My (humble) ART Collection (Selected)
'Main Street-Columbia, CA', 1945, linocut by Charles Surendorf 1906-1979. Surendorf would freeze a sheet of linoleum overnight and then cut/gouge the image with fine wood engraving tools.
Surendorf was born on November 9, 1906 in Richmond, Indiana. Following graduation from Ohio State University, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League in New York City. In 1935 he moved to the San Francisco Bay area and further studied at Mills College.
He was very active in the printmaking organizations in San Francisco, in his peak years he moved to Columbia, CA a gold mining town in the Sierra foothills. There he served as director of the short-lived Mother Lode Art School (1956) and produced works with an historic California theme.
He died of cancer in Columbia on May 28, 1979. His paintings and prints depict the rough-and-tumble life of the old mining country in a regionalist style similar to that of Thomas Hart Benton.