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Watercolor Washes and the Lure of the Sun: The Climate and Demographics Informing the California Watercolor Movement
Hannah Jeton ’12, The Kathryn Conroy Intern
Published by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
2012, 2 pages
From the 1930s to the 1960s, a group of watercolorists based in Southern California responded to the region's distinctive environment by creating primarily large, colorful watercolors of the local scene, painted on the spot outdoors. These generally upbeat, optimistic images celebrated the Edenic California landscape, despite the dramatic demographic and economic forces that were already altering both the physical characteristics and social mosaic there.