August 3, 2010–The Carl Bray home and gallery in Indian Wells has been stuck in limbo, with the city determined to tear it down and preservationists determined to hang on to it. There were two big developments at an Indian…
Fernand Lungren “The Desert Speaks” Exhibit in Los Olivos
August 2, 2010–If you’re traveling anywhere near Santa Barbara before September 19th, consider detouring to Los Olivos to see works by Fernand Lungren, who’s been called the foremost desert painter of the early 1900s. Lungren, who was a resident of…
Celebrate Lora Woodhead Steere, a Pioneer of Idyllwild Arts
Lora Woodhead Steere was only a baby in 1890 when she first rode a wagon into Strawberry Valley in the San Jacinto mountains. In 1946 she met Max Krone, who was founding a new school in Idyllwild, and Steere went…
Agnes Pelton: Mystic Genius of Cat City
When returning from a haircut appointment recently, I swung by the former Cathedral City home of the visionary painter Agnes Pelton. She moved out of the house in 1960 and died a year later; today hardly anyone remembers she once…
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…
Save the Carl Bray Gallery; Submit a Comment by July 19th
The most significant brick-and-mortar monument to the Smoketree School of desert painters is the Carl Bray home and gallery in Indian Wells, Calif. As well as being the last remaining scrap of the original village of Indian Wells, Bray’s gallery…