Artist Douglas Shively

SANTA PAULA, CA – A retrospective exhibit of works by beloved Santa Paula artist Douglas Shively will open at the Santa Paula Art Museum, 117 N. 10th Street, Santa Paula, on Saturday, February 4, 2012 with an opening reception from 4 – 6 p.m. For more information please call the Museum at 805-525-5554 or email info@santapaulaartmuseum.org.

A Santa Paula resident for nearly a century, Douglas Shively contributed to the community as a banker and a rancher, but was best known as a California Impressionist with a talent for graceful and vivid landscapes. As an artist, Douglas was largely self-taught. Although he took formal studio courses, he felt he learned most by working with George Otis, Paul Sample, Ralph Holmes, Robert Clunie, Jessie Arms and Cornelis Botke and other significant landscape painters of the 1930s,‘40s and ‘50s.

As a skillful colorist, Shively’s landscapes appear natural and dramatically vivid. While he took many painting trips abroad, the vast majority of his paintings were done locally. His favorite haunts: Morro Bay, Point Lobos, Rincon, and other sites along the California coast, the Ventura County foothills, backcountry and valleys, local landmarks and many scenes of beautiful sycamores. His work was so esteemed that between 1932 and 1985 he sold nearly a thousand paintings, many of which presently exist in local private and public collections.

“Douglas Shively was a very important asset to our Community, as a citizen, an artist and a banker”, said Jennifer Heighton, Executive Director of the Museum. “It has been an honor to work with his family and other collectors on the exhibit”. When notice of the exhibit went out to the public, Heighton received many phone calls and saw many, many beautiful paintings that are held in private collections all over Ventura County. “While it was difficult to narrow down the selection of paintings to be on exhibit, I decided to focus on the more unusual Shively paintings, that have rarely, if ever, been seen”. Heighton said there will be around 65 paintings on exhibit.

The exhibit will run until June 17th, 2012, and may be viewed during regular Museum hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 10 AM – 4 PM, and Sundays, 12 PM – 4 PM. The Museum is located at 117 North 10th Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060.