Charles F. Keck The paintings of Charles Keck capture the intriguing ambience of Los Angeles during one of the most fascinating periods in the city's history. Charles Keck was born in 1913 in Iowa and moved to Los Angeles in 1920. He graduated from Fairfax High in 1932, then majored in art at Los Angeles City College 1933-34. He was awarded a three year scholarship to Chouinard Art Institute where he studied with Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, and Phil Paradise from 1935-38. From the late 1930s through the early 1940s he worked at Columbia Pictures as a background artist. Beginning in 1945 Keck taught at Hollywood Art Center School for several years before enrolling at UCLA, graduating in 1954 with a Master's Degree in Art Instruction. He taught art at Los Angeles area schools for the next few decades. From the late 1930s through the mid 1950s Charles Keck produced works in oil, watercolor, and gouache. During this period he exhibited with the California Watercolor Society and the Laguna Beach Art Association, from whom he received a First Prize in 1946. Documenting the historic California scene in both landscape and genre compositions, Charles Keck painted from life, on location, throughout the streets, harbors, rural farmlands, and beaches of Los Angeles and greater Southern California. Keck chose to focus on the local colors and activities of a rapidly growing metropolis, capturing scenes that are as varied as the city itself. He favored no one image, subject, or point of view, but instead kept his eye moving across a constantly changing landscape, recording all its wonders, contradictions, and history.

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Playtime on the California Coast	California Saltworks	Near Bunker Hill, Los Angeles	Sears, Boyle Heights
The Salt of the Land	Walking in the Rain, Northern California	Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles	Playing Marbles, Ojai
Haying, Ventura	A Quiet Moment on the Farm	North Broadway-Buena Vista Bridge

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