Jade Fon Woo
1911 - 1983
His first job was in his uncle's restaurant but by the early 1930s, he was living in Los Angeles, attending Otis Art Institute and the Art Students League of Los Angeles. He joined the California Water Color Society and began exhibiting in their shows. As an art student, he worked briefly as a scenic artist at Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
In 1937, Fon married Werdna Dorothy Danielson (1902-1981) in Tijuana, Mexico. By the early 1940s, he and his wife were living in San Francisco. There, he was employed for a few years as a singer and emcee at the well-known Forbidden City nightclub at 363 Sutter Street, between Chinatown and Union Square. At times, he would paint watercolors of patrons and performers.
In the 1950s, Fon began teaching art at East Contra Costa Junior College (now Diablo Valley College), located in Pleasant Hill, not far from Oakland, California. He would teach there for nearly thirty years. He also taught occasional classes in art in the Alameda, Livermore, Walnut Creek and Coloma Adult School programs. While teaching, he took freelance jobs as a commercial illustrator.
In 1963, he founded the annual Asilomar Watercolor Workshops in Pacific Grove with his friend and fellow painter Harold Gretzner (1902-1977). For twenty years, and even after Fon's death, these workshops allowed students to study on location with the finest watercolor painters in the country.
Just before his death, Jade Fon was nominated and sponsored for Associate Membership in the prestigious National Academy of Design. Sadly, he died in Bakersfield, California on November 14, 1983.
Person TypeIndividual
