The Agnes Pelton hometown revival gathers steam in 2012 with several big events honoring the Mystic Genius of Cat City. Sunday, January 22—Nancy Strow Sheley presents a talk on Pelton at the Cathedral City Historical Society. An associate professor of…
Category: Desert Artists
Richard Steinheimer’s Trains on Exhibit in NYC
There is nothing like a train to accent the space and scale of the desert. The two go together just about as well as deserts and smoketrees. One man who knew this perhaps better than anyone was Richard Steinheimer, one…
Lockwood de Forest Exhibit Opens in Palm Springs
The Smoketree School abounds with colorful geniuses but we have not been able to claim an aristocratic all-star equivalent to a Thomas Moran or Albert Bierstadt. Thanks to the Palm Springs Art Museum and Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara,…
Desert Art Center 2012 Paint-Outs
The free monthly paint-outs of the Desert Art Center are reason enough to become a desert painter if you aren’t one already. You’ll go to beautiful places, stand around and draw smoketrees, palaver with others as much or as little…
Palm Desert Appraisal Day, November 19
Due to the popularity of the first appraisal day last April, the Historical Society of Palm Desert will host another event on Saturday, November 19, 2011. Kevin Stewart, a foremost authority on desert paintings, will be there to give verbal…
Michael Gordon’s Portraits of Joshua Trees
Long Beach photographer Michael E. Gordon is a champion of overlooked deserts, preferring the quiet corners of the Mojave to the more obvious drama of places like the Grand Canyon. Now he takes on a similarly ignored and yet most…
Hwy 62 Tours: Dirt-Road Art Adventure in October
2011 marks the 10th Anniversary of the Hwy 62 Art Tours in Morongo Valley. On the weekends of October 21-23 and 28-30 you can visit the homes and studios of 100 of the desert’s most adventurous artists in all mediums.…
Goodbye to Carl Bray
Smoketree artist Carl Bray died in Banning on July 23, 2011, at age 94, after a brief illness. Carl had been working on new paintings up until two months ago. He took an annual vacation to Missouri with family members…
Eric Merrell’s “Romance of the West” Opens in Pasadena
Eric Merrell continues to be a primo ambassador for desert art with his new solo exhibition at American Legacy Fine Arts in Pasadena: Romance of the West—and the Western Spirit, July 16-August 13. The opening reception is Saturday, July 16, from…
Eric Merrell Workshop in Joshua Tree Sept. 19-23rd
Born too late to study with Sam Hyde Harris or Edgar Payne? Now you have another chance to learn from a traditional California master, when Eric Merrell teaches a painting workshop in Joshua Tree Sept. 19-23, 2011. Limited to just…