Wild Lilac, Santa Barbara

Southern California's spectacular landscape inspired John Gamble to dedicate his career to the study and depiction of the state's wildflowers. After returning from three years of study in Europe, he established his studio in San Francisco. In the early years of his artistic development, he followed "an annual routine of seasonal travel to the southern part of California for sketching the springtime displays of wildflowers... The long list of flowers which would appear in his works included blue and yellow lupines, monkey flowers, sage, wild lilacs, wild buckwheat, owl's clover, among others." (J. Stern, Plein Air Painters of California: The North, Irvine, California, 1986, pp. 75-76)

After his San Francisco studio was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, Gamble decided to relocate to Los Angeles. However, "on the trip south he arrived in Santa Barbara on Christmas Eve and was so taken by the beauty of the town and landscape that he altered his plans and settled permanently in that small coastal community." (J. Stern, p. 77) This event proved to be most fortuitous and as a result, "by the 1920s, Gamble was recognized as the pre-eminent Santa Barbara painter. His fame as a painter of wildflowers grew to national proportions and he had trouble getting enough paintings together for exhibitions." (J. Stern, p. 77) In fact, his work was so popular that "visitors to his studio were disappointed to find only a few paintings for sale as he claimed that he was under contract with Eastern dealers to buy everything he could send them." (J. Stern, p. 77)