William Lemos

William, was a naïve still life, landscape, and mural painter. As a young boy in New York, he would wander the streets, earning money for the family, by “painting on request.” At age 26, William moved to San Francisco, California. He opened an art studio and kept it running until he moved to Santa Cruz with his wife, Mabel, in 1896. During this period, he worked as a fresco artist painting “murals for many local businessmen.” For forty years, William worked as a concessionaire at the Beach Casino in Santa Cruz, where he painted “redwoods, still lifes, forest fires, beach scenes, and marines” on his concession platform. At the age of 80, William’s vision diminished, and he lived his last year or so fishing with a friend. He passed away on August 8, 1942 at age 81. Known works by William are: Mt. Shasta; Portrait of a Native American Woman; Crater Lake; Mt. Hood; Hood River; Cypress Point; Monterey; Sailing by moonlight of the Coast at Night; Redwoods; and Mt. Hottman and Lake Tynihh (Askart, 2008). Several may be seen at the AskArt.com website.

Women Artist of Illinois, Patience, Tina Marie

Santa Cruz Sentinel

9 August 1942 1:7

William Lemos, Fisherman and Artist, is Dead

William Lemos, who for 54 years had painted the pictures he loved and spent his hours on the sunny wharf fishing, which was his diversion, died last night at his home at 59 Pearl St.

A native of New York, he was 81 years old when he died. His booth for the sale of his oil paintings was the oldest concession at the beach.

Funeral services for Mr. Lemos will be held tomorrow morning at 19:30 o'clock at Whites mortuary chapel, followed by interment in the family plot in the I. O. O. F. cemetery.

Mr. Lemos is survived by his widow, Mrs. Daisy Lemos; by a son, Sidney S. Lemos of Alameda; by a step-son, William Yantis of Santa Cruz; by two grandchildren, and by a sister, Mrs. Adeline Hensley of Chicago.

Here Since 1888

His life story was told in his own words in a newspaper article a little more than a year ago:

"I've been here on the beach since 1888. I guess I'm getting to be an old-timer. Fellows I used to go fishing with aren't here any more.

"I sort of settled here originally on account of the fishing. I set up my studio in the old Miller and Leibbrandt bath house.

"Those were the days when the boardwalk was only 12 feet long; when business got slow I picked up my shot gun and went across the street and shot ducks where the Casa del Ray now stands. "

His Paintings

"Known to generations of seashore visitors," said the article, not in direct quotation from Mr. Lemos, "as typical Lemos creations are pictures of forest fires, marine landscapes and studies of the redwood. Dependent upon size and effort, they range in price from a dollar up."

"Lemos is remembered," said the article, "as one of the guiding spirits of the historic San Lorenzo river water carnivals."

He would have been a young boy of 10 when he lived through the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.