March 10, 2018 through June 10, 2018

From luminous watercolors to stunning prints, the work of Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen captures the essence of everyday objects and animals in a realistic manner. Van Hoesen and Adams met at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco in 1952. She was from Boise, Idaho; he was born and raised locally in Fort Plain, New York. Adams relates in a 1984 interview that he “came to California to see what it was like, met Beth and got married.”

Both studied painting, Van Hoesen at Stanford University and Adams at Syracuse University, and both later embraced diverse media. Van Hoesen distinguished herself as a major figure in 20th century printmaking. Adams created monumental tapestry and stained glass before turning to watercolor as his primary medium. During their early careers, Abstract Expressionism dominated American painting yet Van Hoesen and Adams focused on capturing the art found in everyday life with extraordinary images of objects, animals, and people they knew.