Sam Hyde Harris – Palo Verde Fantasy – Oil on Board

A lovely desert study. We love the shimmer of the mountains rising behind the palo verde, pale in the heat.

Board measures 12″ x 16″ and the frame is 16 1/2″ x 20 1/2″.

At 14 years of age Sam Hyde Harris was already a successful commercial artist. A 1903 letter of recommendation from Andre Sleigh, stated that, “We have the pleasure in stating that Samuel Harris (aged 14 ½ years) has given every satisfaction during the 8 or 9 months he has been engaged in our Artists Department.”

After moving to California with his family Harris got a job as painter of signs, billboards and hand-lettered show cards in 1906. He developed a reputation for doing excellent commercial work and opened his own commercial art studio by 1914. His commercial art business received a boost in 1920 when he was hired by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway Company to work on their poster advertising.  He was later hired to do artwork Southern Pacific Railways as well.

He began studying painting with Hanson Puthuff in 1906, and continued studying throughout much of his life. As early as 1920 he was exhibiting with the California Art Club. He continued exhibiting his paintings for the next fifty plus years including with the Painters and Sculptors of Southern California, the Pacific Advertising Club Association (1929), the San Gabriel Artists Guild, the Laguna Beach Art Association and many other venues.