Art Mortimer Biography

Art Mortimer was born in Long Beach, California, and is a graduate of Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California. He moved to Santa Monica in 1965, and has been working as a free-lance artist since 1969, doing both commercial and fine art.. He painted his first mural in 1971 on the side of the house he was living in, at the beach in Santa Monica. Also in 1971 he worked with artist/film maker Terry Gilliam in London on a series of short animated films that became a part of a Mary Feldman television series shown in the USA. He gave up his commercial art business in 1988 to concentrate on murals, paintings and drawings. He lived and worked at the beach in Santa Monica until December, 2002, and now lives in West Los Angeles.

Since 1971 he has painted nearly 100 murals, including major public murals in Claremont CA, Billings MT, 29 Palms CA, Lompoc CA, Susanville CA and many Southern California communities. Among many other murals, he has painted a 300 ft. long History of Long Beach mural in that California beach city (2003); a 4-story high mural in downtown Santa Monica about the beach, commissioned by the Milken Family Foundation (1998); a mural on Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles depicting the history of the Jewish community in Los Angeles (1985); one on the side of Brandelli's Brig bar on Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice (1973); a large piece in the new corporate headquarters of Rockwell International in Seal Beach CA (1992); a mural on the history of Century City in the lobby of a high-rise office building in Century City (1991); a large mural on the side of Bloomingdale's department store in New York City for the State of California depicting the various regions of California (1989); and many private commissions.

Considered one of the originators of the mural movement in Los Angeles, his mural work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and photographic collections, as well as in newspapers, magazines, books, television and films all across the United States and in many countries around the world. He was honored as Artist of the Year in 2004 by the City of Long Beach, CA.

He is a part-time faculty member at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where he teaches Landscape Painting, Mural Painting, and has taught Life Painting and Painting I and II. He has also taught classes and workshops on mural painting in a variety of schools and communities.

Art is a member of the Board of Directors of the California Public Art and Mural Society (CalPAMS), and a member of the National Society of Mural Painters and the California Art Club.

RECENT AWARDS

Community Service Award, City of Long Beach CA, awarded for Outstanding Community Service for National Community Development Week, April 2006.

Best Public Improvement Award, City of Covina, for Covina Park Pavilion Bandshell Murals, 2005.

Artist of the Year, Long Beach, CA Public Corporation for the Arts, 2004.

Claremont Architectural Commission 20th annual "Award of Excellence" for Claremont Village Mural, Claremont CA, April 2001.

1996 Design Award, for Villa Alamitos mural, "Neighborhood Designs That Work, Building A Better Long Beach, Trompe l'Oeil Mural Project," Long Beach, CA Department of Building and Planning.

Bright N' Beautiful Award, for South Park Mural, Billings, Montana: one of the top ten civic beautification projects in Billings in 1996.

EXHIBITIONS

GALLERY REPRESENTATION