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Harold Gretzner
(1902-1977)
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"City Street"
Watercolor
22 x 30 inches
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Born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 3, 1902, Gretzner received his early art education in Washington, DC and completed his academic work at the California College of Arts and Crafts. From the 1920s until his retirement in the 1960s, he was a commercial artist in San Francisco. During his daily commute from his home in Oakland, 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.
Gretzner was exclusively a watercolorist and worked only with transparent paints in his personal practice. His style featured a controlled wet-into-wet approach, inspired by his close friend and painting partner, Maurice Logan. He used the technique to depict Regionalist scenes of the San Francisco Bay area and the Monterey Coast. 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. He exhibited throughout Northern California and won many awards at Alameda County Fairs, California State Fairs, and Lodi Grape Festivals.
After retiring from his job in the 1960s, he continued painting and taught small groups of advanced students in the Oakland area. During the last decade of his life, he traveled and painted in the Far East and Europe. Gretzner died in Oakland on September 19, 1977.
Member: California Watercolor Society; American Watercolor Society; West Coast Watercolor Society; Society of Western Artists; Oakland Art Association; and Santa Rosa Art Guild.
Source:
www.askart.com
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