August 27, 2020

My donation of City of Night to the William H. Hannon Library’s Department of Archives and Special Collections at Loyola Marymount University has now been completed. I am delighted! I know Loyola will cherish the history recorded by this painting as much as it does the art itself.

The scene depicted here could only have been of Los Angeles at night, and with the extravagances of the movie industry. Searchlights were used to announce any new openings. Car dealers used them to herald a new model just in from Europe.

Only in LA could you see lights of these cars flowing swiftly through the wide-open canyon roads that led down to the ocean.

Where else could you find the romantic stories of the Venetian Canals and bridges in the middle of all this?

Tall derricks, another part of Los Angeles history, lead up to the reflecting clouds above. Painted in 1962, City of Night shows a time, mid-century, when past and future collided here with great impact.

The perfect home for my painting of City of Night, Loyola Marymount University, is located in the City of Night and part of its history.

I hope you enjoy this painting and my other artworks of Venice, Playa del Rey, and Marina Del Rey in the 1960s.

Many are on display in our THEN & NOW project (http://blackgoldprints.com/) to show the THEN, and Tom Pollack is photographing the exact locations as they are today for the NOW.  We will be including stories to go with each painting. And Tom will be adding maps to show the exact location. Less known bits of history are inserted and footnoted to give a deeper understanding of this unique spot of earth on our planet.

My friend Connie Underhill said, “When I look at these paintings and photos of today I can feel the difference between what things are now and what they were, and see that development has completely obliterated the past“.  Come back with us to the past.

This is a work in progress with much more to come.

August 21st, 2020

I have just realized a goal of 25 years—for David Coons to scan my 40”x70” original painting of “City of Night”.*

David Coons invented the world’s first flatbed scanner big enough to scan the original painting instead of a photograph of the painting.

(Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Coons )

(link to The Fine Art of Giclée http://blackgoldprints.com/the-fine-art-of-giclee/ )

His first scanner was for photographs. It was built for scanning those taken by his partner, Graham Nash, of Crosby, Stills, & Nash, an excellent photographer.

David left Nash Editions to build bigger and better scanners. His first large scanner was in the garage of his home in Manhattan Beach.

A Quality Scan is the first step in “The Fine Art of Giclée”

In 1995 David scanned JoAnn’s first painting of Orange County titled “First Blooming” an 18”x 24” canvas that stretched the limits of his scanner. To scan “City of Night” at the time would have been impossible.

Technology in scanning and printing has advanced dramatically in the past 25 years. David has recently scanned “City of Night” in one scan on his most advanced scanner. “City of Night”, painted in 1962, is a difficult painting to scan and proof because it is painted on canvas with layers of glazes of color one over the other.

A wonderful thing about Giclée is it can be enlarged without loss of quality. JoAnn specializes in large prints. The enlargement can provide more of the detail and drama of the painting.  This becomes an art form of its own. JoAnn’s Giclées are spectacular reproductions of her art. “The first step in producing “The Fine Art of Giclée” is getting the best scan possible.”*

JoAnn’s paintings can be enlarged on canvas 58 inches proportionally to 40 feet. For extra-large reproductions, the image can be divided into vertical panels up to 58 inches wide.

*quotes JoAnn Cowans

August 15. 2019

Brea Museum Collection

Brea Museum, Jeff Cooper 

A recent acquisition to the Brea Museum’s permenant collection of JoAnn Cowans’ 6’3”x4’8” Giclée Reproduction of “Derricks After the Rain” is shown above. This first “Specialty Enlargement” was donated to the museum by Jeffrey Cooper of Cooper and Brain Inc., a two-generation family owned oil company in Brea, California.

At an event in August honoring the company, Jeff Cooper accepts a plaque engraved to Cooper and Brain Inc. that features a small giclée print of the same painting.

JoAnn, an internationally known artist/historian is now specializing in these custom sized larger prints. Images include much of her other work also. They are now available nationally and may be released internationally in the future.

