Rex Brandt was born in 1914 in
San Diego, California to Alfred O. Brandt, a Swedish immigrant, and Ellen Dale Woodward. His family later moved to
Los Angeles and then
Riverside, California where he graduated from high school. While still in high school he took art classes at the
Chouinard School of Art. He attended
Riverside Junior College and went on to get his bachelor's degree at the
University of California, Berkeley in 1936. While at Berkeley he was exposed to the ideas of
Hans Hoffman, who had recently taught there. He studied
Chinese landscape painting,
Byzantine art, and the
modernist painters
Cézanne,
Picasso, and
Matisse. In March 1938, Brandt married the sculptor and painter Joan Irving, whom he had met at Riverside Junior College. In 1943, Brandt, having left Riverside Junior College, moved with his young family to Corona del Mar, just south of Newport Beach, where they had purchased property. He named his property "Blue Sky" and it was there he lived and worked throughout the rest of his life. He opened a summer painting school at "Blue Sky" in 1947 and the school remained in operation through 1985 when it closed due to increasing urbanization. Brandt also expanded his sources of income beyond painting and teaching; he worked as a designer for West Coast Ship Building and formed his own commercial and residential design firm, Rex Brandt Associates. Brandt was active in the civic life of the Newport Beach area; he was one of the original members of the Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission of Newport Beach, he designed the city's official seal, and helped plan the state beach at Corona Del Mar. Brandt also spent considerable time in the
San Juan Islands. He purchased property on
Orcas Island in 1964. Then in 1966 Brandt and his wife built a second home on
Shaw Island where they typically spent a few months a year. During his time in the San Juans, Brandt reestablished his print making practice, he wrote: "I've turned again to an early love of block cutting because its power and simplicity express the way I feel about the San Juan Islands." He died at his home in Corona del Mar at the age of 85. Retrospective exhibitions have been mounted by the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum (2000) and the
Laguna Art Museum (2014). == Selected awards and affiliations ==