Sell to Us · California Art
Sell California art to buyers who know the Laguna school by hand.
California painted itself early. By the 1910s, plein air painters were working the coves below Laguna's bluffs and the arroyos around Pasadena, and their canvases have been settling into Southern California households ever since. We buy them: Laguna school landscapes, early California impressionists, WPA-era prints, and the mid-century modernists who followed. If a painting has hung in your family long enough to feel like furniture, it is worth showing us.
Not every good canvas is signed legibly, and not every signature tells the whole story. We do real attribution work: comparing brushwork, checking exhibition labels on the stretcher, reading the frame itself, which often dates a painting better than the paint does. And when a piece belongs at a major auction house rather than in a dealer's hands, we say so plainly. That honesty costs us some paintings. It is also why families call us first.
What we look for in California art
Plein air and early Laguna paintings
Landscapes from the 1900s-1940s, Laguna Beach and Pasadena school painters especially
WPA and Depression-era prints
Lithographs, block prints, and watercolors from the federal art projects of the 1930s
Mid-century California modernists
Postwar abstraction, hard edge painting, and figurative work from the 1950s and 60s
Unsigned and unattributed canvases
We research brushwork, stretcher labels, and frames before we price, not after
Frames, labels, and provenance
Original gilt frames, gallery labels, and family paperwork can add real value
California art lives in California houses
Southern California is where this art was made, and it is still where most of it lives. Laguna Beach hung its painters in beach cottages that became estates; Pasadena's craftsman houses kept their arroyo scenes over the mantel for a century. When we visit a home in South Laguna or on the streets around the Gamble House, we bring the whole picture: what the regional auction records say, which collectors are actively buying, and what the frame and labels tell us. Bring us the backs of the paintings as much as the fronts. An exhibition sticker from a 1930s gallery show can move a canvas from decorative to documented, and documented is what the market pays for.
How We Work
We evaluate everything in front of you, explain what we’re seeing, and pay cash before we leave. No consignment, no waiting on a sale.
How it works
Call us.
A real conversation about what you have, no forms, no waiting.
We come to you.
We look at everything, at your pace. We know what we're seeing.
Cash offer, same visit.
A fair price on the spot, or a full estate sale run for you.
Common questions
The painting isn't signed. Is it worth anything?
Sometimes, yes. Plenty of good early California work is unsigned or signed illegibly. We compare brushwork, look for stretcher and frame labels, and check old exhibition records. If we can build a credible attribution, we price it accordingly. If we cannot, we tell you exactly what we can pay and why.
Would auction bring more than selling to you?
For a documented painting by a name like Edgar Payne or Granville Redmond, often yes, and we will say so and point you toward the right house. For most unsigned or minor works, our cash offer beats auction after fees, shipping, and months of waiting.
Should I clean or reframe the painting first?
Please don't. Original frames, old varnish, and even the dust on the stretcher help us date and attribute a piece. Amateur cleaning has erased more value than it has ever added. Show it to us as it hangs, labels and all, and let us read it intact.
One call. We’ll take it
from there.
(949) 449-1255Mon-Sat 6 am-8 pm · Sun 8 am-5 pm
A real person answers, Monday through Saturday. Photos sent today are usually answered the same day.
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