81st Annual Statewide Landscape Exhibit: Earth Portraits opens May 28. A reception is scheduled for June 4 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The exhibit is open through June 26.
History of the Statewide Show
According to Local Santa Cruz historian Geoffrey Dunn, the First Annual California Statewide Landscape exhibition was inaugurated from February 1 to 15, 1928, in the Bay Room and spacious sun parlors of the casa Del Rey Hotel, located directly across from the Cocoanut Grove and Casino on the Santa Cruz waterfront. The exhibition was largely the brainchild of legendary Santa Cruz Painters Margaret Rogers, Cor de Gavere and Leonora Naylor Penniman, who were noted around the state's art circles as "The Santa Cruz Three". Rogers studied with L.P. Latimer, was the leader of the group; de Gavere, who had trained in her native Holland, was the most talented painter of the trio; Penniman, accomplished in watercolors and oil painting, was the business person who made a financial success of the effort.
