Wolf had lived in Frenchmans Creek in Half Moon Bay from 1932 until his death. His paintings captured the coastal scenery, among other topics.
Both the transparent watercolors for which he is known and more experimental artistic meanderings into mosaic style and unusual palettes, captured both Nottestad and her father, Allen Bunes.
 Librarian Shannon Nottestad has organized an exhibit of the art of Galen Wolf this month in the Half Moon Bay Library. |
That obsession has materialized into an exhibit of Wolf's work at the Half Moon Bay Library during the month of April.
Born in San Francisco and a regular visitor to the Coastside in his childhood with his family, Wolf developed his trademark mosaic style in the 1940s. Several of the works are autobiographical in nature, depicting scenes from his life in San Francisco, the San Joaquin Delta, and the Coastside - in broad fields of intense color but outlined in black. Wolf is also known for his work with gouache, an opaque watercolor medium.
As Wolf's daughter, Ressa Fairbanks, said in 2003, "He roamed the Coastside painting on anything he could get his hands on - canvas, paper, cardboard, plywood."
The original inspiration for his technique dated from a grand tour of Europe that Wolf took in 1905 with his brother Harold, three aunts and a grandmother. The frescoes and mosaics he saw in Greece, Italy and Constantinople left a vivid impression on Wolf's mind, and spawned his mosaic style.
The largest piece in the show is 27-by-18 inches, composed of multiple vignettes including a rearing black horse with silver wings, a red-haired woman bathing in a mountain pool, a cable car toiling up a San Francisco hill with the Golden Gate in the distance. The mixture, all in saturated colors, offers a surrealistic effect.
Wolf executed this large piece on cardboard, with an extra strip slipped into one edge since Wolf often had to strike a balance between economic realities and his prolific output.
The painting offer other insights into Wolf. Some of the vignettes, like the female bather, reappear as single-subject paintings. All of the works are untitled and most are unsigned, since it was not unusual for Wolf to toil for hours over a painting and neglect to sign it unless he selected it for a show.
The exhibit includes other paintings in brilliant colors like a purple and green seascape or a tidepool scene and bold studies of seabirds. The paintings come from the collections of Bunes and Nottestad.
Nottestad admits to a fascination with Wolf's link to the Coastside.
"In addition to being an artist, he knew a lot of local history," she said, noting that Wolf was a charter member of the Spanishtown Historical Society.
She also plans on publishing a selection of tales and local lore as collected by Wolf, illustrated with some of his work, in 2008.
The library is located at 620 Correas St. in Half Moon Bay and can be reached at 726-2316.
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AT A GLANCE
What: Exhibit of Galen Wolf paintings
Where: Half Moon Bay Library, 620 Correas St., Half Moon Bay
When: Through April
Cost: Free
Information: 726-2316
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