Heather James Fine Art presents the exhibition Masters of California Impressionism, on view now through May 30, 2015. The exhibition celebrates the bright, optimistic paintings that changed the course of the prevailing art style of the early 20th century.

While American Impressionist painters on the East Coast depicted cold gray scenes from inside their homes and studios, the California Impressionists — who favored the state’s healthier climate and diverse natural scenery — painted en plein air, or outdoors, capturing the light and color of regions including Laguna Beach, Carmel/Monterey, and the desert communities near Palm Springs. A distinct subset of American Impressionism, California Impressionism is intimately tied to the region in which it flourished, depicting the state’s exceptional beauty with a focus on coastlines, canyons, deserts, forests, and mountains.

The first American Impressionism artists were influenced by artists in Italy and France, traveling to those regions to become students of plein air painting. Upon returning, they advanced American landscape painting in new ways. Exquisite examples of California Impressionism by renowned artists E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969), Guy Rose (1867-1925), William Wendt (1865-1946), Karl Albert Buehr (1866-1952), Joseph Kleitsch (1882-1931), Edgar Payne (1883 – 1957), Maurice Braun (1877 – 1941) and others are included in this exhibition.

Masters of California Impressionism is accompanied by an illustrated catalog featuring an essay about California Impressionism, with an emphasis on the Laguna Beach art colony, as well as biographies of the artists.

Heather James Fine Art is located at 45188 Portola Avenue in Palm Desert and features a wide array of art ranging from Impressionist and Modern art to Post-War and Contemporary, American, Latin American, Old Master, Photography and Design. For more information about the gallery and upcoming exhibitions, visit www.heatherjames.com or contact the gallery at 760-346-8926.