Artists on the West Coast, like their counterparts in the East, were introduced to Impressionism through their educational experiences. Many American artists studied in France where they absorbed first hand the use of high-key color and broken brushwork employed by the leaders of French Impressionism. With these lessons in hand, the artists set out to forge a distinctly American style of art that responded to the light, color, and subjects of the specific places where they chose to work. The paintings in the exhibition are arranged to represent the different themes depicted by the California artists - the rugged coastline, the undeveloped landscape, the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, and the town of Laguna Beach. Included in each section is artwork by a member of the Lyme Art Colony to compare the subjects and styles of these two distinct centers of American Impressionism.
Historical photographs provide perspective as to how the artists in each colony lived and worked.
In Under a Blue Sky George Gardner Symons interprets the kinetic forces of the ocean with boldly applied strokes of pigment. Guy Rose, in contrasts, suggests more subtle distinctions in atmosphere and color in his Laguna Shores . The coastline of Connecticut River did not provide the Old Lyme artists with such dramatic subjects. Instead, they turned their attention to intimate views of winding tidal rivers and salt-water marshes as seen in Childe Hassam 's Late Afternoon Sunset . Accompanying the exhibition will be a full color catalogue with essays by William H. Gerdts, Professor Emeritus of Art History Graduate School of the City University of New York and Curator Jack Becker.