Note: Linda Shay, Executive Director and Curator comment:
“First, the canvas of Derricks after the Rain is AMAZING. The board was blown over, they each had to go right up to it and prove it was not an oil painting. It is phenomenal.
Again JoAnn, thank you for all your efforts. You are an incredibly talented artist and we are honored to work with you.”

JoAnn is the only artist to have won the Petroleum History Institutes prestigious “Keeper of the Flame” award.

Jeff Cooper is on the Board of Directors of CIPA, California Independent Petroleum Association.

JoAnn Cowans
Black Gold Prints
714.990.9122

THINK BIG! ©

AN EXCITING NEW DEVELOPMENT

Custom Gallery and Mural* Giclée Print on Canvas

Below are photos of my first Custom Gallery and Mural* Giclée Print on Canvas.  They were taken at the frame shop that did the stretching. This Giclée is 75” tall and 56” wide. It is the first I’ve done larger than the 40 x 70” City of Night and a perfect focal point for the Brea Museum. This image has long been identified with Brea and was placed on the trail signs of the Brea Olinda Oil Museum.

Most of my images are available in these custom sizes. This print of Derricks After the Rain” is now located in the Brea Museum and Historical Society’s large first floor meeting and events room as part of their permanent collection.

For more information: j.cowansoriginals@gmail.com

Again JoAnn, thank you for all your efforts. You are an incredibly talented artist and we are honored to work with you.”

California History as Recorded by JoAnn Cowans

Click HERE to view

August 27, 2020

My donation of City of Night to the William H. Hannon Library’s Department of Archives and Special Collections at Loyola Marymount University has now been completed. I am delighted! I know Loyola will cherish the history recorded by this painting as much as it does the art itself.

The scene depicted here could only have been of Los Angeles at night, and with the extravagances of the movie industry. Searchlights were used to announce any new openings. Car dealers used them to herald a new model just in from Europe.

Only in LA could you see lights of these cars flowing swiftly through the wide-open canyon roads that led down to the ocean.

Where else could you find the romantic stories of the Venetian Canals and bridges in the middle of all this?

Tall derricks, another part of Los Angeles history, lead up to the reflecting clouds above. Painted in 1962, City of Night shows a time, mid-century, when past and future collided here with great impact.

The perfect home for my painting of City of Night, Loyola Marymount University, is located in the City of Night and part of its history.

I hope you enjoy this painting and my other artworks of Venice, Playa del Rey, and Marina Del Rey in the 1960s.

Many are on display in our THEN & NOW project (http://blackgoldprints.com/) to show the THEN, and Tom Pollack is photographing the exact locations as they are today for the NOW.  We will be including stories to go with each painting. And Tom will be adding maps to show the exact location. Less known bits of history are inserted and footnoted to give a deeper understanding of this unique spot of earth on our planet.

My friend Connie Underhill said, “When I look at these paintings and photos of today I can feel the difference between what things are now and what they were, and see that development has completely obliterated the past“.  Come back with us to the past.

This is a work in progress with much more to come.

Archives

Hughes and impacts of 60s  

While doing research on background of my artwork in the early 60s, I realized how Ken’s award of a Hughes Fellowship and our coming to California (instead of New York) impacted our lives.

Reading Ken Richardson’s book, Hughes After Howard, opened the door to a new part of Ken’s past. While Hughes Aircraft Company had changed our lives, Ken’s inventions and 16 patents in miniature cryogenic cooling during the 12 years he was there also had a large impact on the great work done at Hughes. I had not understood the depth and importance of his work*.

*Note: Most work done at Hughes while he was there (late 50’s and early 60’s) was classified. Employees did not even talk to their families about what they were doing.

