Ralph LOVE
1907 - 1992
Ralph Love was born in Los Angeles, California on April 18, 1907. At 17 he had his own sign shop where his work ranged from gold leaf printing to billboards. For 25 years he was a pastor and evangelist as well as a painter. He studied painting briefly with Sam Hyde Harris and Edgar Payne, but was mostly self-taught. In 1940 he moved to Yucaipa, California and began teaching painting. He later taught at the Laguna Beach School of Art & Design, often judged at the Laguna Festival of Arts, and was guest instructor at the school in Pescadero. He made many painting trips to the Grand Canyon resulting in Arizona Highways featuring him on a cover in the 1960s. Love was a resident of Temecula, California and active as an artist until his demise in nearby Escondido on May 25, 1992. Exhibited: San Gabriel Artists Guild, 1945; Laguna Beach Art Ass'n, 1945-63; Artists Barn (LA), 1946; De Young Museum, 1953, 1959, 1965; Society of Western Artists, 1956; National Orange Show, 1958; Riverside Art Ass'n, 1964. Works held: Palm Springs Desert Museum; Mission Inn Museum (Riverside); Grand Canyon Visitors Center; Leanin' Tree Museum (Boulder, CO); Northern Arizona Museum (Flagstaff).