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…
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…
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…