Roy M. Mason

Roy Martell Mason of Batavia, New York was known as a sporting or wildlife artist whose landscapes reflect his appreciation of nature. He often took trips for hunting, fishing, and sketching to Lake Ontario, Vermont, New Hampshire, Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, the Carolinas, and Virginia, which provided a vast array of subjects. The Salmagundi Club in New York invited the primarily self-taught artist to be a member in 1928. In 1929, the Buffalo Society of Artists awarded him a fellowship prize for his work in an Albright Art Gallery exhibition. The National Academy of Design elected him to be an Associate in 1930, and he exhibited with them in the following years in established galleries such as Macbeth’s. Later he was represented by Grand Central Art Galleries.

Although Mason’s oils are his most prized paintings, his facility with watercolor earned him election to the National Watercolor Society in 1934. The organization awarded Mason the Gold Medal of Honor for his watercolors in 1961. He was also a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists, Batavia Society of Artists, and The Rationalists, who promoted “soundness and sanity in art.” Mason illustrated for various publications including Collier’s, True, and Reader’s Digest, and also became editor of American Artist magazine. In 1959 he relocated with his wife to LaJolla, California, where they spent the remainder of their lives.