"Showers Today" San Francisco's Chinatown on an Overcast Day Original Watercolor by Harold Gretzner

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"Showers Today" San Francisco's Chinatown on an Overcast Day Original Watercolor
A two sided watercolor on Arches paper by San … Read more "Showers Today" San Francisco's Chinatown on an Overcast Day Original Watercolor
A two sided watercolor on Arches paper by San Francisco and Maryland artist Harolod Gretzner (American, 1902-1977). On the front scene people are seen walking on the streets in San Francisco's picturesque Chinatown. Slightly overcast pending an incoming storm. On the verso the view from the back yard shows homes and trees and person hanging clothes on a clothes line.
Image22.5"H x 30.5"W
Frame, 30"H x 37.63"W x 1.5"D
Signed on both sides "Harold Gretzner AWS" (American Watercolor Society signature member)
Verso side of the Houses has some age mat acid stain from over-mat mat area (not seen with current mat dimensions.
Front side is untouched by the old mat and very good condition. Paper conservation can reduce the yellowing on the verso side.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Harold Gretzner began his art studies in Washington D.C. in the 1920s. He then moved to the Bay Area of California and completed his art education in Oakland at the College of Arts and Crafts. Most of the scenes of his regionalist watercolors were completed on location in northern California. He used large sheets and the wet on wet technique for his transparent watercolors. After he retired from commercial art in the 1960s, he painted in the Far East and Europe. He also gave watercolor lessons in the Bay Area.
Member: American Watercolor Society, California Water Color Society, West Coast Watercolor Society, Society of Western Artists.

Harold Gretzner grew up in the eastern United States and attended art school in Washington, D.C. before moving to California in the 1920s. After settling in the Bay Area, he studied fine art in Oakland and lithography in San Francisco.

For over thirty years, he followed a routine. In the predawn morning, providing the weather cooperated, he would wake up and drive toward his workplace in San Francisco. Somewhere along the way, he would stop and paint a watercolor, usually depicting a cityscape or harbor view. He was exclusively a watercolorist and worked only with transparent paints. His style featured a controlled wet-into-wet approach, inspired by his close friend and painting partner, Maurice Logan.

Gretzner was a prolific painter and exhibited from the 1930s to the 1970s. He was a member of the Thirteen Watercolorists, and became a founding member of the West Coast Watercolor Society On the East Coast, he exhibited in the annual American Watercolor Society shows. Unfortunately a large number of Gretzner's watercolors were destroyed in a fire that swept through Oakland, California.

For most of his life, Gretzner worked as a commercial lithographer in San Francisco. After retiring from this job in the 1960s, he continued painting and taught small groups of advanced students in the Oakland area.

Biographical information:

Interview with Teckla Gretzner, 1983. See less