Ted Christensen (1911-1998) American, Oil on Canvas. Painting of oyster fishermens shacks on the beack. Signed bottom right. Title on stretcher: "Dillon Beach, Tomales Bay." 

Overall: 25 X 35 in. 

Sight: 19 1/2 X 29 1/2 in. 

#2731 . 

Ted Christensen was born in Vancouver, Washington in 1911. He was a self-taught painter, finding inspiration in the nearby countryside, and his earliest works were shown in a local competition in 1938. He enlisted in the Army when World War II broke out, serving as a machine gunner. After only a few months he suffered a broken neck during a difficult defensive battle, and was honorably discharged, arriving in Los Angeles. Surrounded by a much larger and more diverse arts scene, he chose to stay, enrolling in the Otis Art Institute on the GI Bill. After taking additional courses at the Museum School in Portland, Oregon, he moved to Sausalito, California to set up his own studio. He primarily painted impressionist landscapes and seascapes in a variety of media, and his images came from his experiences in Europe and Hawaii, as well as extensive travels through New Mexico and California. From 1952 to 1960 he was an art instructor at the College of Marin. By the early 1960s his style was incorporating heavy abstract influences, and he was notorious for always painting en plein air, even when it was snowing heavily. In 1968 he was the recipient of New Mexico’s Wurlitzer Foundation Grant, and in 1983 he was selected as a Treasure Artist by the Sonoma Cultural and Fine Arts Commission. That same year he relocated permanently to Sonoma, and continued to exhibit regularly until his death in 1998. His works are held in the University of New Mexico and St. John’s College in Santa Fe, and in the permanent collections of museums in Oregon, Washington, and California.