Huges Retirees Association (HARA) Presents

San Diego Air & Space Museum

Request for information on 1935 Hughes Racer from:

Terry Brennan

Curator/Director of Restorations

San Diego Air and Space Museum

Hello JoAnn,

I read with fascination the feature, on you and your husband in the LA Times recently, and immediately thought about how close you two may be to our current restoration project here at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.  We began the project of building a museum reproduction of the 1935 Hughes Racer several years ago, although we had no plans at all and very few photographs with which to work from.  We did have a simple three view with station dimensions and that spawned the drawings we have now through  reverse engineering.  But we are still in need of more help.  I am hoping that through your husband’s connection with Hughes that he may have pictures or other pertinent information that you might be willing to share, to help us proceed.  I await your response and thank you for your consideration

Terry Brennan

more info & photos…

The Hughes event and Ken Richardson’s talk were a big success. 

From Cheri Pape of Fullerton Public Library:
“It was quite a day. Chaotic, at times, but I hope things went well for all. We had originally set up 100 chairs, but  we put out an additional 92 and still had late-comers standing along the walls and exits. I think you could easily call it 200 attendees.”

Article for HARA about Hughes Fullerton Event

The display ran from late January through February and drew many visitors. Feature articles in the Los Angeles Times and the Argonaut announced the event “Dedicated to all those who have worked at Hughes Aircraft and been part of that Grand Endeavor.”

The day of Ken Richardson’s excellent talk over 200 people filled the Community Room at Fullerton Public Library with others standing around the walls and in the entrance. Dr. Richardson said his talk was “much improved over what I previously did for various HARA groups…. (these had)”a series of photos that add color and meaning to the story, as well as the addition of much Howard Hughes info.”

An enthusiastic audience was asking “When is the next event?” We hope to present this format at other locations in the future.

The three-part display, was designed to be easily duplicated to show in other areas. Hughes Aircraft Culver City, was a “time capsule” based on a May 8, 1964 Hughes News. Syncom II had hovered over the city for one hour just twelve days earlier. The paper featured: a full page on Ken Cowans’ (a new HARA member) inventions in miniature cryogenic cooling*, stories on the TOW project, Dr. Harold Rosen and Don Williams award for development of Syncom communications satellite and SID (Society for Information Display).

HAC History and Management featured the dedication, Ken Richardson and his book Hughes After Howard with photos and stories taken from his book, and the Howard Hughes Sr. drill bit that made it all possible. There was also a great photo of the helicopter assembly line found by Andre Doumitt in a Boeing dumpster.

HAC Fullerton Ground Systems featured memorabilia of Larry Iboshi, an electrical engineer who worked at that location between 1961 and 1995, primarily on sonar. A large poster shows all the systems developed there. Many local Husghesites donated or loaned memorabilia for this display. Some were shown in flat display cases with material from the library archives. Others brought HAC items for the day of Richardson’s talk. Copies of Hughes News were on display and are in the permanent collection of the Fullerton Public Library as are the stories.

The stories were wonderful! Many thanks to all of those that sent them. Stories will be made available digitally to libraries and Hughes people who request them. Thanks to Hara members Fran Dailey for donating copies of Hughes News and to Dan Ray for photos of satellite posters. Also we thank all of those who helped pass the word along.

Selected stories:

Ken Cowans, Larry Iboshi, Warren L Phillips

JoAnn Cowans   joann@jacart.net

* Note: This Hughes News page can be seen on my website, http//www.blackgoldprints.com under “Hughes Aircraft”.

More information will soon be posted on that site and here under “News & Info”

Come back soon for more about the event and photos.

Click below for Hughes Event Press:

LA Times       LA Times           Arganout

New Edition: “Skyline Playa del Rey  Over the Wetlands” 1967, will soon be released.

 The original is 12×24″.Giglee prints will be that size and custom variations. For Story of painting: click here

My painting, Bastanchury Oilfields,  was on display in the Muckenthaler Cultural Center’s 50th Anniversary Exhibition, September 3, 2015 through January 3,2016.  The painting represented “Black Gold” my 2003 retrospective exhibition of oilfield paintings, at the Muckenthaler.  (view painting)

Books

JoAnn’s second book, The Marina Nobody Knows© is now being published on this website. Work has been delayed due to working on the Hughes event. It can be seen on the bottom toolbar above, (NEW).  2015 is the 50th anniversary of the opening of Marina del Rey. In honor of the event: paintings, stories, newspaper articles and unpublished color photos of the period will be added all year long.  This is a personal oddesy of the 60s.

