BATAVIA – The Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council will dedicate a gallery to the Mason family this afternoon.
The dedication is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. at GO ART! Seymour Place, 201 East Main St.
The gallery will celebrate the permanent collection at GO ART! The gallery exhibition will feature painted works from Ray M. Mason, Max Mason and Nina B. Mason Booth. The works range from still life to landscapes.
Jim Owen, a longtime collector of Mason artwork, will present an official dedication.
Roy M. Mason, who died in 1972, moved to Batavia as a young boy and is famous for his landscape and outdoor scenes. He was known as a sporting or wildlife artist whose landscapes reflect his appreciation of nature. He often took trips for hunting, fishing, and sketching to Lake Ontario, Vermont, New Hampshire, Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, the Carolinas, and Virginia, which provided a vast array of subjects.
Mason, who was born in 1886 on a farm near Syracuse, was primarily a self-taught artist. He was invited by the famed Salmagundi Club in New York to be a member in 1928.
In 1929, the Buffalo Society of Artists awarded Mason a fellowship prize for his work in an Albright Art Gallery exhibition. The National Academy of Design elected him to be an associate in 1930, and he exhibited with them in the following years in established galleries.
During 1940 and 1941, Mason took nearly every major national prize for watercolors.
Mason was also a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists, a charter member of the Batavia Society of Artists, and The Rationalists, who promoted “soundness and sanity in art.”
Mason illustrated for various publications including Collier’s, True, and Reader’s Digest, and also became editor of American Artist magazine.
Mason worked as a commercial artist, including a F.E. Mason & Sons, a firm started by his father and brother that manufactured labels and embossed seals.
In 1959 he relocated with his wife to LaJolla, California, where they spent the remainder of their lives.
Roy Mason’s brother and sister, the late Max Mason and Nina Mason Booth, were also well-known artists.
Nina Mason Booth, who died in 1958, was a nationally recognized painter, illustrator and instructor primarily known for her portrait paintings, landscapes, seascapes, pastels and still life paintings.
She initially studied with her artist father, Frank E. Mason, who was known for being a painter and art instructor, as well as a world-class gun engraver.
Admission to the dedication is free. Finger food and a cash bar will be available.
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