Featured Help w/Identifying Watercolor Artist

hi everyone. i just got this little piece in a thrift store. the price was low and i think the painting is beautiful. i could see in the frame that it was signed just below what was visible. anyway, i removed it from the frame and this is what i found. i'm putting it up here in the hope that someone recognizes the mark. the date looks like 1970. the visible work in the frame measures 9.5 inches by 6 1/8 inches, so it is small. out of the frame it measures 10 1/8 inches by 6 3/4 inches. i should also mention the first image is a photograph and the second is a scan. neither of these is quite accurate in terms of the actual color. but they're both close in different ways. the blue of the actual painting is a really nice pale flat color. also, there is absolutely nothing in the way of clues to be gained from the backside of the frame. any help will be greatly appreciated...thanks

 

Where was the thrift store located?

Debora

 

CKL 1970? Beyond that, you've got me.

 

it's in Sacramento California

 

Do you think the subject is meant to be San Francisco?

Debora

 

I see CKR as the signature.

Debora

 

yes, that's where i was leaning. but i've found no one that's a likely candidate. CKL is also possible. i'll look at that when i get home...thanks

 

It's an attractive piece. You may have to open up the back. Initials aren't much to go on and so many talented Northern California artists.

Debora

 

The view from Sausalito.

Debora

 

This organization was founded after 1970 but never hurts to ask.

https://www.sausalitocenterforthearts.org/contact

Debora

 

i did open up the back and remove the piece from the frame. there's no other info to be found. i've been kind of assuming it was SF and that the artist intentionally left out the bay bridge(that's the bridge to the left), maybe because it didn't fit his composition. if you go look at the skyline of SF back in 1970 before all of the skyscrapers were built, it looks just like it.

 

Nice atmosphere, I like it.

Ditto.

 

I do too. Not the work of an amateur. Like the combination of the pleasure boat with the commercial boat and their differing visual weights.

Debora

 

Looks like it could have been trimmed, since the signature is cut off at the bottom. Unless they signed it without paying attention to spacing, and the mark might have run off onto what was below the painting.

 

CKR, CKK, CKT.

 

when i found this i was immediately drawn to it. google lens has variously described it a "tonalist" "atmospheric" "impressionist" and "modern," at different times when i've applied it to the picture of it in the frame. it's also an excellent composition, which is why i think it is SF and the artist just decided to leave the bay bridge out of it. what's really remarkable is that all of this is accomplished with essentially two colors. i'm going to begin the process of going through all of the Rs in that Mutual Art index, then the Ls and Ks.

 

I wouldn't think the artist intentionally left out the Bay Bridge. That would be rather silly because everyone knows it's there. Think it's just not prominent because of the artist's viewpoint, the bridge's angle toward Treasure Island and the evening's atmospherics.

Debora