Alexander Nepote was a native Californian, born and raised in the Central Valley. In the 1930's, he studied art at the California College of Arts and Crafts and then went on to receive his master's degree in fine arts from Mills College. When World War II broke out, Alexander was thirty-nine. He worked in the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond. After the war, he became a professor and Dean of the Faculty at the California College of Arts and Crafts, and then served as Art Professor at California State University, San Francisco.

Nepote's artistic career went through several phases. Early on in his creative life, he was creating wet-into-wet landscapes of farms and city scenes. In the 40's, he became more abstract, with floating shapes and complex geometric compositions. In the 50's, he created more abstract landscapes, and in the 60's, he exhibited a fascination with rock shapes and textures, combining watercolors and experimental collage techniques.

For twenty-five years, he participated in most watercolor exhibitions in the Bay Area between 1935 and 1960. He was a founding member of a group known as "The Layerists," and placed his multi media works in their shows.

Source: Gordon T. McClelland and Jay T. Last, California Watercolors 1850 - 1970, 2002.