A painting exhibit documents ‘the rapidly changing landscape of California.’

Early painters of California concentrated on the open landscape--rugged seacoasts, high mountain ranges, fertile valleys and steep canyons.

But in the 1930s, some watercolor artists turned their attention to what man had been building on the land. Their focus was on people, buildings, automobiles and the urban changes taking place.

They painted drive-ins with carhops, open-air markets and traffic on Los Angeles streets when buses were still double-decked. They recorded the birth of the downtown Los Angeles freeways and captured the Victorian buildings that still stood in the shadow of towering City Hall. In San Francisco, the construction of the Bay Bridge was rendered in watercolor.

“These guys were trying to respond to what they saw around them,” said Gordon McClelland, a writer and art collector who has been concentrating on this school of watercolor for 20 years. “They went out on location and painted what would not only be a picture of something but would carry some feeling about it. They were communicators.”

These watercolors with city themes are spotlighted in “California: The Urban Tempo,” an exhibit of 42 works by 27 artists at the Palos Verdes Art Center’s Beckstrand Gallery through April 27. They are from the collections of McClelland and his wife, Debi, and of businessman Gerald E. Buck and his wife, Benta. Both couples live in Orange County.

Although paintings from the 1930s and ‘40s form the heart of the exhibit, there are works as late as the 1970s, including a fanciful rendering of Los Angeles International Airport. Both Southern and Northern California locales are represented, with Millard Sheets, Phil Dike and Keith Crown among the stellar artists.

Maudette Ball, a former art center executive director who is curator of the show, calls the work a “documentation of the rapidly changing landscape of California, the tension between the open, rolling hills and the beginning of a high-tech environment.”

In his catalogue for the exhibit, McClelland depicts a vivid picture of dramatic changes that began in California in the 1920s and how artists responded to them. Cities grew, the movie industry boomed and the automobile and streetcars were the backbone of Southern California transportation.

McClelland said these modes of transportation often became the focal point for art, adding that the artists also depicted “a variety of new subjects reflecting the urban sprawl and the cityscape’s growth.”

Examples of that can be seen at the art center show: a tall building is under construction in one work, and there is also a gasworks and an asphalt plant.

Artist Lee Blair depicts the crowded elevator of the downtown Los Angeles May Co. in 1935. An elevator attendant in white is about to close a cage door.

“That’s the way it used to be,” said the 79-year-old artist. “All the department stores had them.”

Artist Emil Kosa Jr. preserves the start of the downtown Los Angeles freeways with the aged buildings of Bunker Hill clinging to the past in the background. Ball said that in the painting, the freeway “comes zooming out at you” as if to say that the future is here.

This watercolor show is part of the art center’s ongoing “Legacy Series,” which is designed to present works focused on California’s artistic heritage. That theme is also reflected in a photography exhibit under way in the Norris Film Gallery, which is just downstairs from the Beckstrand.

“Bodie: Doorway to Our Dreams” presents studies of the High Sierra ghost town, which flourished during the Gold Rush but was abandoned in 1932 after a disastrous fire destroyed 95% of the town.

People fled in a panic, leaving dishes on tables, food in cupboards, store shelves stocked and even drinks in the saloons. The town’s high altitude has preserved it for visitors.

“Bodie is a time capsule,” said Vincent Beggs, executive director of the art center. “It has all the paraphernalia of the past and is a fascinating place for a photographer to work.”

Primarily studies of building interiors, the color photographs in the show capture fading wallpaper, brass bedsteads and collapsed ceilings. There also are windows and weathered doors with peeling paint and dry, cracked wood. In a stunning outdoor shot, the ghost buildings of Bodie stand against a vivid, orange sky.

Made by several photographers during a series of workshops at Bodie led by photographer Tom Morse, the works may be seen Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m., or by appointment. The show ends April 17.

“This is a place out of the past,” said Phil Lohmann, a photographer and co-curator of the show. “The photos really do capture this.”

What: “California: The Urban Tempo.”

When: Saturday, Monday-Friday, 1-4 p.m.; through April 27.

Where: Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 W. Crestridge Rd. at Crenshaw Boulevard, Rancho Palos Verdes.

Admission: Free

Information: 541-2479