Edward Crandall Norton was born in Massachusetts in 1920. As a child, his father died and his mother took him to live with her parents in Pasadena, where he grew up. Norton painted confident and elegant watercolors in the California Scene style, often showing street scenes and rustic farm buildings. He was adept at using a bold and sweeping wet-on-wet approach to his work.

For most of his career, he lived in South Laguna and taught at the Laguna Beach School of Art (now the Laguna College of Art and Design.) He died in his home in South Laguna in 2004.

-Jean Stern, Curator