Landscape painter William Alexander Gaw was born in San Francisco, California in 1891. His father, Hugh Gaw, was also an artist, a watercolorist. With an early interest in art, Gaw enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute as a youth. There he studied under James Martin Griffin, a landscape painter.

Gaw exhibited his work in the San Francisco area in 1912 before moving to Berkeley by 1923. He spent the rest of his life there and painted many landscapes inspired by his local surroundings. Later in his career Gaw lectured on the science of color and technique.

He was known to have painted using bright colors and experimented in both Cubist and Post-Impressionist art forms. Gaw was also a teacher in the 1930's at the Californi...