Fremont F. Ellis New Mexico/California (1897-1985) TAWNY GRASS oil on board, framed signed: lower left, Fremont Ellis H11 1/2" W14 1/2" *Artist biography: Born in Virginia City, Montana, Fremont Ellis became a noted Impressionist western painter of California and New Mexico landscape and was a pioneer artist in Santa Fe after World War I. He also painted seascapes, portraits, still lifes, and architectural subjects. His father was an itinerant dentist in Montana mining towns and also a carnival performer and theater operator. Living a transient childhood, Fremont had minimal formal education and only three months of art training, which was a short stint at the Art Students League in New York. His family had traveled early to New York where he spent much time copying paintings at the Metropolitan Museum. In 1915, to learn a trade, he went to optometry school in Los Angeles, but after two years abandoned that pursuit to become a full-time painter, living in the San Fernando Valley. In 1920, he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he first worked as a sign painter and photographer to make money while saving to become an artist. In Santa Fe he met artists Josef Bakos, Will Shuster, Willard Nash, and Wladyslaw Mruk, and they formed a group called "Los Cinco Pintores," the five painters. Their styles and subject matter were widely divergent, but the purpose of the group was to socialize and promote sales. Of the five, he was the least social and moved about ten miles away from Santa Fe to San Sebastian. He and his wife moved an old Spanish house there from Galisteo, and it became one of the most beautiful homes of the area. While based in Santa Fe, Ellis continued to be active in Los Angeles and also painted Arizona landscapes including Canyon de Chelly on trips between there and Santa Fe. He was able to make a good living, selling his painting against tides of modernism. He lived the later part of his life alone on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, in the home built by artist William Penhallow Henderson.