Elsie Lower Pomeroy

California Gold Country was a favorite painting destination for Elsie Lower Pomeroy. This sweet little watercolor, probably painted in the early 1940s, is The Red Castle in Nevada City, CA. The four story Gothic Revival mansion was built In 1860 and today is the earliest surviving brick home in the area. It graces Prospect Hill and was a beloved B&B for fifty years before it closed in 2014 (see image on @elsielowerpomeroy Instagram post).

This sweet little watercolor Spring Harmonies by Elsie was probably painted in either Banning or Beaumont, California. It shows the snowy peak of San Jacinto peering out above what are surely blooming almond orchards. At the time, Banning was known as “Almond Town” and was a favorite spring attraction for its own version of a showy super bloom. This is such a classic Elsie scene celebrating both the beauty and the agricultural landscape of California. If my research is correct, 100% of almonds grown in the USA are grown in CA (that represents 80% of worldwide production). However, Banning (in So Calif) is no longer a major almond growing area with most of the crop now in the Central Valley. See Instagram post for historic photos of possible location.

Behold one of Elsie’s many winter scenes of life in Washington D.C. painted in 1935. Back in the day, the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool doubled as a makeshift ice rink! See Instagram post for historic photos.

This is the jewel in a group of paintings I picked up in Palo Alto in January 2019. The paintings were donated to the Friends of Palo Alto Library (FOPAL) by the daughter of their original owner and FOPAL found me online to see if our family wanted them returned (YES! thank you). Carrot Bunching c. 1939-40 is an incredible Depression-era scene of migrant workers likely from Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri doing the back-breaking and meticulous work of pulling and bunching carrots (probably) somewhere near the Coachella Valley. 🥕

Elsie paints the scene of these incredibly hard working men, women, and kids using the very familiar language of another, much better known woman artist, photographer Dorothea Lange. Lange is recognized as one of the leading chroniclers of Depression era California farm labor, thanks to the US government support of artists through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA). Check out the Instagram post with several of Lange’s own scenes of carrot bunching taken at almost the exact same time between 1937-40 in Southern California. 🥕

Although Elsie was not associated with the FSA, she too was a chronicler of early-to-mid 20th century agricultural life in California. Trained as a young USDA botanical artist, spouse of an early California pomologist, and resident of a growing Riverside, CA this was part of her everyday life and surroundings. After painting Carrot Bunching the work traveled quite a bit across California and the U.S. being shown in Oakland, New York, and the San Francisco Women Artists Association (I’m thankful that the exhibition labels are still with the work). I am so happy to have this wonderful painting back in the family collection. It’s now one of my favorite Elsie works.

Here is a sweet little watercolor by Elsie painted c. 1934 of the gorgeous backyard garden planted and nurtured by husband Carl Stone Pomeroy. As a pomologist at the nearby Citrus Experiment Station in Riverside, CA, Carl knew a thing or two about cultivating all variety of plants (is that Pampas grass I see?). Thanks to Google Maps it’s easy to track down a picture of their former home—a sweet little Craftsman bungalow near downtown. I wonder if Carl planted any of the trees that are still standing there today?