Paul Dougherty was a Marine painter during the California Impressionism Period through the 20th century. Dougherty was born in 1877 in the city of Brooklyn, New York where he spent his childhood. He graduated from law school and was passed the bar exam, but he chose art over being a lawyer. Throughout his life, he traveled around the world and made sketches of the East and West coasts and the coasts in Europe. His career was mostly based and focused in the East Coast until 1928, where he moved West. He spent most of his time in Caramel, California and in the Deserts. He won many major awards such as in the National Academy of Design in New York. Moreover, he spent the rest of his life painting the coastlines of California until his death in 1947.

 

Paul Dougherty artwork fits in our art gallery because of the paintings that he did were located and based in California. This was the one and only requirement in our art gallery that Dougherty artworks had to meet and it did. He did most of his work by oil on canvas. Also, his paintings represents or tries to duplicate on what he sees in the moment. This was the main goal of an impressionist artist to replicate the image through their eyes and by making an image of a specific moment being captured. Dougherty focused in Marine life which gave his paintings plenty of peace and power moments because of the details he added such as the waves and hills.

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Dougherty paintings depict and focus on the landscapes or coastlines in California. As his paintings include images of the sea, houses near the sea, and other sea coastlines. The way he used color expresses his impressions of California Marine landscape paintings.  An example of this is his painting Crashing Waves as it can be seen the ocean powerfully colliding with land. Anything regarding marine life, Dougherty was an expert in this since his early days living in the East Coast. His paintings are sold on many auctions for a hefty price tag. He was no doubt one of the top tier impressionists in the early 20th century.

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Dougherty's art fits with our art gallery's theme because his paintings like the other artists are an expression of what they love and emotion. For example, Dougherty's art expresses his love about marine life as the ocean is a focal point in all of his paintings. As stated above, the way he used color on his paintings expressed emotion as the ocean is a powerful and strong entity. He was very precise and careful with his paintings as he used light brush strokes to showcase the landscape through their own eyes. Overall, Doughtery's paintings were based from his emotions such as his love for the ocean and its coastline.

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