Anders Aldrin: Oregon Trees, 1930s

Anders Aldrin, Oregon Trees, 1930s. Oil on board, 16.75 x 24. A grove of fir trees in an Oregon forest. Anders Aldrin, painter, printmaker, and sculptor, was born in Värmland, Sweden on August 29, 1889. He immigrated to the United States in 1911, settling in Minnesota, and later served in the United States Army during World War I. After the war, Aldrin became ill with tuberculosis and moved to Prescott, Arizona. By 1920 he had relocated in Southern California and began his studies at the Otis Art Institute where he received the Huntington Assistance Award and a full scholarship to the Santa Barbara School of Art. While studying at the Santa Barbara School of Art, Aldrin learned the techniques of the Japanese color woodcut from Frank Morley Fletcher. In 1928, he studied for six months at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco before settling permanently in Los Angeles. That same year Aldrin made his first color woodcut and continued to experiment with the medium until 1937