Ray Skelton

Lou's Landing - Original Watercolor On Paper

Pt. Pinos California, Coastal Figural Landscape Watercolor Striking depiction of a lighthouse by Donald J. Phillips (American, 20th Century). Signed and dated "DONALD J. PHILLIPS WW/7-89" in the lower right corner. Tag on verso with artist and exhibition information. Presented in a double mat of white and cream, in a green metal frame with glass. Image size: 21"H x 15"W Donald J. Phillips (American, 20th Century) is an artist from San Leandro, CA. He attended California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, where he met his wife. Phillips served in Marine Corps Reserve and was called to duty from 1950-1951 during the Korean War. Exhibitions and Memberships: 21st Annual Santa Cruz Art Exhibit, 1950 New England Watercolor...

Boat at the Dock, Alviso Bay Area Tonalist Landscape Watercolor by Iku Nagai Lovely Tonalist watercolor landscape of Alviso, California by Iku K. Nagai (Japanese/American, b. 1932)....

Vibrant large-scale landscape watercolor of a California vineyard by S.W.A. artist Carolyn Hofstetter (American, b.1927). This beautiful scene of ...

Beautiful mid century landscape of a historic California mission, highlighting its iconic architectural details such as a columned arches, white was...

Oscar Bluemner Sheepshead, Long Island, 1907 Signed with the artist's conjoined initials "OB" and dated "4-30 - 5 - 30" / "Aug 3, 07" Watercolor on paper 6 x 10 inches Provenance: J...

Lionel S. Reiss (1894 - 1988) New York City Skyline View from the East River Watercolor on paper 13 x 19 inches Signed lower left In describing his own style, Lionel Reiss wrote, “By nature, inclination, and training, I have long since recognized the fact that...I belong to the category of those who can only gladly affirm the reality of the world I live in.” Reiss’s subject matter was wide-ranging, including gritty New York scenes, landscapes of bucolic Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and seascapes around Gloucester, Massachusetts. However, it was as a painter of Jewish life—both in Israel and in Europe before World War II—that Reiss excelled. I.B. Singer, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, noted that Reiss was “essentially an artist of the nineteenth century, and because of this he had the power and the courage to tell visually the story of a people.” Although Reiss was born in Jaroslaw, Poland, his family immigrated to the United States in 1898 when he was four years old. Reiss's family settled on New York City’s Lower East Side and he lived in the city for most of his life. Reiss attended the Art Students League and then worked as a commercial artist for newspapers and publishers. As art director for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he supposedly created the studio’s famous lion logo. After World War I, Reiss became fascinated with Jewish life in the ‘Old World.’ In 1921 he left his advertising work and spent the next ten years traveling in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Like noted Jewish photographers Alter Kacyzne and Roman Vishniac, Reiss depicted Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. He later wrote, “My trip encompassed three main objectives: to make ethnic studies of Jewish types wherever I traveled; to paint and draw Jewish life, as I saw it and felt it, in all aspects; and to round out my work in Israel.” In Europe, Reiss recorded quotidian scenes in a variety of media and different settings such as Paris, Amsterdam, the Venice ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Prague, and an array of shops, synagogues, streets, and marketplaces in the Jewish quarters of Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, Vilna, Ternopil, and Kovno. He paid great attention to details of dress, hair, and facial features, and his work became noted for its descriptive quality. A selection of Reiss’s portraits appeared in 1938 in his book My Models Were Jews. In this book, published on the eve of the Holocaust, Reiss argued that there was “no such thing as a ‘Jewish race’.” Instead, he claimed that the Jewish people were a cultural group with a great deal of diversity within and between Jewish communities around the world. Franz Boas...

This 1938 watercolor painting by American Modernist artist Turner B. Messick depicts a serene winter landscape, likely set in Colorado. The scene features a bare tree in the foregrou...

Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964) Cliffs at Paramé, France, c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14 x 17.5 inches Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17...