Stanford Stevens (1897-1974) was an American artist who specialized in watercolor and drawing. He lived in and around Tucson, Arizona from the 1930s though his death in 1974 exhibiting extensively in the Southwest, throughout the United States and Mexico.
Life Stevens was born in St. Albans, Vermont in 1897. He received an A.B. from Harvard in 1919, specializing in Fine Arts. He studied at the Academia Julien in Paris for two years, and one year in New York City under George Pierce Ennis and Guy Pène du Bois.Art in the Santa Cruz Valley, exhibition catalog, Stanford Stevens, 1964
Stevens exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais in Paris and leading watercolor shows throughout the United States most notably the American Water Color Society, the Boston Society of Watercolor Painters, and the Philadelphia Watercolor Show.
Tucson, Arizona In the 1930s Stevens moved to Tucson and for many years showed regularly at the Arizona Inn and was associated with the Gerry Peirce Gallery. At the start of World War II he took at job with Consolidated Vultee plant in Tucson, which manufactured aircraft.Stevens, Stanford, Arizona Daily Star, Defense Worker Artist Tells of His Experiences in Tunisia, May 13, 1943
He had numerous solo exhibitions including: Macbeth Gallery in New York; Copley Galleries, Boston; Gibbs Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina; Camelback Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona; Fine Arts Gallery, Tucson, Arizona; Pan American Gallery, San Antonio; Closson Galleries, Cincinnati; Joslyn Memorial Museum, Omaha; and in Houston, Mexico City, Guanajuato and Guadalajaro.Arizona Daily Star, Stanford Stevens Paintings to be Exhibited at Gallery, December 25, 1938
Stevens was a member of the 261 Gallery Group and had a solo exhibition at the gallery in April 1952. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society for over 25 years. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Wood Gallery, Montpelier, Vermont; Rockland Gallery, Maine; and the Ford Foundation and International Business Machine Collections.Art in the Santa Cruz Valley, exhibition catalog, Stanford Stevens, 1964
On December 20, 1974 Sevens died at his home in the colonial Mexican Silver town of Alamos. Mexico.Arizona Daily Star, Area Artist's Burial Service Held in Mexico, December 21, 1974
Philosophy Stevens wrote in his published “Notes for a Painting Class.” In 1956 “Most of watercolor painting is done best before you start to paint, that may be true of any form of art, but I think it applies most to watercolor. It is what you do beforehand, how you think out your subject, and how you plan its execution; those are the things that count most in the end.Stevens, Stanford, Notes for a Painting Class, 1956
Notes
References Art in the Santa Cruz Valley, exhibition catalog, Stanford Stevens, 1964 Stevens, Stanford, Notes for a Painting Class, 1956