Pamela Mason
"A painting must be more than a rendering, but an expression of the artist's emotion, leaving something for the imagination of the viewer."
-Pamela Mason
Pamela Mason was an extensively travelled, well-educated and broadly celebrated artist. Much of her artistic focus centered on Western Art which she created living throughout the west.
Born Ruth Imandt Kittle in Harrisburg, PA in 1913, she grew up in College Point, New York. In 1933, Pamela received a 4-year scholarship to Manhattan’s prestigious Cooper Union School of Art and subsequent studies at the Maryland Art Institute in Baltimore, at the Art Center of Los Angeles, and the University of Colorado. Pamela’s unique education gave her the opportunity to study with many well know American artists in a broad variety of styles and mediums, allowing her to develop her own style and focus.
Her love of adventure was expressed in her world travels and the number of homes and studios where she lived, painted and taught art. Baltimore, Maryland; Long Beach and Brea, California; Boulder, Colorado; Taos, New Mexico; and Greenland, Arkansas—each had a studio where she tirelessly created.
In 1937 Pamela met and married the love of her life, Hubert Lee Mason and they were married for 59 years. As Hubert was known as Mase to those who loved him, Pamela assumed a family nickname as her own too, using it throughout her personal life and professional career.
On a shoestring budget, Pamela and Mase moved from the East Coast to southern California in the late 1930s living first in Long Beach and later in Brea. During the Second World War, Pamela worked in the aircraft industry as a tool designer, while continuing her passionate pursuit of art. In 1945, Pamela and Mase celebrated the birth of their only child Michael Mason in 1945.