PHONE: 760.943.8706
| Charles Payzant | ||||||||
| a california style watercolor painter | ||||||||
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Charles Payzant (1898-1980)
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Charles Payzant Biography
St. George Charles Payzant, as his birth certificate reads, was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada. After serving with the 193rd Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, Charles Payzant received his art instruction in England and Canada. In the early 1920s, he moved to Los Angeles and continued his art education at the Otis Art Institute and the Chouinard Art Institute. By the mid 1920s, Charles Payzant was a freelance commercial artist, producing illustrations in watercolor and line art. Payzant also began producing fine art watercolors painted on location around Los Angeles. His background in illustration was apparent in many of these works and gave them a quality unlike what most of the California watercolorists were producing. They were very early examples of what would later be known as the California Style of watercolor painting. In 1930, Charles Payzant began exhibiting these works in the California Water Color Society shows and as the younger artists were developing their style, he was refining his already developed approach and was winning a number of awards. He painted on location and often chose to depict city street scenes with people, cars and buildings. His approach to watercolor painting was direct and confident. One of his close friends and painting partners during this period was Hardie Gramatky. |
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The freelance art business in Los Angeles during the Depression was not very lucrative. In 1934, he took a job
painting watercolor backgrounds for Walt Disney Studios. Charles Payzant produced art for many cartoon shorts and did
elaborate backgrounds for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Dumbo", "Make Mine Music",
"Bambi" and "The Three Caballeros". The skills he developed while painting with watercolor on a daily basis,
greatly improved his ability to produce fine art watercolors when painting for pleasure. After the World War II era, Charles Payzant left Disney to again pursue a freelance commercial art business. He began working with his wife, Terry Shannon Payzant, on a series of over 50 children’s books; she wrote the text and he did the illustrations. In addition, he became the director of the "Dick and Jane" series of school readers, which contained over 6,000 pictures. Payzant also continued to paint California Style watercolors well into the 1970s. Charles Payzant Biographical information: Interview with Terry Shannon Payzant, 1983. Charles Payzant biography provided courtesy of “California Watercolors 1850-1970” by Gordon T. McClelland and Jay T. Last. Book available at hillcrestpressinc.com | |||||||
| Charles Payzant.net is interested in purchasing all watercolors and oil paintings by Charles Payzant. If you have a painting by Charles Payzant and are interested in selling it or simply wish to obtain an estimated value, please get in touch and we'll provide a free evaluation of your artwork. |  | |||||||
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email: info@charlespayzant.net |
phone: 760.943.8706 |
send printed photos to: Charles Payzant.net 2240 Encinitas Blvd. #302, Encinitas, California 92024
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