Between 1991-1994, we visited a Gallery in Old Town Pasadena (within
the actual outdoor mall complex) and saw an exhibit of an artist who I
would now love to track down.

He painted realistic (photo realistic, but not hyper-realistic or
fantastic) scences of suburban life, which, if not set in Pasadena,
certainly reflected it well.

The painting that stuck in my mind was of a front lawn, with a tree. 
There was a median between the street and the sidewalk (as is typical
in Pasadena) and the grass was an intense green.  It may have included
"Orange Grove" in the title, and certainly looked like the many front
lawns in front of large houses that line Orange Grove Boulevard in
Pasadena.

The artist was male.

Beyond that, I have no idea. No idea of the gallery name, either.

Identification of the artist, or a very reasonable set of
possibilities, much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

---

Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 05 Dec 2003 11:54 PST

acsteele --

I have followed up one lead with an e-mail that I hope will provide
some useful information.  Do you recall whether the mall in Old
Pasadena was the "One Colorado" mall, whose Web site is at the
following link?
One Colorado
http://www.onecolorado.net/

markj -ga

---

Clarification of Question by acsteele-ga on 18 Dec 2003 09:17 PST

Markj, yes! It *was* at One Colordado, in the location, or adjacent
to, where Three Dog Bakery shows up on the site plan now.  It appears
to have closed.  That's certainly a lead.  Maybe the folks there know
the name of the gallery and how to contact the (at that time) owners.

---

Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 18 Dec 2003 10:39 PST

acsteele -- 

Thanks for you clarification.  I have followed up the Colorado One
lead, and the gallery you remember is almost certainly the Mendenhall
Gallery, which apparently no long exists. At the risk of counting
unhatched chickens, I am going to suggest that the artist you are
after is R. Kenton Nelson.  Nelson is a contemporary realist painter
who has strongs links to Pasadena and has often used the city as
inspiration for his paintings.  He exhibited at the Mendenhall Gallery
in 1993 and 1994.

Although I haven't yet found the painting you remember, here are
several links to examples of Nelson's work, which should give you
enough information to judge whether this is your man:
R. Kenton Nelson: Exhibitions
http://www.rkentonnelson.com/exhibitions.htm

Art Scene California: R. Kenton Nelson
http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles1999/Articles0399/RKNelsonA.html

Sullivan Goss: R. Kenton Nelson
http://www.sullivangoss.com/R._Kenton_Nelson/

If this is your man, let me know with a question clarification, and I
will post an answer that includes some more information on Nelson and
the gallery, along with a description of how I found him.

If this is not your man, let me know, and I will look further at  some
other leads that the Colorado One connection has generated.

markj-ga

---

Clarification of Question by acsteele-ga on 19 Dec 2003 06:31 PST

Markj,

Brilliant work! None of the works I remember are included in the
samples shown, but I'm about 80% certain this is the artist.  Nicely
done.  Please feel free to wrap things up.  Nice timing for a little
holiday bonus.  Thanks again.

acsteele --

Thanks for the clarification and the kind words.  Let me start by
reviewing the evidence that the painter that interests you is indeed
R. Kenton Nelson.

Nelson is a "contemporary realist" whose style and subject matter
match closely your description of the work of the artist you remember.
 Here are some representative descriptions of that style:

"As a painter, R. Kenton Nelson brings to his canvases a trimmed and
exact world: youthful, robust figures; clean and painted structures;
landscapes that are polished and orderly."
Sullivan Goss: R. Kenton Nelson
http://www.sullivangoss.com/R._Kenton_Nelson/\

"These slices of American life, and especially architecture, harken
back to an America we scarcely recognize--bereft of cars, people and
graffiti.  . . . Everything is bathed in this crisp, bright light. The
city is clean--okay, too clean. These pictures begin to have a sense
of unreality to them. We seem to be watching The Truman Show, where
the sun is always shining, the streets are spotless, and the houses
are all freshly painted."
Art Scene California: R. Kenton Nelson
http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles1999/Articles0399/RKNelsonA.html

"Nelson idealizes the ordinary. His narrative paintings capture a
perfect moment of a simple event in American life. The artist admits
to this 'propaganda of sorts,' as he depicts the ideal scene of a
house with film set lighting, casting perfect shadows, with an almost
bizarrely mundane activity. "
Klaudia Marr Gallery: Current Exhibition
http://klaudiamarrgallery.com/Current_Exhibition/

My last "clarification request" included links to examples of his oil
paintings.  The Klaudia Marr Gallery's Web site includes a couple of
examples of his new work that might be even more representative of the
style of the particular painting you remember that the examples that I
previously provided.  Note especially the paintings called "A Little
Support" and "A City of Homes."  Here is a link to that site:
Klaudia Marr Gallery: R. Kenton Nelson 
http://klaudiamarrgallery.com/Contemporary_Realism/R__Kenton_Nelson/

Besides the close match of Nelson's style and subject matter to those
of the artist you remember, the most important piece of evidence is,
of course, the fact that Nelson held exhibitions at the Mendenhall
Gallery at Colorado One in Pasadena in both 1993 and 1994.  Here is a
link to documentation of that fact, along with some other basic
biographical information about Nelson:
Eleanor Ettinger Gallery: R. Kenton Nelson
http://www.eegallery.com/artists/bios/nel.html

I assume from your question that you may be interested in contacting a
representative of  Mr. Nelson to discuss your interest in his work. 
The way to do that would be to contact one of the four galleries that
work with him.  Here, from Mr. Nelson's Web site, is their contact
information:

