Early Morning Mood
ClassificationsPaintings-watercolors
Artist
Millard Sheets
(American, 1907 - 1989)
Date1980
Made AtMendocino, California, United States, North America
Place DepictedMendocino, California, United States, North America
MediumWatercolor on paper
DimensionsApproximately: 21 1/4 × 29 1/4 in. (54 × 74.3 cm)
Framed: 31 5/8 × 39 5/8 × 2 7/8 in. (80.3 × 100.6 × 7.3 cm)
Framed: 31 5/8 × 39 5/8 × 2 7/8 in. (80.3 × 100.6 × 7.3 cm)
Credit LineAnn and Bill Cullen Memorial Collection
Object number2018.6.29
DescriptionMillard Sheets attended the Chouinard Art Institute while studying with F. Tolles Chamberlin and Clarence Hinkle. As a teenager, his watercolors were accepted for exhibition in annual California Water Color Society shows and at nineteen he was an official member of the society. Although he worked with oils and acrylics, Sheets was best known for his watercolor landscapes. He developed an interest in strong, varied color that derived from his studies of Georges Braque, and rich color soon became a hallmark of his work.In his later years, Millard Sheets lived in the small, northern California coastal community of Gualala in Mendocino County. There he painted many landscapes, but his favorite subject was the tall rocky cliffs and small jagged islands that dot the coast there. These “Barking Rocks,” so-named by Sheets’ wife for the large seal population, figure prominently in the artist’s work. A master of watercolor, Sheets leads us from a moody, abstracted foreground to a bright, inviting view in the distance. The combined elements of the painting create an almost Surrealist effect.
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