Coastline (Crescent City, CA)
Artist
Ritchie A. Benson
(1941 - 1996)
Date1970s
MediumWatercolor on board
Dimensions25 x 35 in. (63.5 x 88.9 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of The Hilbert Collection
Object number2023.044
DescriptionIn the 1960s and 1970s Ritchie Benson was producing exceptional watercolors that were being exhibited and sold in Laguna Beach, California. He most often found subject matter of his liking along the shoreline in Northern California, Oregon and Washington. He was an expert watercolorist and had an intuitive sense of design that always gave his works visual authority.This watercolor is an oversize work based in a scene in Crescent City ; the last coastline city in Northern California. Just a few miles north of this scene is the Oregon border. It is a monochromatic painting with very dramatic dark and light values. This artist was an expert painter and had a gift of being able to successfully combine carefully rendered realistic images with very loose and abstract painted passages and make it all read as a cohesive statement.
Gordon McClelland, Curator
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