Submitted by Nancy Moure, Independent Art Researcher

“Riley Paints the West… Art Riley has trudged the backroads away from the beaten trail with easel, board and knapsack to paint the beauty of Tahquitz Falls near Palm Springs. He has withstood the desert heat and swirling sand to capture the romance of the old mines at Rosmond on the California desert. The 44-year Burbank resident has even made regular trips from his home to San Pedro over a two-year period to capture the intricacies of the Vincent Thomas Bridge construction project… Riley’s work frequently appears in Ford Times Magazine… His most recent project was illustrating an Erle Stanley Garner article, ‘The West is Waiting to be Discovered,’ for Ford Times’ Western Journeys, a special vacation travel edition.

Riley finds a great deal of satisfaction in every phase of his work. He has been a Disney Studio designer and artist for 30 years. During this time, he has also become a successful painter. This was pointed out in the February, 1966, edition of American Artist. Riley did both the watercolors and a story in that edition. It was noted … ‘Art Riley was born in Boston in 1911, studied at the Art Center School in Los Angeles and watercolor with Barse Miller. He has also worked as a color photographer for many national publications and as an illustrator in the motion picture industry. He received numerous awards for watercolor, including Purchase Award (1963), Butler Art Institute; Olsen Award (1965) and nonmember award (1964), American Watercolor Society; Ranger Fund Purchase, National Academy (1964) and others in California and Missouri.’

For the story and watercolors in the American Artist piece, Riley made frequent trips to the construction site of the bridge which now connects San Pedro with Terminal Island. …. Riley came out of it with a deep knowledge of bridge construction and a satisfaction that he has captured the great project on canvas. He attempted to depict the ‘mood’ of the bridge during rain in the early hours, the late evening and whenever an important phase of the project was about to begin. While at one time he did portraits and still life scenes, he now works mainly in watercolors, which he says gives him greatest satisfaction.

Currently Riley is doing a series of six paintings of Laguna Beach to appear concurrently with the Laguna Beach Festival in Ford Times. He divides his time between his Burbank home and another residence on the Monterey Peninsula. His paintings are displayed at many galleries, and he has won many awards at the Monterey County Fair. The artist should be considered a successful man by anybody’s standards, but Riley believes that success is in the eyes of the beholder. ‘Achievement is in other people’s minds… You have to put your inner feelings into your work… You must get satisfaction out of your own expression whether it be a writer or a painter… In painting like writing, an artist must be fascinated by the world around him…’ An artist can be fascinated by a freeway overpass, a construction project, a steam plant or even the outline of a county courthouse. Art Riley will continue to travel the back roads of North America, seeking that mining town, fishing boat or whatever else he is interested in so that he can outline his love affair with the life around him,”

Source:
Press Democrat (newspaper Santa Rosa, Ca.), Aug. 21, 1966, p. 25 (i.e., “The Arts,” p. 98).

Additional material can be found in:
Nancy Moure, “Central Coast Artist Visitors before 1960,” (PUBLICATIONS IN CALIFORNIA ART, VOL. 13, NO. VII), Cambria, Ca.: Dustin Publications, 2022.

Biography provided courtesy of "California Watercolors 1850-1970" By Gordon T. McClelland and Jay T. Last.

Art Riley (1911-1998)... Born: Boston, MA

Studied: Art Center School (Los Angeles)

Member: California Water Color Society, American Watercolor Society.

Art Riley settled in the Los Angeles area in the early 1930s. He studied watercolor painting with Barse Miller and then began working at the Walt Disney Studios. For nearly thirty years, he produced art work for animated feature films including background watercolors for Cinderella, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other classic Disney productions. When Disneyland was created in the 1950s, he painted watercolor illustrations showing what the park would look like.

For many years, Riley also produced fine art watercolors that he exhibited nationally. They often depicted regional scenes near his home in Burbank and his second home on the Monterey Peninsula.

Biographical information:

Interview with Art Riley, 1983.

Born: Boston, MA

Education: Art Center School of Los Angeles

Spent 30 years in the motion picture business, 5 years at Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studio; 25 years at Walt Disney Productions; made paintings and color photo assignments for Ford and Lincoln Times Magazines; also color photos appearing in Saturday Evening Post, Life Magazine, Arizona Highways, Yachting Magazine, Western Horseman, Christmas Card Designs for California Artists Card Company; Seal Beach California since its inception, and United States Air Force.

Painter. Born in Boston, MA on Sept. 14, 1911. Riley settled in Los Angeles in the 1930s. He was a pupil of Barse Miller. He painted many scenes of Los Angeles and Monterey where he had a second home. From 1938-66 he painted backgrounds for Disney Studios. Riley died in Monterey, CA on Dec. 28, 1998. Exh: Calif. WC Society, 1937.