Shell on the Sand

After her marriage to Paul Strand in 1922, and subsequent introduction to Alfred Stieglitz's circle of avant-garde artists, Rebecca Salsbury (Strand) James' interest in art piqued. With no formal art training, James was forced to hone her own strengths and formulate a signature style. Thankfully, James was able to draw inspiration from her friend, Georgia O'Keeffe, who by now was already a celebrated artist, while the two painted side-by-side in Taos, New Mexico. The women shared ideas and techniques, which ultimately led to James' adoption of her preferred medium; reverse oil-on-glass painting. James embraced O'Keeffe's preference for a palette that was a pane of clear glass. Upon cleaning her palette, James was awe struck by the effect of the paint on the glass surface. This discovery, combined with her appreciation of reverse oil-on-glass paintings by early American folk artists, as well the artistic experiments undertaken by another friend, Marsden Hartley, led James to commit herself to this style of painting. She continued to work in this manner for the remainder of her career and made subsequent visits to Taos, even after she and Strand had divorced. It was on one of these visits that James befriended a fellow artist, Cady Wells, to whom this work was dedicated.