Mount Diablo School of Art and Literature

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[edit] Mount Diablo School of Art and Literature

The Mount Diablo School of Art and Literature is centered around one of California's most famous peaks, 3894' Mt. Diablo in the San Francisco East Bay. Early work centered on exploration, surveying and was related to the rise and popularization of tourism in the Pacific west. This identifiable school was heightened by early tourism promoters, the beginnings of the area's preservation and the rise of the environmental movement. It was accelerated by artists associated with the University of California at Berkeley, the California College of Arts, the actions of the organizations Save Mount Diablo and the Mt. Diablo Interpretive Association, and area art centers, galleries, and museums. In modern times the School has been most strongly represented in plein aire painting, especially the group Artists for Action, and photography.

Members of the School include classical writers such as William Brewer, Richard Henry Dana, Alexander Dumas, Bret Harte, and the Reverend Thomas Starr King, and modern ones such as Mark Allen Cunningham. Poets whose work features the mountain include Philip Lamantia and Helen Pinkerton.

Early painters include Thomas Almond Ayres, Eugene Camerer, W. H. Dougal, Eduard Hildebrandt, Charles Hittell, Edward Jump, William Keith, John Ross Key, Charles Koppel, Edward Lehman, Pascal Loomis, Henry Miller, Joseph Warren Revere, through Clarkson Dye and others, to modern painters such as Robert Becker, Frank J. Bette, Ruth Breve, Betty Boggess Lathrap, Paul Carey, Bob Chapla, Mary Lou Correia, Ellen Curtis, Pam Della, Susan Dennis, Warren Dreher, John Finger, Pam Glover, JoAnn Hanna, Peg Humphreys, Don Irwin, Jeanne Kapp, Geri Keary, Chris Kent, Paul Kratter, Eunice Kritscher, Fred Martin, Cathy Moloney, Shirley Nootbaar, Charlotte Panton, Greg Piatt, Kenneth Potter, Ocean Quigley, Don Reich, Mary Silverwood, Barbara Stanton, Bruce Stangeland, Marty Stanley, and even the recognized comic book painter Dan Brereton.

Photographers include Ansel Adams, Cleet Carlton, Alfred A. Hart, Scott Hein, Stephen Joseph, Don Paulson, Brad Perks, Robert Picker, Richard Rollins, David Sanger, and Michael Sewell.

The mountain has inspired musical artists ranging from Kronos Quartet to commissioned works by the California Symphony.