Mexican Location

 

The location is not indicated on painting so it might be Taxco or San Miguel de Allende. I’m leaning towards the latter. The nun in the central view is an interesting choice. I like to think it is a thread linked back to when Betty and Dick were married. His in-laws were emphatic that he commit to initiation into the Catholic Faith in order to have their consent for Betty’s hand in matrimony. It is called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. It’s believed that Grand Pa Oscar may have been of the Lutheran Faith, but nothing’s confirmed.

Reflective color can be seen in the trees left with grays from building right and the sidewalk sizzling with hints of red/orange from the stone-wall along the sidewalk. Dick’s colors are bolder, more in character of the culture, ancient rich earthy color.

#125 Daily Chores - 24x30, framed, canvass/Masonite, oil, signed

Rare Desert Arroyo Water Color

 

This particular image could have been done in any of several locations such as Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio or Coachella. As with many water color landscapes it was probably done on location.  In my search for pictures and information regarding any and all of Dicks works I have only found this singular desert scape in water color.

Untitled, (Desert Arroyo w/Blue Tree),(image)11x17, frame 18x24, Water Color, signed

San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Awards

 

Los Angles All City Outdoor Art Festival 1968

 Los Angles All City Outdoor Art Festival 1968 Merit Award

Floral Roses

Done with pallet knife, this exciting floral hung in our Muskingum house early on in Dick’s career indicated by the use of Fredrick’s Artists Canvass Panel. Attached to rear of frame is one of Dick’s business card with the #3 Floral, $300 written on it. I would have to place this in the early sixties.

The framing is typically Burg as seen with the wide Mexican frame (his frames of choice) and 1¼ inch finishing nails securing the artwork into rabbit of frame. The intricately carved profile is well matched to the frenetic pallet technique. Why a work would be priced and not signed is a curiosity? 

"Dad undervalued his work and always had low prices," According to my sister Melissa.
 

 #53 Floral Roses 16x20, framed, oil, on Fredrick’s Artists Canvass Panel, unsigned                

Untitled Water Color

 

Untitled (Church, Tree, Ass & People) -12½x17½, water color, signed 

Soft Shoulders

  

This rear profile portrait harkens back to when dick was consumed with figure painting and portraits. With its limited pallet and gentle brush strokes it belies the intimate highlights of shoulders, ear, forehead, and nose. There is a calmness and serenity about the woman.

 #55 Soft Shoulders - 16x20, framed, oil, signed 

San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende, a colonial-era city in Mexico’s central highlands, is known for its baroque Spanish architecture and cultural festivals. This is one of a number that Dick painted from his trek there.

This calle, lightly sprinkled with las personas, has an early morning feel about it. A worker with cart and woman with child are on their mission. While a man stands and waits at a corner building.

Dick’s colors are bolder, more in character with the culture. Rich earthy ancient colors imbedded in the brick and stone work. The shadows in the archway on right are filled with mysterious blue. There is more here than meets the eye. 

#34 San Miguel de Allende - 24x30, framed, oil, canvass on board, signed   

67th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition

 

The Proud Artist

 
During high school I began taking photographs. First I had a funky part plastic Brownie and then graduated to a hand-me-down Voigtlander gifted to me from my father. Here I snapped a shot of Dick showing off one of his latest works on the driveway in front of our garage in 1974. It is obvious with the sun bleached exposer I was still quite the novice. Dick took pictures of his art work and probably kept a record in his files. They may have gotten way-laid in the shuffle and distribution after he passed. My search continues! 

Laguna Shacks

 

Laguna Beach; Laguna, Spanish for “Lagoon” is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County in southern California. It is known for its tide pool beaches and tourist destination. The location obviously drew Dick there for its colorful beach scenes and beach houses done in his Idea of a bohemian style.  

#21 Laguna Shacks – 15x20, framed, acrylic, signed   
Courtesy of Tim and Christina Keller

Western Barn

 

With as many barn painting that Dick executed it would seem unnatural if there weren’t water colors done also. This crisp brown monochrome water color displays Dick’s expert handling of the medium.

Western Barn – 11½x15½, framed, water color, signed   

Eaton Canyon

 

Eaton Canyon is a zoological, botanical, and geological nature preserve located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Pasadena, California. Seems like a logical local for Dick to find possible scenes to explore.

