Throughout a dynamic life that has spanned the Great Depression, the Second World War, the rise of Silicon Valley, and the dawn of the twenty-first century, Lowell Herrero has turned his passion for living into art. From his home in California, he has traveled to Tuscany, Provence, and Spain, absorbing the lessons of their sensuous landscapes. The colors of horizons and rich earth, the sensations of sunlight, and the fragrance of flower-covered hillsides mingle in his imagination and flow through his paintbrush onto his canvases.
Herrero feels a deep affinity with farmers working the land. He renders them bursting with life, over-large, and enduring — extensions of the very soil they cultivate. In his paintings, vineyards stretch into the distance as grape pickers enjoy lunch under a cloudless blue sky. Lavender harvesters bend to their task, and a field of rolled bales tells us the hard work of haying is at an end. Each painting invites us to smile with pleasure and enjoy the inner vitality and plenitude of the landscape. But above all, the paintings project the irrepressible joie de vivre[法語(yǔ)，意為生命之喜悅，the joy of life]of an artist who knows how to live.
■2008: Publication of Lowell Herrero, a book that reviews 12 years of paintings created at the Calistoga Studio. ■2007: Solo exhibition and retrospective at theNapa Valley Museum, Yountville, California ■2007: Artist of the Year for the Napa Valley Mustard Festival. ■2006: Painting “Ava and Nonno at Harvest” hangs at the Napa Valley Museum and wins People’s Choice Award for Best of Show. ■1998 to 2006: Six limited-edition harvest prints released.
■1997: Wolfgang Puck and Barbara Lazaroff commission three large paintings to hang at the Spago restaurant, in Beverly Hills, California.
■1996: Solo exhibition at I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, California. The show is a sellout. Three subsequent shows continue to sell out and generate a waiting list for Herrero’s work. Association with this gallery ended in May, 2007.
■1995: Solo exhibition at the Franklin Mint in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
■1994: Best in Class and Best in Show awards at the Franklin Mint annual show; both paintings entered, subsequently purchased by the Mint.
■1993 to 2003: Joins the Franklin Mint, which reproduces his paintings on limited-edition plates, dimensional bell-jar sculptures, and sculptured eggs. ■1993 to 2000: Represented by New Masters Gallery in Carmel, California. ■1988: Begins an ongoing series of popular cow paintings used as the basis for the cow calendar series by Lang Graphics. ■1986 to 2000: Solo exhibition at Sailor’s Valentine Gallery on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. This association continues for fourteen years and includes many solo exhibitions. ■1983 to 1993: First solo exhibition at the Bill Dodge Gallery, Carmel, California. This association continues for ten years and includes many solo exhibitions until the gallery is sold. ■1981: Begins an ongoing series of cat paintings, which become the basis for a calendar date book; this evolves into the full-size cat calendar series by Lang Graphics.