James Strombotne "My Elephant" Acrylic on Canvas Painting, 2018

Whether he’s depicting a rocky cliff amid a calm sea, a pop culture moment or a vase of daisies atop a kitchen table, artist James Strombotne creates subdued, stylized images that feature rich color pairings and brim with life.

Born in Watertown, South Dakota, Strombotne grew up in Southern California. In 1956, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College. He then went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts from the Claremont Graduate School in 1959. He also received a fellowship from Pomona College to study abroad in Italy. In 1962, the Guggenheim Foundation awarded him a fellowship to continue his international studies in Rome.

Strombotne had his first solo show in 1956 at the Studio 44 gallery in San Francisco. Over the course of his career, he had more than 75 solo exhibitions and a dozen retrospectives across the United States.

In the 1970s, Strombotne began teaching art at the University of California in Riverside. He continued to paint and exhibit throughout his teaching years. He taught at the same school for 40 years until his retirement in 2005. 

Strombotne’s work is held in many public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He lives in Orange County, California, where he keeps a studio and continues to create art.

On 1stDibs, find original James Strombotne paintings and contemporary art.