Jean Stern – författare

This is the Sunday painter's dream book -- a first-of-its-kind celebration of the California Art Club, a society that for 100 years has captured landscapes in resplendent plein air paintings.

This volume showcases 200 works by California Art Club artists who have focused on the evocative seascapes, charming seaside towns, and beach communities from San Diego to San Francisco, demonstrating a breathtaking range of natural settings suffused with atmosphere, drama, and light. Since the dawn of the twentieth century, California has been home to artists from all over America and Europe who aspired to depict the state s compelling natural landscapes on canvas. In 1909, these artists founded the California Art Club, which stands today as one of the most esteemed painting societies in the United States. This volume, which follows Skira Rizzoli s luminous California Light: A Century of Landscapes, presents more of the club s distinctive and lush plein air painting, an impressionistic style in which painters work outdoors in order to capture the ephemeral moment when the natural lighting of a landscape elevates an already beautiful scene into something sublime. As observed by W.H. Auden, Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. We as a species are drawn to the sea artists perhaps even more so than others, as beautifully evidenced in this book.

Inspired by nineteenth-century painters and photographers, Congress passed legislation preserving America’s spectacular natural resources for the enjoyment of all. Today, artists continue to play a significant role in interpreting these iconic panoramas, intimate corners, and diverse wildlife within our national parks. In Art of the National Parks, seventy painters and sculptors offer distinctive visions of eight of the nation’s most beloved wild lands: Acadia, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion. Susan Hallsten McGarry, well-known author and curator, guides readers on a lively journey through the artists’ styles, techniques, and philosophies. Art historian/author Jean Stern, director of the Irvine Museum, discusses the historic artists who put into motion our nation’s conservation consciousness. And Terry Lawson Dunn, biologist and educator, highlights the national parks’ ecological successes and challenges. With more than 450 artworks, this glorious, large-format book is a must for anyone who has hiked the trails, watched a sunset, marveled at buffalo herds, or yearned to experience our nation’s mythic and transformative vistas. It is also an indispensible compendium of artists who are at the forefront of twenty-first-century American landscape and wildlife art. Art of the National Parks is available in seven different book jackets depicting the art and beauty from each national park featured in the book. Featured parks include: Acadia, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone/Tetons, Zion, Everglades, Yosemite, and Rocky Mountain. Special cover requests will be accommodated as stock allows based on cover availability. To ensure special handling, please order direct.