Roy Martell MASON
1886–1972, USA

Mason was born in Gilbert Mills, NY, on 15 March 1886. He was self-taught. Mason's work was first published on the cover of the Baker Gun & Forging Company's August 1903 catalogue; at the time, his father was an engraver for the company in Batavia, NY. From 1907 to 1910 Roy worked for F. E. Mason & Sons, his father's label-embossing firm, in Batavia. After placing in an art contest he decided to paint fulltime. During the 1920s, Mason studied with Chauncey Ryder (qv), with whom he maintained a close friendship. He worked briefly for a lithography firm in Philadelphia, PA, but by 1917 had returned to the family business in Batavia. He produced illustrations for several periodicals, including The Saturday Evening Post, Outing Magazine, True, and Collier's. In 1959 Mason moved to La Jolla, CA. He specialized in pictures of game birds, hunting, and fishing in his preferred medium of watercolor.

Mason was a member of the National Academy of Design; the Salmagundi Club; the Audubon Artists, Inc.; the Allied Artists of America; and the American Watercolor Society; all in New York City. He was also a member of the Buffalo (NY) Society of Artists, the Rochester (NY) Art Club, the Philadelphia Watercolor Club, the Baltimore (MD) Watercolor Society, and other associations. He was a charter member of the Batavia Society of Artists in 1950. He received medals from the Philadelphia Watercolor Society in 1941, the Buffalo Society of Artists in 1943, the Audubon Artists in 1945, the Allied Artists of America in 1952, and the American Watercolor Society in 1961. He also exhibited at the National Academy of Design; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, showing his The Hawk at the former in 1928 and the latter in 1930; the Rochester (NY) Memorial Art Gallery; the Art Institute of Chicago (IL); and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. Mason was granted a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Fine Arts in Washington, DC, in December of 1941. The Davenport (IA) Museum of Art has his The Strays. His watercolor Admiralty Inlet, showing gulls in a coastal landscape, is in the Denver (CO) Art Museum. Other institutions holding his work include the Illinois State Museum headquartered in Springfield; the University of Iowa in Iowa City; the Art Institute of Chicago (IL); the Reading (PA) Museum of Art; the Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; and the University of Rochester.

Mason died in La Jolla, CA, on 13 August 1972.

Source: http://www.redfoxfineart.com