Archive of the Mendocino Heritage Artists
Charles Marchant Stevenson: Mendocino
How I See It: Mendocino Bay
From the Mendocino headlands, Charles Marchant Stevenson looks south across the bay toward Chapman’s Point. Within rainbow energies, mischievous elementals coalesce and dissolve. Stevenson shares the magic, giving the viewer a glimpse through his trifocal spectacles, the triple lenses through which he observes and records his world.
The Hee Ancestor Landing on the Mendocino Headlands
The Hee Ancestor Landing on the Mendocino Headlands was created as cover art for The Chinese of the Mendocino Coast by Dorothy Bear and David Houghton, published by Mendocino Historical Research, Inc., PO Box 922, Mendocino, CA 95460. The book is out of print.
To learn about the original Chinese residents of Mendocino, and their descendents, read Chinese in Mendocino County by Lorraine Hee-Chorley, available at Gallery Bookshop on the corner of Main Street & Kasten Streets in Mendocino (707-937-2665).
Mendocino Headlands
Mendocino Poppies
The Sun Also Rises
Title from the Book of Ecclestiastes 1:5 (KJV): “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.”
And the Sun Goeth Down
Title from the Book of Ecclestiastes 1:5 (KJV): “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.”
Up Big River
Friends share an autumn sunset on Mendocino’s Big River.
In the 1850s, eight miles of the river were altered by the local lumber company to facilitate floating harvests of old-growth redwood logs to their mill just east of Big River Bridge. The mill closed in 1939, and the Big River estuary has become wild again, a peaceful home to river otters and sea lions, belted kingfishers, snowy egrets and great blue herons.
In 2002, the Big River watershed became part of the California State Park system.
Campfire
Up Big River shafts of early spring sunlight penetrate the redwood canopy as a man warms himself at his campfire.
Dawn on Big River
Kelley House Pond
Mendocino’s Kelley House Museum stands just beyond the pond.
Mendocino Fence
Mendocino Fence (detail)
Back Door
Minnie at the Gate (Beware of Dog)
I Light My Lamp: An Homage to Dorr Bothwell
Dorr Bothwell is visible behind the upper window of the studio Bill Zacha renovated for her, on the corner of Kasten and Albion Streets in Mendocino. World-renowned artist, gifted mentor, and loyal friend, Dorr Bothwell’s lamp still shines. Inscription: “I light my lamp across the night – in your window – a light as bright – star to star.”
Awaiting the Christmas Visitor
Dream-like heightened awareness balances anticipation and the deep comfort of home. With its reflections of a starry winter sky and full moon, rich golds and oranges, deep blues and purples, Awaiting the Christmas Visitor is one of Charles Marchant Stevenson’s most beloved images. Arnold Borley is the expected guest.
Mendocino Afterglow
Of all the beautiful portraits of Mendocino ever done, this magnificent screen by Stevenson/Leach Studios is the very finest. While style and the palette are reminiscent of Maxfield Parrish, this piece transcends Parrish, its beauty suffused with memory and love. Mendocino Afterglow is the Mendocino of the heart.
The image was designed by Matt Leach, and painted (on both sides of the screen) by Stevenson and Leach working together. The image is identical on the reverse.
Mendocino Afterglow won first place in The Artists’ Magazine international landscape competition (1995).
For the Mendocino Afterglow screen, acrylic paint was used on gessoed cheesecloth applied to three wood panels, each seven feet high by thirty-three inches wide.
The screen (84” x 99”), designed and constructed by Matt Leach, has brass fittings designed for easy assembly and disassembly, for transport or display of individual panels.
LINKS
Charles Marchant Stevenson: Artwork
Stevenson in His Own Words
About Charles Marchant Stevenson
Mendocino Heritage Artists
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