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Rex Brandt, a native San Diegan—icon of California artists
An artist who captured the beauty of the San Diego landscape was Rex Brandt, a major figure of California art in the mid-20th century. San Diego claims Brandt as a native son, as might Laguna Beach or Corona Del Mar. In truth, Brandt was a native son of Southern California.
His paintings celebrate the open fields, blue water, and the beaches of Southern California. San Diego is lucky because Brandt painted many San Diego scenes, some included in the book, Rex Brandt’s San Diego--Land of the Sundown Sea, published in 1969. It contains a wonderful port-folio of drawings and watercolors of landscapes of San Diego County.
Some pieces harken back to an earlier time, e.g. a work entitled New Bay Bridge, which was sketched as the “New” Coronado Bridge as it was being completed in 1969. However, many of the scenes are instantly recognizable and timeless as his paintings captured the beauty and diversity of San Diego’s landscapes, e.g., Wind and Sea Beach in La Jolla, Glorietta Bay and the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, and Paseo Delicias in Rancho Santa Fe.
Left: Star of India at the Embarcadero
Right: Rancho Santa Fe
Who’s Who of California art
Rex Brandt was born in San Diego in 1914 and lived until 2000. He showed interest in art from a young age and began taking classes while still in junior high school. He first attended Chouinard Art Institute at age 13. After attending high school and junior college in Riverside, he went on to complete an M.A. in Fine Arts from U.C. Berkeley and later did post graduate work at Stanford University and the University of Redlands.
His work was recognized early even before he graduated from Berkeley. In 1935 at the age of 21, Brandt became the youngest painter in America to be included in the Mallet’s International Index of Artists and Who’s Who. He became a part of a regional group of Southern Californian watercolor painters who were focused on the unique light, color, and landscapes of Southern California.
In 1937, this group put together a travelling exhibition called The California Group, which featured the works of these western watercolor painters. With this exhibit the California artists became recognized nationally, from California to New York. In 1938, Fortune magazine published a portfolio of his paintings.
Popularity of En Plein Air technique grows
Even as the number of accolades grew, Brandt realized that teaching was one of his passions. He co-founded the Brandt-Dike Summer School of Painting in 1947 with another influential painter, Phil Dike. The school would teach students the En Plein Air method of painting outdoors, which, given the pleasant California climate and varied California geography, was particularly suited to California painters.
The En Plein Air technique also encouraged artists to work quickly which resulted in the artists using large brushes for bold statements rather than intricate, fine detail. As the number of students grew, basic workbooks and reference material were needed which launched Brandt’s publishing career. His books were used not only in California but across the country which introduced many painters to Brandt. Brandt remained active as a teacher and led workshops through 1985.
Wind and Sea
La Jolla has been a popular surfing spot for many years.
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Southern California influenced Brandt’s art immensely. His subjects were from life in Southern California with its beaches, surfers, landscapes, but, above all, the feeling of the sun. The time he spent in Berkeley made him homesick for the sun and inviting waters of Southern California. His art always strived to capture light—at the beach, on the ocean, on sail boats, and in the harbor. Author Janice Lovoos in her book, Two from California: Joan Irving and Rex Brandt, quoted Brandt as saying “You can’t paint the sun, you can only symbolize it.”
“I see landscape as a focus for our feelings,” Brandt wrote in a pamphlet about painting. “I need to paint for the same reason I must walk, swim, dig in the earth and make things grow. A crackling wood fire is more satisfying than the best microwave oven.”
“I paint the happenings of land and sky to overcome a certain dizziness caused by such unfertile objects as TVs, helicopters and noisy autos. The push/pull of earth/sky reassures me—I am here.”
Although Brandt is no longer with us, his paintings allow us to enjoy his joyous interpretations of the San Diego landscape we love. As Brandt said in the introduction of his book, “these drawings and paintings celebrate one of America’s most versatile areas—a place where sea, mountains, and desert meet under a shining sun.”
Flower Fields, South Carlsbad
A colorful sight every spring as the ranunculas bloom.
Finding Rex Brandt’s work
- Rex Brandt’s paintings are often sold in art auctions, including Bonhams & Butterfields in Los Angeles and John Moran’s Auctioneers in Altadena. Recently one of his paintings, Gale, Newport Jetty, sold for $6,235.
- Frequently his work is included in special museum exhibits. In early 2010, Oceanside Museum of Art exhibited a number of Brandt’s paintings.
- However, one of the best ways to get an introduction to his art is in the book reviewed in this article, Rex Brandt’s San Diego, Land of the Sundown Sea, published by Best-West Publications in 1969, which is readily available on the Internet. California Watercolors 1850-1970, An Illustrated History & Biographical Dictionary by Gordon T. McClelland and Jay T. Last, 2003 is also available.
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