California Impressionist Paintings

We visited The Irvine Museum in Irvine, California, where we met up with some of my mom's cousins from Huntington Beach. We have not gathered for a number of years, so it was great fun to reunite and catch up, while enjoying beautiful California Impressionist art. The day we visited, we had permission to take photographs, enabling us to share and study the paintings in a unique way.


Emil Kosa, Jr. (1903 - 1968)

William Jackson (1888 - 1942)

The Irvine Museum is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year with the exhibit, "Lasting Impressions." The mission of the museum is to preserve and display California Impressionist paintings, also called California pleine-air paintings.
 

Paul Grimm (1891 - 1974)

 

Paul Grimm

These paintings were created between the early 1900s to early 1930s. The movement was influenced by the European Impressionist movement, but focused on Northern or Southern California scenes, with a regional flair. 



 Guy Rose (1867 - 1925)

What I love about the paintings is that they capture rural California from 100 years ago. They also capture the quality of light that makes both Northern and Southern California so unique; similar, I've heard, to the light in Southern France, where Impressionism thrived.