Jost Fine Art in Kingsburg, California, is currently hosting a deep-dive exhibition into the work of 19th- and 20th-century plein air painter Mary DeNeale Morgan. Titled Mary DeNeale Morgan’s Central Coast, this is the inaugural exhibition of the gallery’s new Central California location and has been organized to coincide with the Monterey Museum of Art’s retrospective of the artist’s work, Mary DeNeale: Doyenne of the Carmel Art Colony.
Nearly two dozen works will be on view, highlighting the artist’s distinct approach to depicting the golden hills of Carmel Valley and the rugged, tree-lined cliffs of the Monterey Bay.
Mary DeNeale Morgan (1868-1948), Twin Monterey Cypresses. Oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in.
“Mary DeNeale Morgan arrived in Carmel-by-the-Sea as an academically-trained and accomplished artist with an extensive exhibition history, having studied with William Keith and Arthur Mathews while living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was born,” gallery manager Maymanah Farhat explains.
After purchasing a home in Carmel in 1910, Morgan became active with a notable circle of Monterey Peninsula artists; became director of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club’s summer art school for young artists in 1917; and co-founded the Carmel Art Association in 1927. Her connection to California runs deep, and is ever-present in her artwork, particularly evident in the warm, sunny tones of paintings like Twin Monterey Cypresses, Landscape at the Base of the Mountains and Last Painting (Point Lobos).
Mary DeNeale Morgan (1868-1948), Two Rocks by the Sea. Oil on canvas, 13¾ x 13¾ in.
Mary DeNeale Morgan (1868-1948), Last Painting (Point Lobos), 1948. Oil on canvas, 15½ x 19½ in.
The latter painting bears an inscription that reads “last painting” on the back of the canvas, and is a prime example of the style Morgan adopted later on in life.
“Morgan’s approach to plein air painting, particularly during the latter part of her career, when she relied heavily on the use of palette knife and impasto brushwork, shifted California landscape painting from an extension of American impressionism to international modernism,” Farhat continues. “Her recurring subject matter, the Monterey Bay coastline and its vegetation, especially its cypress trees, went hand-in-hand with years of local environmental conservation work that sought to preserve the town’s natural setting despite its growing popularity as a tourist destination. Her late style of painting is expressionistic, in some instances bordering on abstraction. In several examples from this period, her trees, cliffs and shoreline boulders appear teeming with energy and life with loose and emphatic brushwork.”
Mary DeNeale Morgan (1868-1948), South Coast Cliff. Oil on canvas, 10 x 10 in.
Mary DeNeale Morgan’s Central Coast will hang at Jost Fine Art’s new brick-and-mortar location in downtown Kingsburg through September 23. —
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