Painting of the Day, November 14, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 10:09PM Tweet By Donna Poulton
Credit: Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco
Edgar Alwin Payne (1883 -1947), Blue Canyon, c. 1930s, oil on canvas, 28 x 34 in.
Edgar Alwin Payne trained briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago before eventually settling in California. During the 1930s he was commissioned to create mural work and befriended Conrad Buff and Buck Weaver, both of whom helped him with the large scale work. Famous for his landscapes and mountain scenes set in the High Sierras of California, Payne was also attracted to the desert southwest and worked around Canyon de Chelly and the Grand Canyon for the Santa Fe Railroad. Payne wrote the primer Composition of Outdoor Painting in 1941. Now in its seventh edition, it is still considered today to be one of the most important and cherished books found on an artist's shelf.