Biography provided in part by Edan Hughes. Edgar Payne was born in Washburn, Missouri on March 1, 1883. Payne left home at age 14 and found work painting houses, stage sets
and signs. Except for a brief period at the Art Institute of Chicago, Payne remained a
self-taught artist. On his first visit to California in 1909 he spent several months
painting Laguna Beach before visiting Catalina Island, Santa Barbara and San
Francisco. In 1918 the Payne’s established a home and studio in Laguna Beach where he
organized and became the first president of the Laguna Beach Art Association.
Edgar Payne continued painting and exhibiting in Los Angeles and Laguna until 1922 when he took
a two-year painting trip of Europe. During the next eight years winters were mainly
spent in New York City. The Payne’s traveled from coast to coast in the United States
until 1932 when they returned to Hollywood. Edgar Payne is internationally renowned for his
depictions of the High Sierras, Indians riding through desert canyons, landscapes
of the Sierra Nevada and French and Italian boats scenes as well as authoring a book
titled Composition of Outdoor Painting, which is now in its fifth printing and used by
artists, teachers and collectors around the world. He died in Hollywood on April 8, 1947
