Featured Coastal Watercolor

So oddly enough I work in Monterey and surrounding area(PG, Carmel, Pebble Beach, etc) pretty regularly.

 

Credit goes to @scoutshouse for initial recognition of what and generally where it is. It was a little slow at work this afternoon and I got lucky on an image search, “Japanese house coastal California”, or something to that effect.

 

Lover's Point! Who knew? I'm still trying to figure out where the land mass is in the background of her painting. Very cool, @Shwikman



Nice history of the Tea House starting around page 127:
D. Pacific Grove Comes of Age (1903 - 1926) - City of Pacific Grove

Damn, @Jivvy ! DO TELL! Did she travel? How old is he and what relation?

 

PG is well known for its fog. Much of the Monterey Bay coastline is consistently foggy, especially in summertime. It’s less common to be able to see across the Bay than to not.
The land in the background is the Aptos hills making their way North into Soquel and the Santa Cruz mountains.

 

I think the view is from somewhere below the word "Small" facing NW out to the ocean. Maybe she caught the tip of the peninsula behind? Anyhoo, I'm sure she didn't just throw that in there if it wasn't there.

 

Maybe it's just fog?

 

The “mass” to the left of the house is probably a bank of fog burning-off in the AM or rolling-in in the PM.

 

San Franciscans know that two days of sun = at least one day of lovely fog...

https://giphy.com/gifs/san-francisco-fog-poXxcq3oqtLMI

More research on Morrow is needed. She seems a bonafide California Impressionist, if not a California plein-air painter, either of which would be very collectible.

 

My gifs never work out

 

lol, I didn't ask his age. He is a cousin (she never had children, so no direct descendants).

He has numerous letters between Mary's mother, sisters-in-law, and brother. They include several references to Mary and include descriptions of the family's trip from St Louis to Philadelphia to New York, then to Panama, and then up the coast of Mexico and California to San Francisco.

That's the only travel mentioned. Her obit did include a reference to Panama, but nothing else (and with my cursory search, I found no additional travel info).

 

Funny coincidence, in doing more rummaging I found this postcard dated 1909 sent between two relatives. I knew she was living there around this time, but I still love a good coincidence. The postcard image looks like it’s taken from down on the beach maybe.

 

Very cool, @Shwikman

Since you're so close to Pacific Grove, maybe you'll visit it sometime... I'd really like to see how Morrow got such a high perspective on that watercolor.. Looks like the work of a drone!

Maybe that beach is at the bottom of a steep cliff?

 

Yea, there’s a cliff, probably 25 or 30 feet IIRC.

 

https://giphy.com/gifs/san-francisco-fog-poXxcq3oqtLMI

Never mind

Still trying to figure out how to share a gif

 

Discovered a second painting by M.S Morrow today. Probably another scene from the area, looks a lot like Asilomar to me. This one is not dated, the back tells me she didn’t happen to spend a lot on supplies, at least for this picture.

 

You bought one, or found it online??

 

found in the house of a relative we will be clearing out.... same place I found the first painting.

 

Oh, I thought you found the first in a thrift, then magically turned up another one

 

That would be a neat trick!!
Perhaps a bit more explanation is warranted on my part...
...the house clearing is slow going due to the limited time I have to spend, the volume of stuff(mostly junk, a lot of actual trash!) and the lengthy drive to get there. Today I found hoard of pictures leaning up against a wall in the back room of a bedroom behind boxes on top of an old sewing machine. A lot of the pictures are quite bad and done by a relative who was really keen on painting, but there have been a few interesting ones as well.