Vintage Modernist Watercolor Painting of Fishing Boats in the Boat Yard by Sanford Brooks

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An original vintage modernist watercolor of fishing boats in a boat yard by Sanford Brooks signed lower right and noted … Read more An original vintage modernist watercolor of fishing boats in a boat yard by Sanford Brooks signed lower right and noted AWS for American Watercolor Society. On heavy arches watercolor paper measuring 22 x 30".

Artist Biography
Sanford Mitchell "Samp" Brooks was born in 3 August 1915 in Wyoming, Hamilton County, Ohio, a son of Leroy Jr. and Florence M. Brooks. Leroy Brooks Jr. worked as an executive at a steel plant and was a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy. Sanford attended Yale University where he graduated with a degree in architecture in 1939. After graduation, he worked for Tool Steel Gear and Pinion Company of Cincinnati where he became Executive Vice President in 1941 and President in 1961.

He was a very prominent citizen of Cincinnati and a leading member of numerous professional, civic, and cultural organizations, including the Cincinnati Art Museum. His biography appears in History of Southwestern Ohio, the Miami Valleys by William Ernest Smith.

He married Florence "Ginny" Hunsberger on 12 June 1936. She shared his interest in watercolors, and the two often went on painting trips together. She was a member of the American Watercolor Society.

Brooks took up watercolor painting as a hobby in the 1950s. He studied with J. Philip Olmes in Cincinnati, Laurence Sisson at Boothbay Harbor, and Edgar Whitney in Maine. He exhibited widely and sold his work, which was widely held in private and corporate collections during his lifetime.

Brooks eventually taught art classes at local high schools, Wilmington College, the Cincinnati Art Academy, and the Men's Art Club. He and his wife are featured in a book by Edgar Whitney, Learn Watercolor the Edgar Whitney Way. Brooks was also asked by Whitney to demonstrate techniques to his art classes.

Sanford Brooks is not listed in any of the common art reference books, though there are records of auctions for his watercolors.

He is mentioned in American Artist (1962). He received the "Great Living Cincinnatians" award in 1991. Brooks was a member of the Cincinnati Art Club, the American Watercolor Society, and the Ohio Watercolor Society. His paintings often bear his "AWS" designation.

Sanford M. Brooks died on 14 August 1994 in Cincinnati, Ohio. See less