Edgar Alwin Payne
(American, 1883-1947)
Foam and Rocks
oil on canvas
signed lower left Edgar Payne, titled on paper label to reverse
16 x 20in (41 x 51cm)
Footnote:
Edgar Alwin Payne was born in the heart of the Ozark Mountains in southwest Missouri in 1883. Payne worked as a traveling carpenter and commercial painter eventually making his way to Chicago where he very briefly attended the Art Institute of Chicago. Preferring to develop his talent through experience rather than structured curriculum, Payne began traveling around the country in search of new subject matter.



In 1909 Payne found himself in Laguna Beach and was struck with renewed inspiration before the coastal landscape. Over the next thirteen years, he spent his time between Chicago and the California coast and in 1918 established a studio in Laguna Beach where he founded the Laguna Beach Art Association and served as its first president. During his time in California, he developed friendships and working relationships with artists including Jack Wilkinson Smith, F. Grayson Sayre and Conrad Buff.



In 1941 Payne wrote Composition of Outdoor Painting, a comprehensive book on composition and composition forms. The book also explains landscape painting techniques, color, repetition, rhythm, and value. This book is still considered by many artists to be foremost manual on landscape composition.

Frame 25.75 x 29.75in With overall surface soiling, scattered fine cracks, four inch crack with tenting to lower left quadrant, evidence of scattered superficial grime under UV light