Leigh HyamsEntitled Turtle Beach, this 1974 acrylic on canvas painting is by the artist Leigh Hyams (1926-2013). Leigh Hyams, aka Martha Mae Nickerson, Martha Bolling, and Martha Hyams, was an acclaimed painter and teacher whose career spanned several decades and continents. Based in San Francisco from 1974 to 2000, she later made her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she continued to paint and teach until her passing.In 1957, Art in America recognized Hyams as one of the nation’s outstanding “New Talents,” alongside future luminaries such as Joan Mitchell, David Park, and Morris Louis. Nearly a decade later, in 1966, she studied with Larry Rivers, Conrad Marca-Relli, and Philip Guston—serving as Guston’s assistant—at the Fine Arts Institute of New College. Hyams’ figurative works reflect the expressive vitality of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, echoing the influence of artists such as Richard Diebenkorn. Her abstract interpretations of natural and cultural forms reveal affinities with the lyrical sensitivity of Georgia O’Keeffe and the spiritual abstraction of Mark Tobey.Writing in 1996, the eminent art historian Peter Selz (UC Berkeley) observed: “Hyams has created landscape paintings that are unique fusions of acute observation and imaginative fantasy. Her paintings, visionary statements about nature’s creative and destructive forces, are contemporary realizations of the romantic tradition of the Sublime.”Lost Art Salon is honored to have collaborated with Leigh’s daughter, Gina, to reintroduce these monumental and exuberant works to the public.Note: Early paintings may bear signatures using her given name (Martha) or surnames from her family (Nickerson) and first marriage (Bolling). 1974 Acrylic on Canvas 84"x46" unframed Signed and dated at the bottom, titled on the back. Excellent vintage condition.
