The heroes of early desert photography recognized that a time and place was passing long before anyone else came to the same conclusion. They had a way of seeing what would be missed. Mecca postmaster Susie Smith, for instance, documented…
Category: Desert Artists
Gorge on Desert Art at the Highway 62 Open Studio Tours
The big event of the 2010 desert art season is the Morongo Valley open studio tours coming up on the weekends of October 23 and 24 and October 30 and 31. More than 100 artists are included in the swath…
Kevin Wong: Documenting the Desert’s “Mother Road”
Kevin Wong, a photographer and adventurer based in Joshua Tree, is embarking on a project to document lives lived along the Mother Road (Route 66) in the remote desert towns of the Mojave Desert. While Route 66 gets a lot…
Painting of Agnes Pelton’s Mountain Cabin Surfaces
Mount San Jacinto, above Palm Springs, played a big role in Agnes Pelton’s life and vision. From the porch of her little house in Cathedral City the artist studied and painted the peak, a symbol to her of upward yearnings.…
Eric Merrell Lectures on the History of the California Art Club
Desert painter Eric Merrell will give a talk on the California Art Club in the 1940s on Sunday, October 24, from 1-3 pm, in Pasadena. Eric completed an artist’s residency at Joshua Tree National Park in 2009, and is one…
Agnes Martin’s “The Desert” to be Auctioned for $4-6 Million
A painting called simply “The Desert” is set to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on May 12th, for an estimated $4-6 million. If it passes the $5.1 million mark, it will bring the highest amount ever paid for…
Michael Gordon’s Desert Photography on View in Long Beach
The desert drew modernists like Cady Wells and Dorr Bothwell, but also inspires more formal, almost old-fashioned (in a good way) interpretations. For a chance to see the latter, stop by the Long Beach El Dorado Nature Center Art Gallery…
Kevin Stewart Gallery Returns to Downtown Palm Springs
September 20, 2010–Readers of California Desert Art are invited to the opening of Kevin Stewart Fine Art in a new location in Palm Springs, on Friday, October 1st, from 5 to 7 pm. Kevin Stewart—along with his wife Diane–are respected…
Desert Art Center Paint-Outs Resume on Sept. 18th
September 5, 2010–Painters from the Desert Art Center in Palm Springs have been visiting the local canyons and oases together for more than 60 years. A Paint-Out is not an art class but a free-form excursion for artists who want…
Carl Bray Gallery is Lost
August 23rd, 2010–On August 19th the Indian Wells City Council decided unanimously to trash the Carl Bray home and gallery, despite months of public pleas to save it and despite the findings of an EIR (Environmental Impact Report) that the…