He returned to San Francisco in 1906, the year of the Great Earthquake. In 1915, he won the Bronze Medal for watercolor at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and the First Prize for Watercolor at the Arizona Art Exhibition in Phoenix. Secure in his career as a watercolor painter, Gray opened a studio in San Francisco and over the years established himself as a sensitive artist of the California landscape. His work captures the soft, hazy atmosphere of the overcast Northern California morning. Very often, Gray's paintings are set in a gentle rolling meadow or below sloping hills. It may be a field of flowering California poppies set within a stand of elegant eucalyptus or rugged oak, with a deep space disappearing in the mist. It may also be a bleak coastal scene, with cold blues and grays hovering over jagged rock. At all times, however, Gray's paintings are tonal poems presented with gentle eloquence and great beauty.
In 1923, Gray married Leone Phelps and moved to Monterey. Gray became active in the thriving art community and exhibited regularly with the Carmel Art Association. In 1940, he won a painting prize at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. Towards the end of his life, Gray found himself fighting the force of Modernism, yet his beautiful paintings of the California land sold readily and he never changed his style.
Meadow With Poppies, 11.5" x 15" WC/P