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Otis, George Demont (1879-1962). Landscape painter, etcher.
George Demont Otis was born
in Memphis, TN on Sept. 21, 1879. After three seasons as a pitcher for
Memphis and Nashville clubs, Otis abandoned a promising baseball career to
pursue art. He first studied art at age 14 at the AIC followed by work at
the PAFA and in New York at the Cooper Union, NAD, ASL, Brooklyn Academy,
and with Robert Henri, Wm M. Chase, and John F. Carlson. While based in
Chicago, Otis traveled extensively, often in the company of Thomas
Moran. Early in the century he lived in Colorado, Taos and Santa Fe,
NM. After moving to Los Angeles in 1919, he established a studio in Burbank
where he worked for the movie studios. In his leisure he made frequent
painting trips to the Indian reservations of New Mexico and Arizona.
Moving to San Francisco in 1930, George Demont Otis established a studio in the
former Arthur Putnam home and in 1934 moved across the Golden Gate to Kentfield
into a home-studio at 907 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Otis taught hundreds of
students during his lifetime; however, in 1939 he stopped teaching to devote
his last years to painting. An Impressionist, he is nationally recognized
as a painter of mountain landscapes, sycamore and eucalyptus trees, and
missions. A leader in conservation, he is known as the artistic father of
Point Reyes Nat'l Seashore and the Golden Gate Nat'l Recreation area. George
Demont Otis died at his home in Kentfield on Feb. 25, 1962.
Source:
Edan
Hughes, “Artists in California 1786-1940”
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