California is a vast and picturesque region with a great variety of landscape. From the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the dazzling beaches and coves of the coast; from the flower-covered hills and secluded tree-lined valleys to…
Category: Featured
Eric Merrell: Bringing the California Desert to NYC
Most Manhattan gallery-goers don’t know the names Jimmy Swinnerton or John Hilton; they can’t tell a smoketree from a cholla. While desert art is expanding its geographic appeal, it hasn’t reached the east coast yet. That transcontinental link may finally…
The Hunt for Agnes Pelton’s Cabin
July 8, 2010–On a recent morning, Kim Housken and Don Graybill (volunteer sleuths from the Historical Society of Palm Desert) squished into my Subaru and we drove off through the stately pines and meadows of Garner Valley in search of…
Cheryl Jordan: Seeking the Heart of the 92256
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…
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.…
Katherine McKay: California Roaming
Ed. Update–We are sorry to report that Katherine McKay died of cancer, in Richmond, Calif., on October 12, 2011. Editor’s Note—We’ve been telling you about the early desert painters; with this essay by Katherine McKay we shift into the…
Scores and Screaming Deals – Tips For Collectors
All of us who really appreciate the early California desert painters sooner or later come to the realization our taste level has exceeded our pocket book. Here are some tips to keep you in the game without a lot of money.
Read all you can about the early California desert painters in art magazines, the Internet, and library books. Become familiar with the individual artists’ styles. Visit art galleries and antique stores. Look online at auctions in San Francisco and the east coast. Attend local art auctions like the John Moran auction in Pasadena. Sometimes, prices depend on who is in the auction room and their particular interests at the time a quality desert painting comes up to bid.
Early Painters of the Borrego Desert
Around 1930 a young botanist from Chicago came to the Borrego desert to dig in the sand and collect native plants. At some point hunting for tansy-mustard and tidy-tips wasn’t enough for her, so she took out her easel and began painting the dunes and smoke trees.
Last month I picked up one of her 1930s Borrego paintings on eBay for $99. When I hung the painting on my bedroom wall, it immediately connected me to Edith Purer herself (she became California’s first woman ecologist), as well as to the plants, topography and mood of Anza-Borrego.