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SPECIAL ADVERTORIAL FEATURE American West and Classic 20th Century Desert Artists By Pamela Bieri For a glimpse of the raw, breathtaking beauty of the American West — particularly the Coachella Valley that is now disappearing to urban growth — visit The Gallery at Rancho Ellenita, an intimate fine arts gallery in the heart of the desert’s agricultural and equestrian region. Just east of Monroe street on Avenue 54 in Vista Santa Rosa, the red brick 1950’s era gallery is the perfect venue for viewing the rare collections of classic 20th century Desert and California landscape paintings, many by Coachella Valley artists who lived here in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. The gallery was once the ranch manager’s home at the original R.V. Lloyd Ranch, now named Rancho Ellenita. Ellen Lloyd Trover and daughter Florence Trover, second and third generations at Rancho Ellenita, are now cultivating the gallery’s fine arts collection as lovingly as the luscious Ellenita Brand tomatoes that were once grown on the ranch. Large picture windows and upper transom panes in the wood-paneled gallery allow the ever-shifting desert light to illuminate the landscapes, sculpture, pottery, and kachinas. The collection of works by noted artists — some of whom Ellen knew as a child growing up in the East Valley — and fine arts of and by Native American artists is complemented by equine, and wildlife-themed artwork by prominent Australian painter Margaret Waterhouse. The Gallery at Rancho Ellenita is the exclusive United States representative for Waterhouse’s work. Daughter of the legendary horseracing magnate JK (Gentleman Jack) Waterhouse, her pallet-etched oil paintings have a mystical quality. A passionate landscape photographer herself, Ellen is currently working on a series titled Once Upon A Time, endeavoring to capture some of the lost images of her desert childhood, such as a deserted ranch and a shot-up car abandoned in the desert. Her photographs also capture the lyrical beauty of a silver moon balancing on the cusp of a purple ridge; hazy rain spilling down brown mountains, creating a watercolor effect; and the abstract form of gray green prickly pear blooming in her own garden. Her signature photographs and photo note cards are available at the gallery. Among the gallery’s distinctive 20th century finds is artist John Hilton whose poetic oil landscapes reflect sunlight on clouds moving across the desert. Hilton’s work was first exhibited at the Desert Magazine’s art gallery in the 1940s, a venture owned by Palm Desert pioneer, writer, and entrepreneur Randall Henderson. Other classic California oil painters include Carl Sammons, another local artist from the 1940s, as well as desert landscape masters Paul Grimm, Clyde Forsythe, Agnes Pelton, and Marjorie Jane Reed, whose blue, almost impressionistic, oil-on-canvas paintings often depict the famed Butterfield Overland line. The gallery also features Native American pottery, jewelry, weavings, kachinas, and sculpture. Members of the Southwest Association of Indian Art, Ellen and Florence attend art fairs in Santa Fe, NM, and travel to the Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo Indian reservations. Native artist White Swann’s evocative pottery is among works by contemporary artists. Now retired from 30 years of active law practice in Ventura County to run Rancho Ellenita and the gallery, Ellen is on the governing boards of the Riverside County Farm Bureau and the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy. Florence — a graphic artist and Web page designer, who graduated from her mother’s alma mater, Vassar College, and did graduate work in mixed media at Napier University in Edinburgh — is a partner in Rancho Ellenita and the gallery. Rancho Ellenita is still a working ranch, currently growing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern tree crops such as Black Mission and Brown Turkey figs, Medjool dates, and Palestinian sweet limes. The gallery is open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until sunset and by appointment. THE GALLERY AT RANCHO ELLENITA
82-150 Avenue 54, Vista Santa Rosa, CA 92274
(1 mile south of Empire & El Dorado Polo Clubs)
(760) 398-8326 More Information - Websites, Maps and Directions
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