Richard Mayhew, Untitled, n.d.
He wet the paper with water from the Pacific Ocean. He sprinkled salt onto the wet pigments to create surprising textures. He borrowed a page from Edgar Degas and applied color pastel to dry pigment. The watercolor landscapes of Richard Mayhew are full of experiment. They are also full of emotion, his passion for the land long promised to Native Americans and freed slaves. Mayhew was born in Amityville, New York, in 1924, to a father of Montaukett/Shinnecock descent and a mother who was African-American and Cherokee-Lumbee. He loved art as a boy, and after a stint in the U.S. Marines he began art study in New York City. An educator and illustrator as well as an artist, Mayhew relocated to California in 2000, where he painted the watercolors in this exhibition. He died at age 100, earlier this year. He called his landscapes “my forty acres.” —Laura Jacobs
