Raised on a Wyoming ranch and began painting about 1930 when working as the postmaster of Oro Frande, CA. Studied with Edgar Payne and Sam Hyde Harris and then attended the Los Angeles Art Center. During World War II Albert began work as an engineer making products vital to the war effort while studying at the Art Center School in Pasadena. After a year in Cuernavaca, Mexico in the mid-1940s, he returned to Southern California becoming an active artist in Long Beach and later in Alhambra. Retiring from engineering in 1967, he began painting full-time. Before 1960, he did a lot of plein-air landscape painting but then switched to a tighter, studio-painting style. In his later years, he moved to New Mexico and then to Italy with his daughter.

Member: Laguna Beach Art Assoc.; San Gabriel Artists Guild.

Exhibitions: San Gabriel Artists Guild, 1937.

Collections: Santa Fe Museum.

Biography submitted by Nancy Moure (December 2022)

Albert, Karl Vernon (aka Vernon Karl Albert) (1911-2007) (Oro Grande / Victorville / Alhambra)

Karl Vernon Albert was born September 12, 1911 in Halstead, Kansas, to William Elwood Wood Albert and Anna Marie Babcock. At the age of 18 (in 1930) he was residing with his parents in Oro Grande, a few miles north of Victorville, Ca., in the Mojave desert. Although he had been painting desert scenes since the early 1930s, his main job was as postmaster of the town.

His art talent was “discovered” in 1937 when Dr. Jack Loop of the San Gabriel Artist’s Guild happened across some of his landscapes displayed at the Green Spot Annex in Victorville. Loop immediately arranged several one-man shows for Albert in the greater Los Angeles area. About 1940 Albert married, moved to Alhambra and took a job as an electronics engineer in Anaheim.

He also ramped up his painting and exhibiting. He was referred to as a “protégé of Edgar Payne.” He was also a member of the Spectrum Club of businessmen-painters in Long Beach. Although he is best known for his paintings of the desert, he also depicted views of the High Sierra and in 1947 even spent 3 months in Mexico. Later he roamed more widely throughout the west and also taught art. He painted realistically and his colors are true to the desert.

Albert died March 11, 2007 in Nevada City, Ca. (Facts gleaned from citations in PSCA, v. 13, no. 7.)

Born in Halstead, KS on Sept. 12, 1911. Albert grew up in Wyoming and moved to southern California with his family in 1923. He began painting about 1930 while working as a postmaster in Oro Grande, a small town in the Mojave desert.

In 1933 he met Edgar Payne and studied with him for two years while on painting forays into the High Sierra and the desert around Palm Springs. He then studied with Sam Hyde Harris at the Businessmen's Art Institute in Los Angeles.

During WWII he began work as an engineer making products vital to the war effort while studying at the Art Center School in Pasadena. After a year in Cuernavaca, Mexico in the mid-1940s, he returned to Los Angeles.

Retiring from engineering in 1967, he began painting full-time at his home in Arcadia, CA. Before 1960 he painted impressionist canvases en plein air, but then confined his painting to his studio, producing works in a much tighter style. He currently lives with his daughter in Italy.

Member: Spectrum Club (Long Beach); Laguna Beach AA; San Gabriel Artists Guild. Exh: San Gabriel Artists Guild, 1937 (1st solo); Desert Southwest Gallery (Palm Springs), 1964.

Born in Hallstead, Kansas, Karl Albert became known for his paintings of the High Sierras and desert landscapes. He grew up in Southern California, and began painting about 1930 while working as the postmaster of Oro Grande, a small town in the Mohave Desert.

He first studied with Edgar Payne and Sam Hyde Harris and then attended the Los Angeles Art Center. He spent a year in Mexico and then in the late 1940s, moved to Southern California, becoming an active artist in Long Beach and later in Alhambra. Before 1960, he did a lot of plein-air landscape painting but then switched to a tighter, studio-painting style. In his later years, he moved to New Mexico and then to Italy with his daughter.

Sources:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940
Peter Hastings Falk (editor), Who Was Who in American Art
Gordon McClelland and Jay Last, California Watercolors, 1850-1970