‘A Brush with the Past’ at Sonoma’s Depot Museum

Sonoma has had a long history of the arts, documented by early travelers and resident artists. Some of these enduring works are included in “A Brush with the Past,” an exhibition now open at Sonoma’s Depot Park Museum.

Curated by former board president, Carol Page, and Daniel Bueglemann, the show explores works, from the Sonoma Valley Historical Society archives and some on loan, by artists who lived or worked in Sonoma from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.

The collection contains the original works of artists many of whom are important not only in Sonoma but nationally, Page said. “The exhibit evolves through early explorers illustrating a newly ’discovered’ country of the 1800s, Jack London’s creative circle of the early 20th century, to the 1960/70 Sonoma artists living in the hills and Valley of Sonoma often painting in Plein Air style.”

One such painter was Tilden Daken — shown painting in Marin County — who lived in Sonoma from 1906 to 1911. Prolific and adventuresome, Daken captured in oils the grandeur of the High Sierra, California redwoods, the rolling hills of Marin and Sonoma counties, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and other distant and scenic locales.

Among his 4,000 paintings are underwater scenes painted while submerged beneath the sea in a custom-built diving bell.

Depot Park Museum, 271 First St. W.