At Baker's Beach

This informal landscape study from May 16, 1922, captures the view from Baker Beach across to the Marin Headlands as a sudden rain shower erupts over the water. Color washes define the forms of the hills, clouds, and rain, in a technique that stems from Obata’s training in Nihonga, a Japanese painting school founded at the end of the nineteenth century. As defined in a 1905 manifesto, the Nihonga aesthetic valued the use of dilute ink and color for their suggestive and expressive properties, seen as distinct from Western emphasis on realism or the linear qualities associated with Chinese brush painting. Obata’s painting marries these principles with direct observation of nature, resulting in a fresh and personal vision of California scenery.