This Landscape; Barren rocky fore-front, verdant tree line and foot hills looming in the hot distance, all in subtle complimentary colors.

#128 Eaton Canyon 16x20, Oil, Signed, Masonite board

On Location at the Beach

Ocean, shoreline, beach houses, docks, piers, rocky jetties were of major interest for Dick throughout his career. Early on he would be found under an umbrella with chair, paint box and easel surrounded by his painting compadres set up on a sunny sandy beach along Santa Monica Bay.  This photo is dated November, 1963.

Canyon Trees

Many paintings, focusing on trees as subject matter executed by Dick were more than likely studies, although this particular example seem much more “finished” than others.  Where exactly the location was is a mood point. Temescal Canyon, Topanga Canyon or maybe even Eaton Canyon it is difficult to pin down. Regardless of location this tree scene explodes with color excitement.

 #205 Canyon Trees, 16x20, Framed, Oil, Signed, Masonite board

Dick and Betty 1940

Dick and Betty’s courtship rose in 1935. Dick was employed by the PAX (the Crystallized Soap) Company in St. Louis and was on the road much of the time. He still lived at home at 3207 Copelin Ave. (Later to be torn down to make way for Interstate 44) PAX G.H. Packwood Manufacturing company sent him to Detroit - Michigan, Des Moines – Iowa, Rochester – New York, Pittsfield – Massachusetts, Decatur – Illinois, where he would stay at hotels or the YMCA. He regularly wrote to Betty of his loneliness and love for her. While on the road Dick would visit movie houses for 15 cents and watch a double feature, Adventures in Manhattan and Craig’s Wife.  Betty was living at 4404 Lindel Blvd. in St. Louis. They would correspond for the nearly two years and spent time with each other and family when he returned from business excursions. He signed his letters to her with, “My precious.”  They were married in Clayton Missouri on June 18^th, 1938 witnesses Robert Pommer and Peggy Gross.

Fortune smiled on Richard, he landed a job with Hallmark Co. Based in Kansas City. Dick was transferred to California and Betty and he would pack-up and move there in 1941. Dick was an executive salesman for Hallmark. The company motto was, “If you care enough to send the very best”. In his spare time, painting was his passion.

Full Figured Portraits

#48 The Brass Earring – 24x30, Oil, signed

 Lady w/Hat & Fan – 24x30, Oil unsigned 

 Ballerina In Black – 24x30, Oil, unsigned

When my parents moved from Santa Monica they bought a cramped California mission style house with a red tile roof on Northfield in The Palisades. The house was not large enough to accommodate an art studio, so my Father wrote and directed home movies and did illustrations. In 1952 they purchased the house at 887 Muskingum Avenue. There, according to my sister Patricia, “He started taking art classes after we moved to Muskingum. I don’t remember him taking classes before then. He took several classes at Santa Monica City College and Pasadena Art Guild.”

There are a number of charcoal figure works and pastels portraits, then oil landscape and portraits. Dick signed many early works with, Burg. The big portraits started showing up when he had the convenience of the basement space at Muskingum. The Brass Earring is from around that time or slightly later. Dick used this period to experiment and master oil technique.

Castle, Bunker Hill

                                                  Castle, Bunker Hill by Dick Burg
 

While perusing pictures of old Bunker Hill, Los Angeles on the internet I came across an artist by the name Ben Abril and a painting titled Bunker Hill Castle. I couldn’t help remembering my sister Pat relaying a story about a guy my dad painted with around Bunker Hill and vicinity and that this guy ended up having his Bunker Hill paintings in a museum in Los Angeles.  Ben Abril and my dad have a familiar style and a love of architectural structures. That immediately is what caught my eye and encouraged me look up Ben’s background. Ben Abril (1923 –1995) was born in LA, a member of the San Gabriel Art Club, has paintings at Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The name and info added up and the name was starting to feel even more familiar. I remembered seeing, while sorting out the box of ribbons I received from Shirley Kelly Burg, that Ben Abril was one of the judges notated on a First Place ribbons. They were contemporaries:

First Award, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: Sept. 2, 3 &4, 1978
Class: Genre
Event: Fiesta Show
Judge: Ben Abril, Joyce Piler
Name: Santa Monica Pier

                                                 Bunker Hill Castle by Ben Abril

The house that Ben Abril Painted in Bunker Hill Castle is the same house but different perspective painted by Dick that hung in Shirley’s room at Aspen Ridge Retirement Community, Bend, Oregon.

