Charles F. Keck 1913 - 2003

	Hillside Farmstead Watercolor 15 1/2 x 22 3/4 $3,500

Charles F. Keck's work is a fine example of the California style of watercolors of the 1940's.

He attended the Chouinard Art Institute in LA during the 1930's, studying with Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, and Lawrence Murphy. Keck first put is artistic talents to work at Columbia Pictures painting backgrounds, an experience which helped him develop his skills. In 1942, he exhibited his work at the Laguna Beach Art Association. Because the U.S. Army had him stationed in Alaska at the time, he was unable to attend his own exhibition, and had to ship his paintings to California.

After the war, Keck and his wife settled in Los Angeles, and he spent the next 36 years teaching and painting. His favored subjects were landscapes punctuated with people from every day life; industrial scenes, scenes of farm life, and scenes of people toiling at their daily labors. His work shows strong compostion with well defined and sometimes somber tones. He used French hand made paper, and mixed his paints with fresco pigment with a binder. In the 1950's, Keck experimented with abstract expressionism, but continued his traditional style he learned so long agon at the Chouinard Art Intstitute, to first study his subject and then paint it with feeling.

Source: Biography by Sandy Hunter, http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa333.htm

Sandy Hunter is owner of California Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA and specializes in works by Charles F. Keck. http://www.californiaartgallery.com