Her first book, Black Gold® The Artwork of JoAnn Cowans can be accessed above, (“Black Gold Art Book”).

The book “Hughes after Howard , The Story of Hughes Aircraft Company“

by D. Kenneth Richardson ,gives the story of the rise and fall of this national treasure. It should be read by all engineers, students, managers, historians and anyone interested in seeing that era through a lens of reality.

Hughes Aircraft made LA the Silicon Valley of the Cold War and the Space Race.

It seems only fitting that now, today’s Silicon Valley businesses, Google and You Tube, are going into the original Hughes buildings where the technical groundwork was laid for their very existence.
(from The Marina Nobody Knows)

Today’s engineers, managers and others would do well to study the work of these giants of science.

For more read “Hughes Aircraft in the Cold War and the Space Race.” See Hughes Aircraft (HAC)

Old News – Archives

From the Artist

“Though many see the oil derricks and pumps as eyesores, Ms. Cowans insists they are beautiful. ‘In Brea some of the pumps are painted bright blues with bright rust colors on them and the head of the pump looks like the head of a grasshopper.’ she said. ‘They’re just terrific. Against the sky they make a beautiful compositional study.’“

The Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2004

Brea Canyon, CA 2005. A collector said to me “I don’t want a photograph of an oilfield. I want a painting of how the artist feels about the oilfield. It lifts the spirit.”

I hope you experience the same joy in viewing these paintings that I have found in painting them: in walking through the oil fields, absorbing the colors and textures, listening to the squeaky pumps, smelling the oil and talking with the people who work in the oil patch.

May these images create an environment that ties viewers to oil and oil history, and holds on to something that is rapidly disappearing.

May they lift your spirit.

JoAnn Cowans

Selected Press

• “Industry Digest”, The American Oil and Gas Reporter, June 2006
• “Oilfield Artist on Exhibit”, The Petroleum Age, March 2006
• “Well, Well, Oil Rigs Return”, Los Angeles Times, November , 2005
• “Oil Rigs of Brea Canyon,” The Petroleum Age, June 2005
• “Painting California in Oil,” American Oil & Gas Historical Society, 2004
• “California Oil Firms Try Camouflage,” The Wall Street Journal (Print Edition), February 25, 2004
• “California Oils, the Oil Field Art of JoAnn Cowans,” The Petroleum Age, Summer 2004
• “Painting California Oil”, America’s Independent, The Official Publication of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, Nov/Dec 2004
• “The Artist Who Paints California in Oils,” Upstream International Oil and Gas Newspaper, September 12 ,2003

Selected Collections

• California Independent Petroleum Association, Sacramento, CA
• The American Oil and Gas Reporter, Derby, KS
• Transamerica Minerals Company, Los Angeles CA
• Brea Museum and Heritage Center, Brea, CA
• Congressman Ed Royce, Fullerton, CA
• El Dorado Exploration, Irvine, CA
• Southwest Minerals, Durango, CO
• American Oil & Gas Historical Society, Washington DC
• Reed Hycalog , Inc., Houston, TX
• City of Lagos de Moreno, Mexico
• Pacific Wealth Management, Orange, CA

Selected Exhibitions

• “Black Gold by JoAnn Cowans”, International Oil History Symposium, Wichita, Kansas, April 2006
• “Oil Fields Plein Air”, Brea Heritage Museum, Brea, California, 2005
• “Contemporary Fine Art Exhibition”, Millard Sheets Gallery, Pomona, CA, 2004
• “Black Gold in California: Oil Field Paintings”, The Muckenthaler, Fullerton, CA, 2003
• “Studies of Sunlight and Shadow”, Featured Artist, City of Brea Art Museum, Brea ,CA ,2003
• “California Plein Air Paintings”, City of Brea Art Museum, Brea, CA, 2002