Recently, the California Art Club (CAC) organized a painting retreat on the former estate of the remarkable multi-media artist Millard Sheets. Here, Rick J. Delanty shares what it was like to experience the retreat first-hand.
Rick has been on the faculty of Acrylic Live, and will be presenting an acrylic demonstration at Plein Air Live, taking place November 6-8, 2025 (with an Essential Techniques Day on November 5). Rick enjoys creating larger works in his studio in San Clemente, CA, as well as painting outdoors throughout the West.
California Art Club Artists Discover Millard Sheets en Plein Air
By Rick J. Delanty
High up along the coast of northern California is the tiny town of Gualala, perched on rugged cliffs north of Sea Ranch and south of Point Arena. Just up the road and around the bend is an estate called “Barking Rocks” (for the sea lion colony active there), hidden behind the trees. This five-acre parcel was once the home and studio of Millard Sheets (1907-1989), a renowned member of the California Art Club. The artist was a mentor and visionary, and leading proponent of representational art, public works, and Southern California Regionalism.
When Millard was well-established in his painting and design career, he and his wife Mary purchased Barking Rocks in 1958. After their passing, watercolor artist Susan Routledge and her husband, Frank Jackson, bought the property from the Sheets family for their private home in 2004. Several years later, a fellow watercolorist and former student of Millard Sheets, Carolyn Lord, organized an informal watercolor retreat, and asked Susan if the group could paint at Barking Rocks: she and Frank agreed. The idea of a CAC Retreat was proposed, with the date set for September 2025. The Greater Sacramento Sierra Chapter of CAC stepped in to organize the event, led by Marti Walker, Kathy Levenson, and Carolyn herself. They worked closely with Susan, Frank, and David ‘Sus” Susalla, Director of Gualala Art Center to plan the event. Thirty-eight artists signed up to come, arriving at the Center in mid-September.
First up, Carolyn presented a slide lecture on “A Brief History of Millard Sheets.” During the next four days, CAC artists painted at Barking Rocks and surrounding sites, and were treated to tours of Millard’s former watercolor studio (shown at top; now a library), his former oil painting studio (now the studio of Barking Rocks owner and watercolorist Susan Routledge), and the former Sheets “Museum,” which currently displays some of Routledge’s works, Sheets originals, and the works of selected artists.
The artists spread out over the estate to paint. I found a secluded spot to paint on the northern edge of the estate, and set up on overhanging cliffs with a view of Haven’s Neck, where scenes in the film “Island of the Blue Dolphins” had been filmed. As I painted, I felt the spirit of the place, and imagined Millard painting right there as the sun rose on the property and the sea lions “barked” in the distance.
Our group also painted in other sites along the coast: I set up one morning to paint at Cook’s Beach, so I could break out my watercolors for a little sketch amid the driftwood.
Before we knew it, it was the last day, on which Barbara Tapp and I had volunteered to present a Critique-and-Share program to close the event. What greeted us on that morning in the auditorium of the Gualala Arts Center was an incredible array of Barking Rocks-inspired watercolors, oil paintings, acrylics, gouache works, and pastels.
The creative and colorful works of that week underlined the reason that all of us were there, and why the current owners of the Sheets estate, Susan and Frank Jackson, had so generously offered their home to be the site of this unique California Art Club event. The mission of this 114-years-long art society is to “celebrate the heritage and practices of traditional fine art worldwide.” In doing precisely that, the hosts and these artists have carried both the CAC and the Sheets legacies into the present and on to the future.
Helpful Links
- Connect with Rick J. Delanty: www.delantyfineart.com
- Learn more about the California Art Club: www.californiaartclub.org
- Join us for the 6th Annual Plein Air Live online art conference, featuring Rick J. Delanty, Kathleen Hudson, Kevin Macpherson, Kami Mendlik, and many more: PleinAirLive.com
- Browse more free articles here at OutdoorPainter.com
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