Carl Sammons: Paintings

Carl Sammons was one of the more notable early California Impressionists. His best-known subjects include California landscapes and coastal scenes. While much of his work was done in California, he also traveled and painted throughout the Western region, including sites in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. He was a critical and commercial success in the 1920s and a commercial success again in the 1950s.

Carl Sammons' lack of recognition today may be due to several reasons. First, unlike many of his more renowned colleagues, Sammons chose to limit the amount of time and effort he spent vigorously promoting his art. He didn't participate in many public or juried exhibits; preferring to sell his paintings through galleries, private exhibits, and personal contacts. Sammons felt painting wasn't a competitive endeavor but an act of creation in which each artist expressed his interpretation, each equally valid, with the ultimate verdict lying in the hands of the purchaser of the painting. However, by not participating in juried exhibits, he excluded himself from the possibility of winning awards, another way that artists gain historical recognition. Sammons was a very private man, and he chose not to participate in many of the same activities that his peers did. Therefore, many of the records that art historians normally look at to support an artist's place in history do not exist for him.

The present work showcases a fine array of new photographic images of paintings by Carl Sammons utilizing the Kvamme process of digital enhancement.