There are so many publicists in Palm Springs that it’s hard to keep an event secret. But one well-kept secret—to locals at least—is the Palm Springs Photo Festival. (Thanks to Tom Brewster for cluing me in.) This high quality gathering…
Category: News
April is Desertscapes Month
For the second year in a row, the City of Palm Desert and organizations valley wide are hosting a monthlong tribute to early and contemporary desert artists. The event, known as Desertscapes, takes place in April at venues around the…
Captain Beefheart, Desert Artist, Dies
Captain Beefheart was a rock-n-roll wildman, too avant garde—if that’s possible–for the likes of his friend Frank Zappa. But Don Van Vliet (his real name), who died on December 17, 2010, was also a visionary painter of the desert. Van…
Film About Idyllwild Arts Legend Lora Steere Opens January 10th
December 29, 2010–Lora Woodhead Steere taught for 16 years at the Idyllwild Arts Academy without ever taking a paycheck. She first came to the San Jacinto Mountains in 1890 as a toddler riding in front of her mother’s saddle. With…
California Desert Art Featured in Palm Springs Life
December 4, 2010–In the first major magazine article to acknowledge the Smoketree School by name, the December Palm Springs Life features an article on the desert painters and this website. Included are masterpieces of the genre, courtesy of Edenhurst Gallery…
Indian Wells Destroys a Cherished Link to California Art
November 21, 2010–Anyone driving down Highway 111 last week saw that the long-dreaded demolition of the Carl Bray Gallery has begun. A crew first tore off the roof that the artist had painstakingly reinforced with steel beams salvaged from the…
Smoketree Painter Sally Ward Dies
Sally Ward, an artist who lived for decades in Palm Springs, died in Tucson on November 16, 2010, at age 101. Fellow artists from Ward’s circle of friends who also passed away recently include Louise Tennyson and Edna Hollinger. All…
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…
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…
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…