Thomas Lorraine Hunt

Born in Canada, Thomas Hunt settled in California in 1924 and became a real estate developer in Hollywood and San Bernardino. At this time, Hunt built a small art studio for himself located on Coast Highway and became involved with the Laguna Beach art colony and eventually a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Association.

Thomas Hunt was commissioned by the Elks Club of Los Angeles in 1926 to paint a scene that portrayed the raising of the first American flag in California. This scene marked the end of the war with Mexico and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

An ambitious canvas, The First American Flag illustrates the hallmarks of Hunt's unique approach to painting by reducing an image to a few key elements, simplifying both color and form to create an overall patterned design. One critic commented in 1928, 'We feel in his pictures the sparkle and tang which brings to us the life of the sea, for Mr. Hunt is an interpreter of beach scenes and fishing boats. These paintings vibrate with light effects induced by means of broken color. They are decorative and in several of them a pleasing effect is gained by the absence of aerial perspective...Mr. Hunt's painting will delight the observer who loves the vigor and sparkle produced by use of pure color.' (R.L. Westphal, Plein Air Painters of California, The Southland, Irvine, California, 1988, p. 150).

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