La Jolla's Beauty Draws in Artists

Balboa Park: California Tower from Alcazar Garden, Alson Clark

California draws all kinds of people to its shores. The inland landscapes offer a wealth of interesting views and sights, while the coast is always marveled for its amazing vistas. These panoramas entice landscape artists to come and practice their art. One of the more nomadic artistic individuals, Alson Skinner Clark, spent most of his summers in the 1920s traveling the California coastline between Laguna Beach, San Diego, and La Jolla.

Clark was born in Chicago. He began his art career taking classes at the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of 11. After his public education, Clark attended many prestigious art schools in the United States as well as in Europe: the newly formed school of William Merritt Chase in New York, Académie Carmen in Paris with the atelier of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Académie Delecluse with Alphonse Mucha, and studied painting during his travels to France, Holland, and Belgium. He moved to Pasadena after serving as an aerial photographer in World War I.

Clark’s French impressionistic style and exceptional rendering skills made him wildly popular. His paintings of the San Diego mission and of Balboa Park evoke a calm emotion from the viewer. These works brought much attention to the beauty of San Diego and La Jolla. Clark also painted extravagant murals in Los Angeles and Pasadena. In 1921, Clark became a teacher at the Stickney Memorial School of Art.

The inspirational effects San Diego and La Jolla have on artists continue to this day. The local art community of La Jolla has grown to embrace a wide range of art including contemporary, urban, and lowbrow genres. To see more local art visit Thumbprint Gallery on Kline Street in La Jolla. The gallery is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12pm to 4pm.

Source: 

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v54-4/pdf/v54-4Stern.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alson_S._Clark

http://alsonclark.com/