Landscape painter. Born in Prague, Oklahoma on May 17, 1917. Bray studied art at Miami College and, after moving to the Coachella Valley in southern California in 1936, continued in Works Progress Administration art classes. He also studied with Maynard Dixon and Russell Swan. Over the years he was a popular lecturer-demonstrator for college classes, television shows, and art groups. For 50 years he had an art gallery on Highway 111 in Indian Wells, CA. He died there on July 23, 2011. His work includes about 13,000 depictions of the desert and its smoke trees, and won over 100 awards.

Member: La Jolla Art Association; Desert Art Center, Palm Springs (pres. 1966-67)

Source:

Ask Art.com

Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"

Interview with the artist or his/her family; Western Woman, vol. 4, no. 3.

A native of Oklahoma who worked as a brakeman for the Southern Pacific Railroad, Carl Bray opened an art gallery that came to be known as the Smoke Tree School in Indian Wells.

In the early 1950s, the painter built a home in the area that borders what is now Highway 111 and spent most of his career depicting the local scenery. Supportive of other area painters, Bray opened an art gallery that became a gathering spot for a group of artists who came to be known as the Smoke Tree School.

In 2014, three years after Bray’s death, Indian Wells city officials decided to pay tribute to the late artist and erected a monument at the location where his home and gallery once stood. (The property had fallen into foreclosure, and the structures were demolished in 2011.)

Drive east from Palm Springs on Highway 111, and you’ll encounter the Carl G. Bray Smoke Tree Painter memorial: six evocative panels embedded within a stone monument flanked by palms in a park-like setting. One of the panels is devoted exclusively to Bray, while the other five depict details of the city’s history.

https://www.palmspringslife.com/carl-bray-artist/