1931 Watercolor of Fishing Boats

Listed California artist Marie Vaughan Smith (1892-1977) painted this impressionist watercolor in 1931. The title is "Fishing Boats," done when the artist lived in South Pasadena. After studying art at various universities in California, Chicago and Oregon, she attended Chouinard Art Institute in L.A., where she studied under Millard Sheets, one of the earliest artists of the California Regionalist movement, with which Smith became associated.

In the years after Smith settled in southern California around 1925, she taught school in Alhambra. During this time, she submitted this painting to an exhibition at the Arthur Wesley Dow Association at UCLA, founded in 1922 and named in honor of that artist. Fortunately the exhibit tag with all this information was wisely retained on the reverse when the artwork was given a new frame. In addition, the painting is signed M.V.S. at lower left.

The wooden frame is 1 1/2 inches wide, with a rippled filet of antique gold. The wide single cut mat is a rich shade of teal. The image size is 10 1/2 inches by 13 inches, with the framed size 18 by 21 inches. It weighs approximately 4 pounds and is in excellent condition, with a new dust paper and sturdy new wire on the back. It's a superb watercolor painting by a talented artist.

More on Marie Vaughan Smith:

She was a member of Women Painters of the West; Pasadena Society of Artists and The California Water Color Society.

She is listed in the following: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940;" American Art Annual 1928; The California Arts and Architecture List, 1932 and Who's Who in American Art 1953-62.

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