Trees, Mid Century Fall Landscape with Orange & Earthtones Lovely late 1960's vintage landscape oil painting of an autumnal scene by Cal...

Dynamic depiction of a rider with a group of horses near the water's edge. Several horses are in for foreground, running towards the viewer. Just behind them, a rider in American col...

Wonderful 1940s genre landscape of traditional English cottage painted in the European style by Henry T. Harvey (English/American, 1908-2000). Signed lower right corner. Presented in...

A rare figurative for this well-listed California artist of a Nevada mining town landscape with prospector and burro by George Sanders Bickerstaff (American, 1893 - 1954), circa 1920. Signed lower right corner. Presented in patinated gilt-toned wood frame. Image size: 24"H x 30.5"W. Frame size: 32.5"H x 38"W. Bickerstaff was active/lived in California, Arkansas. George Bickerstaff is known for Landscape, coastal views, still life, western painting. Landscape painter. Born in Marianna, Arkansas on April 12, 1893. Bickerstaff was a self-taught artist except for a brief period at the Art Institute of Chicago. He led a peripatetic existence before moving to California in 1922. His early years were spent in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Van Nuys. He exhibited often in the latter with Paul Lauritz. A prolific oil painter of mountain and desert scenes, his landscapes often include eucalypti as well as rolling hills of California wildflowers...

Vibrant cool colored landscape of Norwegian Fjords by Bay Area artist Lucette Barth (American, 1894 - 1986), circa 1960. Condition: good, three minor tea...

Gorgeous desert landscape with a smoke tree and other desert plants by Vina McPheeters (American, 1892-1964). Signed "Vina McPheeters" in the lower right corner. Presented in a gilt-toned gold and black frame. Image size: 20"H x 24"W. Vina Pearl McPheeters (American, 1892-1964) was born in Iowa on October 7, 1892. Vina was the wife of Robert Guy McPheeters. By 1930 she had settled in southern California into a home in Montebello (Los Angeles County). She died in Glendale, CA on April 23, 1964. She exhibited in her home town of Van Nuys California, studied with Hanson Puthuff, Jack Wilkinson Smith and Bennett Bradbury...

On the Northern California Coast and Golden Gate Bridge by Richard Brian Hazel Lavish paint and impasto layered oil paint of the Rocky Coast ...

Mid Century Modern Old Manila Street Scene, 1960s Figurative Landscape Beautiful mid century modern figurative landscape by Didi Fernandez (Filipino, 20th Century). This charming 1966 old Manila street scene, in the style of the well-known Filipino painter Cesar Buenaventura...

Beautiful early 20th century Bay Area landscape attributed to California artist Florence Bugbee Banham (American, 1856-1934). This small scale horizontal landscape depicts a peaceful...

Pacific Grove looking to Big Sur Ocean by Matola Crashing waves and Cypress Trees and a woman in the sun on the Pacific Grove to Big Sur Coast. Painted in 1983 by California artist n...

"Pilgrimage", a mid century figurative landscape by Carmel, California artist Mary Miller (Klepich) (American, ? - 1957). Presented in a rustic giltwood frame. Signed "Mary Miller" lower right. Titled "Pilgrimage," dated "1952" and signed "Mary Miller" on logo on verso, with Santa Cruz Art League Twenty Third Statewide Art Exhibition Label. Image, 18"H x 24"L. Framed size: 22.5"H x 28.5"W. Mary Miller (Klepich) exhibited in the Twenty-Third Annual Santa Cruz State-Wide Art Exhibition. She and her husband Fred Klepich studied at Bellas Artes, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Fred and Mary Owned Carmel Craft Studios, later (SAS) Studio Art Supplies...