In color comparison of the house, Dick’s in pinkish mauve viewed straight on – Ben’s, bleached blue green grays viewed slightly right of center, exposing the sides.

The Castle was a in the Queen Ann style constructed in the 1880’s and stood at 325 South Bunker Hill Avenue. After escaping demolition, both The Castle and Salt Box were relocate to Heritage Square only to be burned to the ground by vandals in 1969.  

#40 Castle (Bunker Hill) 9x12, framed, acrylic, signed by Dick Burg 
Courtesy of Shirley Kelly Burg estate

 

La Quinta Desert Scapes

#19 La Quinta – 12x20, signed, oil on Masonite board

#98 Early Spring La Quinta –18x24, signed, oil on Masonite board

In the late sixties La Quinta was a spacious rugged dessert 25 miles south of Palm Springs. To the west the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains and the east were some grapefruit groves and more dessert. La Quinta was undeveloped, full of sandy roads, arroyos, iguanas and plenty of rocks. Dick and friend Karl Albert enjoyed capturing scenes in the Coachella valley.

These compact dessert scapes shows a cornucopia of colors in a springtime explosion of fauna below distant hills.                                                                                                                                                                          

  

Market People, Water Color

 As the title indicates this plaza area has a small smattering of shoppers and shopkeepers on their daily routine working and shopping. This watercolor is a rendition of one of Dick’s oil painting. The denizens are dress in more traditional attire of an earlier time which was one of Dick’s pet peeves. He often portrayed his subjects in a more colloquial idiom.   

 #60 Market People – Image is16½x23, frame 24x30, water color, signed

Old Town L.A.

 

From the signature on this oil painting it would be of the Bunker Hill period in Dick’s evolution. The main structure center is juxtaposed with the more modern building on the left, set in the shadowed area to contrast the highlighted front of the older building (Olive Inn).

That the rooming house or apartment is named Olive Inn would indicate it was located on Olive Street, just a block from Hallmark Cards, Incorporated. Hallmark was on 707 South Hill Street, 1020 Foreman Bldg., Los Angeles 14, California. The proximity would lend itself favorable that Dick would have access to numerous buildings in the downtown area.

 On one occasion I accompanied my Dad to his office downtown. It was a bright sunny day on the Santa Monica Freeway and he had the radio tuned in to a news station up pretty loud. I attributed that to the traffic noise and that cars were not as sound proof as today’s models. He was always dressed smartly in suit and tie.   

#126 Old Town L.A. – 18x24, framed, oil, signed (Burg)

 

Morro Bay

 

Dick has painted the Moro Bay vicinity on numerous occasions. Mostly he focuses on various depictions of Moro Rock as subject matter. In this arrangement he has concentrated on a dock and men engaged in fishing and boat activities. The crispness of the foreground in juxtaposition to the eerie boats moored in the distant mist is the prelude to the rising sun trying to burn its way into morning.  

 Early on Dick painted many boat and ocean scenes of San Pedro Harbor and expanded his works with locations along the California coast from Laguna, San Pedro, Santa Monica, Moro Bay, San Simeon, Monterey, and Mendocino.

 The distinctive “Dick Burg dots” are visible in the foreground water.

 #70 Morro Bay – 18x24, framed, acrylic, signed, Masonite board.

San Pedro Tugs

 

Dick executed several paintings of this composition. He was not one to paint on demand, according to my sister Pat, but he did reproduce images that he had an affinity for such as this composition for the purpose of teaching and demonstrations. In these reproductions he continued to master the marine greys of sky and water. This particular copy has a richer orange/red on the rear surfaces of the boats and various highlights elsewhere.

#136 San Pedro Tugs – 18x24, framed, oil, signed, Masonite board.

Temescal Canyon, Pacific Palisades

 Temescal Canyon

 Temescal Canyon is located off Sunset Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades, California. It was the original site of the Chautauqua Conference Grounds established around 1922 by the Methodist minister Rev. Dr. Charles Holmes Scott, founder of the Pacific Palisades. In 1943 the land was purchased by the Presbyterian Synod and used as a private retreat location. In 1994 the land was acquired by the Santa Monica Mountians Conservatory as a public park.

