Ray Strong

Ray Strong began painting as a high school student, and following graduation in 1924, Strong entered the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and later studied at the Art Students League in New York City. In the early 1930s Strong returned to San Francisco and, along with Maynard Dixon, Van Sloun, and George Post, formed an Art Students League there in 1934. That same year he became a W.P.A. artist and later executed murals for the 1939 World's Fair. Strong's first solo exhibition took place at the Stanford University Art Gallery in 1941. In addition to teaching at the Art Students League that he co-founded, he has taught at Marin Community College and the Art Institute of Santa Barbara. Strong's paintings usually depict the California landscape. He resides in Santa Barbara, where he has completed mural commissions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and other sites.National Museum of American Art(CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996)