Eleanor Ettinger Gallery
119 Spring St., Ground Flr.
New York, NY 10012 
tel: 212.925.7474 

Scott White Contemporary Art
7661 Girard Avenue
La Jolla, CA 92037
tel: 858.551.5821

Sullivan Goss, Ltd
1266 Coast Village Road
Montecito, CA 93108 
tel: 805.969.5112 
 
Klaudia Marr Gallery
668 Canyon Road 
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 
tel: 505.988.2100 

R. Kenton Nelson: Galleries
http://www.rkentonnelson.com/


Mr. Nelson is currently exhibiting at the Klaudia Marr Gallery through
January 12, 2004:
Klaudia Marr Gallery: Current Exhibitions
http://klaudiamarrgallery.com/Current_Exhibition/index.html


I think it is very likely that Mr. Nelson is the artist that interests
you.  However, if it turns out that he is not, I suggest that you call
the Colorado One management office (as I did).   Their contact
information is here:
One Colorado: Contact Us
http://www.onecolorado.net/contact.html

They can and probably will give you sufficient information about Mr.
Mendenhall for you to be able to find him and contact him for his
recollections about exhibitions in the early 1990s.  Google Answers'
policy does not allow me to post personal (as opposed to business)
contact information because of privacy considerations.  Because the
Mendenhall Gallery is no longer in existence, information about Mr.
Mendenhall appears to me to fall in that category.



Additional Information:

Here is a link to the home page of R. Kenton Nelson's Web site.  From
there you can navigate around it and get more information about his
biography and his work:
R. Kenton Nelson, Painter
http://www.rkentonnelson.com/

As just a little more evidence that Nelson is your man, here are links
to information about some other painters who exhibited at the
Mendenhall Gallery between 1991 and 1994:

J. Cacciola Gallery: Mark Beck
http://www.bienfeo.com/web/jcacciola/artists/

J. Cacciola Gallery: Ray Turner
http://www.bienfeo.com/web/jcacciola/artists/

Greenwood Chebithes Gallery: John Brosio
http://www.gcgallery.com/_content/01_artists/john%20brosio/pg1/

This undoubtedly is not a complete list of participants in group
shows, at least, but these (and a couple of artists using media other
that oil paint) are the ones that turned up in the course of my
research.  None of their work appears to me to match your description.


Search Strategy:

My initial searching revealed One Colorado to be the mall most likely
to have been the one you remember.   This was accomplished by perusing
the results of various Google searched aimed at exploring that initial
clue that you provided.  I started with this one:

pasadena "outdoor mall OR malls"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=pasadena+%22outdoor+mall+OR+malls%22

This search yielded a manageable number of results, so I reviewed them
and noticed that One Colorado was mentioned as being located in Old
Town Pasadena.  In order to try to establish whether One Colorado was
the only such mall in Old Pasadena, I narrowed the search as follows:

"old town pasadena" "outdoor mall OR malls"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22old+town+pasadena%22+%22outdoor+mall+OR+malls%22+&num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1

Since this search was inconclusive (not all the results mentioned One
Colorado by name), I asked you for clarification.

When you responded, I first called the One Colorado management office
and asked them for the names of any art galleries that were located in
the mall in the period 1991-94.  The immediate answer was the
Mendenhall Gallery.  I was also told that the gallery was no longer
there and has apparently closed down.

I then devised Google searches that would provide information about
the Mendenhall Gallery.  I started with a general search aimed at
supporting the information that the gallery was no longer in
existence:

pasadena "mendenhall gallery"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=pasadena+%22mendenhall+gallery%22

That search accomplished that purpose and also provided information on
artists that had exhibited there, including Mr. Nelson.

This, of course, resulted in the preliminary judgment that Mr. Nelson
was your man.  In order to provide reasonable assurance that I wasn't
missing another good prospect, I then conducted narrower searches
aimed at information focused solely on artists exhibiting there during
the time period in question.  For example:

"mendenhall gallery" 1991 OR 1992 OR 1993 OR 1994
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22mendenhall+gallery%22+1991+OR+1992+OR+1993+OR+1994



I am confident (I hope not overconfident) that R. Kenton Nelson is the
artist you are seeking.  I hope that the information above is
sufficient to allow you to get all the supplementary information you
need by making direct contact with his representatives or, in the
worst case, with the former proprietor of the gallery you remember
visiting.  If anything at all is unclear, please ask for clarification
before rating this answer.

Happy holidays!


markj-ga

An outstanding, thoroughly researched answer based on slim
information, which markj did an excellent job pulling the pertinent
pieces of data from, asking for clarification when appropriate to keep
on track. And (markj doesn't even know this yet), 100% accurate!  The
painting is called "Charitably Inclined!" Absoultely MUCH more than I
had hoped for.  Kudos!

Here's a link to art galleries in Pasadena.

http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypResults.py?stp=y&stx=8303970&city=Pasadena&state=CA&uzip=91101&country=us&msa=4480&cs=4&ed=9tDimq1o2TwBnirfbXCHsSJNvPdpDgO7ShrZRkvWhPv7eQ--&qtx=art+gallery

If they're still around, and if you remember the gallery name, and if
there's an 'old timer' there, it might lead to something.  Lot of if's
though.

Good luck.

Respree, thanks.  I'll check the list.

Markj, yes! It *was* at One Colordado, in the location, or adjacent
to, where Three Dog Bakery shows up on the site plan now.  It appears
to have closed.  That's certainly a lead.  Maybe the folks there know
the name of the gallery and how to contact the (at that time) owners.

acsteele --

Thanks much for the rating, the kind words and the generous tip.

markj-ga