  “Throughout my young years I would wonder the Santa Monica coastal mountains behind my home, which was merely a few block from where I lived on Muskingum Ave. There were short-cuts down to Temescal Canyon. Cutting through the apartments below a vacant lot  off El Medio was the easiest and drops you on Sunset Blvd. where the creek flowed to the ocean. The other way was to walk up to El Medio Place, and hike down into the canyon or take a fire road up to Skull Rock or down to the upper-bridge and hike up the creek from there.

There‘s always the main entrance off of Sunset Boulevard. The area along the creek set in a sycamore forested canyon was owned by the Presbyterian Church. From Sunset, the dirt road meandered along a creek up into the canyon. During World War II service men and their families occupied small cabins that ran along the road for maybe a quarter mile into the mouth of the canyon. Now the cabins were used for various retreats and Presbyterian concerns. The creek originated several miles up in the hills and extended on down to the Pacific Ocean. In the early sixties it was still pristine and teaming with minnows, California Newts, both Mountain King and King snakes, gopher snakes, ringneck, two-line and red racers, Southern-Pacific Rattlesnakes, tree frogs, toads, Red Tail, Coopers and Sparrow hawks, deer, bobcats, skunk, raccoons, coyote, opossum and a plethora of rodents. I enjoyed many hikes and camping out with friends and acquired a vast appreciation of nature” – Peter Burg

Over the years Dick executed quite a number of painting of different sites in Temescal Canyon

 #86 Temescal Canyon – 18X24, framed, oil, signed Masonite board.

 

Southern California Artists at The San Gabriel Fine Arts Gallery

 

Award Ribbons

Dick Burg Ribbons, 1 Best of Show, 10 First Place, 1 second Place, 4 Third Place, 6 Honorable Mention
 
California Art Club, Best Of Show
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: Cal. Gallery Show
Class: Genre
Date: 9-28-75
Judge: Harry Carmean
Name: Harpers Ferry
 
First Place, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, Fine Arts Committee.
Date: March 14-28, 1982
Class: Landscape/Seascape, Oil
Prize: First
Won By: Dick Burg
Judge: Reynold Brown, Morris Shubin, Robert Totters
Name: Parada de Autobus
 
San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, First Place
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: 1975 Fiesta
Class: Seascape/Marine
Date August 30, 1975
Judge: Lloyd Mitchell, Mike Moulton, Bob Uecker
Name: San Pedro Sentinel
 
First Award, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show
Won by: Dick Burg
Date 4-25-82
Class: Seascape – Marine O or A
Event: 18^th SGFAA Open Show
Judge: Chet Callum, Unice Mouchenho, Claire Wiedenaau
Name: Santa Monica Pier
 
San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, First Place
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: 1975 Fiesta Show
Class: Genre
Date August 30, 1975
Judge; Lloyd Mitchell, Mike Moulton, Bob Uecker
Name: Harpers Ferry
 
First Award, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: Sept. 2, 3 &4, 1978
Class: Genre
Event: Fiesta Show
Judge: Ben Abril, Joyce Piler
Name: Santa Monica Pier
 
First Award, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: 8-28-80
Class: Genre
Event: Membership Show
Judge: Iaish McCallie, Daphne Huntington, Karl Albert
Name: Santa Monica Pier on the Beach

San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, First Place
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: 1975 Fiesta
Class: Floral
Date August 30, 1975
Judge; Lloyd Mitchell, Mike Moulton, Bob Uecker
Name: Floral

First Award, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: Spring 1975
Class: Genre
Event: ?
Judge: ?
Name: Santa Monica Pier on the Beach

First Place, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, Fine Arts Committee
Name: Dick Burg
Event: PPC Art Fair
Class: Group: Floral
Date: April 16, 1983
Judge/Official: ?
Name:?

San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, First Place
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: Open Show
Class: Still Life
Date: May 1976
Judge: Ernest Lacy, Jake Lee, Ted Lukits
Name: Fruit

Second Award, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: April 25, 1979
Class: Genre
Event: SGFA 15^th Open
Judge: Daphne Huntington, ?
Name: Santa Monica Pier on the Beach

San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, Third Place
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: 11^th Annual Open Show
Class: Marine Seascape
Date: May 3&4, 1975
Judge: Karl Albert, P. C.?, Darwin Duncan
Name: #108 Laguna Cove

San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, Third Place
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: 11^th  Open Art Show
Class: Landscape
Date: May 3&4, 1975
Judge: Karl Albert, P. C.?, Darwin Duncan
Name: #109 Lonesome Cottage

