In the 1920s the itinerant Swedish watercolorist Gunnar Widforss spent time in the National Parks, producing paintings that convey a light-filled intimacy, marking him as one of the most important watercolorists of the West.

On the California coast he painted the towering redwoods and sequoias, so unlike the trees of his native land. Widforss ended up in Oakland, drawn to an artist community living in rambling cottages known as "the Arks" clustered near the Fruitvale Bridge in the estuary. His paintings of the Arks captured their stark and stunning beauty and are among his most arresting works. While the Arks have disappeared along with the Cryer Boathouse, Widforss' Arks paintings remain, calling us back to another time our city's history.

Lecturer: Alan Petersen, Curator of Fine Arts at the Museum of Northern Arizona, has curated exhibitions of work by many notable artists, and also teaches art history and painting in Flagstaff, AZ. He recently published a catalogue raisonné of works by Gunnar Widforss and continues work on a monograph on Widforss’ life and art.