LaVere Hutchings was born in Lewisville, Idaho, in l9l8. He was the oldest of five children and the son of two School teachers, themselves, the grandchildren of Mormon pioneers. I have tried to include a short genealogy as well as a personal history of Mr. Hutchings.

As he grew and matured into a teenager, he was already aware of his artistic gifts. His home was modest in material things, but rich in the value of art and music. His mother, Mellie Hutchings, was the force behind a family of overachievers. Each of his three sisters, and his baby brother were instructed in all phases of music. LaVere learned the violin at an early age, but foreswore it to pick up a pencil and brushes.

His three sisters, Josephine, Grace, and Margaret, have lived their lives as virtuoso musicians accompanists, and composers. And his youngest brother Thomas, was a concert pianist, who played in Alice Tully Hall in New York. LaVere marched to a different drummer.

As a child he would travel sketch book in hand to the favorite fishing haunts with his father, Price. He graduated from high school first in his class. And went off to College, first Utah State, then BYU, and finally Idaho state University in Pocatello Idaho. He graduated and was married just in time to go to war. He left his beloved wife, Anne, and two small daughters to go to the Philippines.

His talents as an artist were recognized and he was assigned to instruct his fellow GI's in the visual arts. When his third child was born in l945 he was allowed to return to his wife and children in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Jobs were hard to come by, and he took what was available. After working for a few months as an auto mechanic, he decided that he needed to work in the arts to feel complete. He started a little company called Hutchings Sign Company. Later this was shortened to Hutch's Sign Shop, and eventually Hutch Neon Sign Company. And he developed a successful business making signs. He lettered trucks, did gold leaf lettering on bank windows, and eventually, over the next 20 years, put up highway signs, and neon signs all over south eastern Idaho.

He was a dedicated husband. A strict father, and a sensitive, determined artist. He continued to paint this entire period of his life. He made himself a little studio in the basement of his home and painted almost daily. This was no minor accomplishment after a day of running a complicated business followed by the wrangling involved with 5 small children. From the mid l950's to the late 60's, he painted almost exclusively in oils. And not surprisingly, the trials and pressures of his life spilled over into his painting. Many of his pieces showed two roads ahead with the viewer standing at the fork. . His professional life had come into conflict with his true passion.

In l970, the year he turned 52, he sold his business, the family home and all of his artwork. He proceeded to drive with his wife Anne, from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Woodstock, New York to study with John Pike, a famous American watercolorist who periodically contributed cover art for the Saturday Evening Post. He had decided to change his life, and his art medium.

LaVere always considered watercolor to be the pinnacle of the visual arts. It required patience, control, and talent. Lots of talent. The three months he was in Woodstock gave him the first glimpse into his next 30 years. He fell in love with watercolor. He loved the luminosity, the transparency, and the elegance. He knew it would be an uphill climb, but he had always climbed uphill.

When he left Woodstock at the end of the summer of '68', he had his first art show in New York City. The show was cut short by a summer downpour, and he sold only one small painting, but he had made his decision. From now on he would only work as a watercolorist. He drove to Los Angeles, got a small apartment in Santa Monica, and started painting and exhibiting at street shows in Los Angeles. At the end of his first year he had sold over 80 paintings. He felt it was a noble start.

LaVere was a very private, complex man who pushed himself into a public arena. It tempered him as an artist and demanded that he get better and better. His years in Los Angeles brought out both the fierce competitor, and the gentle artist. He had to paint to sell, and he had to sell to survive. He did both.

He entered every juried show he could find, and sought initiation into the elite watercolor guilds. He became a member of the Society of Western Artists, the East Bay Watercolor Society, the Central California Art League, and the Midwest Watercolor Society. He became a member of the National Watercolor Society, while still in Los Angeles, and would include this tag with his signature on paintings he felt especially proud of. In addition, his foremost and most prestigious organization was the Whiskey Painters of America.. He signed many paintings as such.

People started collecting his work. He painted the piers of Santa Monica, and traveled up and down the coast painting the beaches, and boats, and reflections. Because of his experiences in business, he wished to remain independent. He sold his own work, and stayed away from the professional galleries. As a result, he never got the media attention, just the attention of his collectors. During his years in Santa Monica he sold almost everything he painted. This gallery has only a few select pieces from his Los Angles period. He kept the first painting made into a Hallmark Card. All the others are in the hands of his collectors.

As his painting and showing started to become a grind in a big city where being creative can levy a heavy tax, he decided to search out a special place where he could live and paint for the remainder of his days. He and his life partner, Anne, left Los Angeles to pursue a quieter life in the Mother Lode country outside of Yosemite Park in Central California. He bought a home and built an art gallery in Jamestown, California, outside of Sonora.

It took him 60 years but he was finally home again. He loved the old buildings and small towns, the simple lifestyle of painting without the grind of selling. And perhaps the most important reason for this move was that it was what Anne wanted. Anne, his dear, dedicated and loving wife needed the country. She also helped him see. She was his best critic, gently pushing him away from or toward a style or color scheme. He was not a man to take orders, or hear criticism. He could take it from Anne.

He did quite well in this little community. He wrote two books for Walter Foster. "Lets paint old shacks and barns", and "Painting waterfalls and rivers". And started giving workshops in the medium he loved. He traveled every summer giving workshops as far away as Georgia until his health became poor in l986. The doctors determined that he had cancer and gave him only a few days to live, but he fought his way back to good health and for the next five years produced many of his most beautiful pieces. He also wrote a third book, "Make your watercolors sing". Which found it's way onto the shelves of thousands of watercolor students throughout America.

As he painted the back roads and towns and people of the mother lode Anne became ill. Where LaVere had rallied, she however would not, and in l997 she passed away and took with her most of LaVere's passion for living. Anne had taken on the role of art dealer, curator, and historian. The rough almost paranoid manner of LaVere was softened and paired by Anne's gentle loving ways.

LaVere would continue to paint for the next two years, but his work lost it's color. He lived alone, staunch in his desire for independence from everyone. He lived the end of his life as he always had, painting, sketching, and painting some more. In the spring of l999 while preparing for his spring show, he had a stroke and lay unconscious for eight days. Mercifully, he never recovered. There would have been no life for him without his beloved art. It was what he was ...a watercolorist.

This gallery is a loving tribute to a true American artist, by his children and grandchildren.