Watercolor California Kenneth Potter (152 works)

31 January 2013

8 469

Category: Art and hand-drawn graphics, 0+

Collection of works by American artist Kenneth Potter.

Kenneth Potter was born in 1926, in Bakersfield, California. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Académie Frochot (Paris), Istituto Statale Dei Belle Arte (Florence). As a teenager, he attended the 1939 San Francisco International Art Fair, where he saw many works by the world's greatest artists. He was delighted with modern works, especially those of the French modernists. When America entered World War II, Kenneth Potter joined the US Marines. In rare moments of free time, he sketched portraits of his comrades - marines and sailors. Many of these sketches were sent home to loved ones. After the war, he visited New York and Chicago before returning to San Francisco. Kenneth Potter was a master of watercolor, but he didn't stop there. He traveled to Italy and France and studied painting with the famous Jean Metzinger (Cubism). He attended classes with Fernand Léger and Albert Gleizes. In Italy, Kenneth Potter received lessons in fresco painting and graphics. He lived for a time in New York and Brazil, eventually returning to San Francisco. He settled into an apartment in an area that was a West Coast hub for artists, poets, jazz musicians and philosophers. He painted watercolors daily, visiting the waterfront and the Embarcadero, where he painted images of ships, cranes and industrial sites. When it was decided to demolish the old area, he made a series of paintings that are world-class masterpieces of art and serve as valuable historical documents. Kenneth Potter worked primarily in transparent watercolor and is known for his ability to manipulate large areas of flowing paint into bold design compositions. His art often shows the influence of Cubism, as was natural for innovative artists of the time, but his personal style dominates his work.