Serendipitous Saturday

Meet George Post, California Watercolor Painter (1906-1997)

I recently discovered Mr. Post's work at a local gallery and was immediately drawn to it. Imagine my surprise when I discovered his "Red Cabin" sat on the very spot where our little travel trailers are currently parked. George Post visited Sonora throughout his lifetime and lived on our property for a couple of years in the mid 30's. The red cabin he lived in was torn down a few years ago and was part of an 80 acre ranch owned by his aunt. I discovered all of this today from a gentleman who was having a garage sale down the street. I didn't spend a dime at the sale but I walked away with a wealth of information on our former tenant. Now that's serendipity!

This painting is a copy of George Post's Red Cabin

painted by an artist named Marina Ivanova I found here.

There is a picture of the original George Post painting but I was unable to copy it.

This is our property and the site of the red cabin.

I am not positive that it is one and the same cabin,

but it's fun to think so.

George Post has long been recognized as one of California’s premier watercolor artists. His life and work are documented in this illustrated biography, tracing his progress from the late 1920s to the 1980s. Insights pertaining to his unique style of watercolor painting are included, as well as discussions of the events that helped shape his career and a chronological list of his exhibition records and travels.

Post began his art career in San Francisco in the 1930s. Within ten years he was a key figure in the California Style watercolor movement and was exhibiting with the California Water Color Society. By the 1940s he had developed a distinctive geometric abstractionist style for which he received acclaim from artists and critics throughout America. His goals were to capture the essence of design and feeling offered by the subject, rather than to produce a realistic picture of the scene.

Although most of his watercolors look deceptively simple, they are masterfully composed, spontaneously painted and have a creative use of color and light to establish a definite mood. As Post wrote, “the first split-second reaction, that first wonderful visual image, is the thing one must try to project on paper.”

Post was also active as an instructor of watercolor painting. He taught regularly at the California College of Arts and Crafts and as a guest instructor at Stanford University, San Jose State College, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, Brandt School of Watercolor Painting and the T.H. Hewitt Watercolor Workshops. His watercolors are represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of Art, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, M.H. de Young Museum, Seattle Art Museum, California Palace Of The Legion Of Honor, Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Mills College Collection.