<i>Tsunami</i> <br>20th Century Gouache & Pastel <br><br>#C8792

Leigh HyamsEntitled Tsunami, this late 20th century gouache and pastel on paper scene is by the artist Leigh Hyams (1926-2013). Leigh Hyams, aka Martha Mae Nickerson, Martha Bolling, and Martha Hyams, was an acclaimed painter and teacher whose career spanned several decades and continents. Based in San Francisco from 1974 to 2000, she later made her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she continued to paint and teach until her passing.In 1957, Art in America recognized Hyams as one of the nation’s outstanding “New Talents,” alongside future luminaries such as Joan Mitchell, David Park, and Morris Louis. Nearly a decade later, in 1966, she studied with Larry Rivers, Conrad Marca-Relli, and Philip Guston—serving as Guston’s assistant—at the Fine Arts Institute of New College. Hyams’ figurative works reflect the expressive vitality of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, echoing the influence of artists such as Richard Diebenkorn. Her abstract interpretations of natural and cultural