San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, Third Place
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: 11^th Annual Fiesta
Class: Genre/Misc
Date: Sept. 4-5-6, 1976
Judge: Robert Totten, Jane Friend, Mike Moulton
Name: San Miguel Allende

California Art Club, Third Award
Date: May 9, 1976
Event: Gold Metal Show
Class: Genre
Won By: Dick Burg
Award: 3^rd Place
Judge: L. Kestor NA, G. Gibson NA.AWS, B. Proctor
Name: Harpers Ferry

Honorable Mention, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: April 26, 1983
Class: Landscape/Oil
Event: SGFA Open Show
Judge: Karl Albert, Darwin Duncan, Kolan Peterson
Name: Missouri Moonlight

San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show, Honorable Mention
Winner: Dick Burg
Event: Open Show
Class: Seascape
Date: 4-30 & 5-1, 1977
Judge: Mary Jarrett, Daphne Huntington, James W. McCann
Name: San Pedro Tugs

Honorable Mention, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: 4-27-1980
Class: Marine Landscape
Event: 16^th Ann. Open Show
Judge: Arthur Beeman, Tom Fong
Name: Laguna Cove

Honorable Mention, San Gabriel Fine Arts Association, Art Show
Won By: Dick Burg
Date: 4-24-1989
Class: Genre/animal
Event: Spring shoe ‘89
Judge: D. Grade, S. McKim, D. Shreves
Name: Whistle Stop

California Art Club, Honorable Mention
Date: 5-9-1976
Event: Gold Metal Show
Class: Still Life
Won By: Dick Burg
Award: Hon. Mention
Judge: L. Kestor NA, G. Gibson NA.AWS, B. Proctor
Name: Floral

Pacific Palisades Art Association, Juried Art Exhibit, Honorable Mention
Honorable Mention
Dick Burg
33^rd Pac. Palisades Art Show
May 1983
Parada de Autobus

Pen and Ink circa 1923-24

 

Santa Monica Pier

It is common knowledge that painters reproduce a subject matter or image more than once. For instance Claude Monet’s haystacks, Van Gogh’s sunflowers and Paul Cezanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire are just three examples. Dick’s interest in seascapes and structures lead him to various locations such as San Pedro Harbor, Santa Monica Pier, Morro Bay, Monterey Bay and the Mendocino coastline. The Pier in Santa Monica is a famous landmark and tourist attraction appearing in numerous films and on postcards and was one of Dick’s favorite locations. He produced works of the Boathouse (viewed from the beach), Merry-Go-Round, the Boathouse Café (viewed from on the pier), weekend fishermen casting off the pier and several extended paintings viewed from the Ocean Avenue bluff overlooking the Pier.

This composition of the Santa Monica Pier is an example of Dick’s mature style. His capture of the marine greys and reflection in the shoreline at low tide are wonderfully depicted. The storm scented ocean and figures say so much of the blustery day at the beach. There even seems to be an intimate conversation between the three figures arranged on the sand. The reds and pinks of the building on the pier left and the small skiff on the beach right, tie the scene together and help move the viewer’s eye and add continuity.

Dick submitted versions of the Santa Monica Pier on two occasions to the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Art Show; September of 1978 and April 1982 both garnering first place. One of the judges from the 1978 show was Ben Abril, a contemporary with whom Dick painted on location in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles.

A bit of trivia; an amusing 1948 film noir exists called Pitfall, staring Dick Powell and Lizabeth Scott. There are views of the pier, Santa Monica Incline, bluffs and shoreline while Powell and Scott take a zany motorboat ride. Another noir Quicksand 1950 staring Mickey Rooney and Peter Lorre was shot on location in Santa Monica with exterior scenes at the old Santa Monica Pier.

Santa Monica Pier; 24x30, oil, canvas, framed, signed

Courtesy of Shirley Kelly Burg estate 

Boathouse Café, Santa Monica Pier

 The Boathouse Restaurant was built in 1952 on the Santa Monica Pier. Bubba Grump Shrimp Co. replaced it in 2005. The two story wooden structure sat on the north-west side of the pier with access from the pier and beach. Boathouse Café is viewed from on the pier with pedestrians and sea foul, and cityscape in background as is Dicks’ interpretation. 

#62 Boathouse Café,16x20, framed, oil, signed