Artist Biography

Known as a writer as well as an artist and teacher, Ralph Holmes distinguished himself as a mural painter in Pittsburgh and New York before moving to California where he had a long teaching and painting career. His landscapes of Yosemite and Bryce Canyon, as well as the desert and rolling hills of Southern California brought him national fame.

Holmes was born in La Grange, Illinois in 1876. He attended Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago before studying in Paris. From 1903 to 1912, Holmes was on the faculty of the Art Institute of Chicago. He then spent five years as Chair of the Department of Painting and Decorating at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. 

In 1916, Holmes went west, spending the summer on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. In 1918, he moved to Atascadero in Southern California and became a teacher at the Otis Art Institute from 1923 to 1948. For 25 years, he was also an art instructor at the Marlborough School for Girls. He served as art editor and writer for E.G. Lewis's Illustrated Review; was a four-term president of the California Art Club; was president of "Art in National Defense" during WWII; and was a member of the Academy of Western Painters.