Thacher School: Dining Hall by Paul Gavin, 1983

Special Edition watercolor on board, 14" x 9-1/2", Unframed. See Below*

The Original pen & watercolor, 14" x 9-1/2" is available. Please Contact the Artist 

Built in 1899 and remodeled over the years this building served until just recently as the Thacher School dining hall in Ojai, California.  It has also served as a dormitory, a faculty apartment, the school post office and still serves as the main school administrative offices.  A photo taken in 1911 shows the building and the same pepper tree in this painting that might still be there.  In 1969 physics professor Bob Chesley, also a former Thacher student, directed us to the original dining hall windows to actually see and understand the “viscosity” of glass.  If you have a story or memory to share about the dining hall please let us know.

Paul has also painted the and the view of the .

*This is a unique and very special edition of an original watercolor on board of this image. Before being painted the original ink drawing was photographed and then screen printed on 20 watercolor boards to create 20 individually painted watercolor paintings.  For each print ordered, the artist completes the ink drawing and then paints the entire piece as an original watercolor painting.

Unframed. Please allow 3-5 weeks for delivery.

More about the Artist:  Paul has a strong connection with Ojai and Ventura county.  A 7th generation Californian through his family of Ventura County farmers and a Santa Paula rancher, hIs father’s mother grew up at the eastern end of Ventura Avenue, began teaching at San Antonio School in 1917 and told of Sherman Day Thacher inviting her students up to Thacher to play tennis. She later married and moved to Ojai where Paul’s father grew up and went to Villanova Prep where after WWII at a Villanova Prep social event he met his future wife and Paul’s mom.  They married and after living in Northern California for a short while they brought their growing family back to Southern California. Paul and his brothers and sisters grew up spending most weekends and summers with their grandparents in Ojai and at the Ferndale Ranch in Santa Paula and he was also fortunate enough to attend Thacher where he fully enjoyed and appreciated the “Place”.  Through the years he was thoroughly imbued with Ventura County’s unique and magical physical geography from the mountains to the sea and enjoys expressing it through the paintings of the area and he still drives his 1951 Ford Pickup he got from Ferndale Ranch, license plate 51 ARTRK.