Winter 2016

Winter 128 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com I T L D O S S b G d T. M l l d n 1850, shortly after California officially became part of the United States, professional artists began to travel along the coastline of the Golden State seeking out engaging subject matter for their paintings. Early works often captured scenes of San Francisco Bay where ships docked and large numbers of people unloaded to stake claims in the California Gold Rush. Within a few years artists were regularly heading south to other coastline settlements like Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Diego. Many new towns and villages have sprung up along the shores of the Pacific Ocean since 1900, and some of them, like La Jolla, Laguna Beach and Carmel became well known artist communities. Those artists produced paintings depicting the people and the character of their local geography as both grew from the twentieth into the twenty-first century. In these coastal towns, an array of cultures emerged. Fishermen from all over the world came to the areas near Monterey and San Pedro, where they built up the fishing and canning industries. The lumber industry drew loggers into the Santa Cruz area, and oil workers came to Venice Beach, Long Beach, and Huntington Beach when oil was discovered locally. Towns along the coast evolved with different identities directly associated with the businesses and cultural influences that were present. An unusually high number of sub-cultures also developed in the coastal communities. Beach sports were prominent with sailing, surfing, fishing, diving and volleyball becoming more and more popular. In the Land of Sunshine: Imaging the California Coast Culture , at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, brings together paintings, f ine art prints, and ephemera that capture these changes over the past 166 years. The works are not only engaging as art, but serve as a visual documentation of the California coastline development since the state was formed. Images range from sublime coastline scenes to views of the Los Angeles Airport in El Segundo and an oil refinery in Wilmington. The California Surf Culture is well represented since most of the works were painted by artists who also surfed. Painting styles range from nineteenth-century representational works by European-trained artists to abstract works by modernists. Specific stylistic approaches include luminism, impressionism, cubism, surrealism, abstract surrealism, photo realism, American illustration, and California style watercolors.