Carmel Magazine

Southwest Meets West Coast The Exquisite Landscapes of William Cather Hook B Y M I C H A E L C H AT F I E L D Photo: XXXXXXXX T he parallels between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Carmel-by-the-Sea are striking. Of course, the former is much larger, with a population of nearly 85,000 com- pared to the latter's 4,000. But both have reputations as vibrant centers for the arts that stretch back to the late 19th century. Both are also home to a large collection of art galleries. And these two cities also share an extraordinarily talented and successful painter in William Cather Hook— known simply as "Hook." He and his wife Kate Singer now divide their time more or less evenly between these two art meccas, generally spending summers in Santa Fe, migrating to Carmel November through Memorial Day. "I love the rain," Hook says. "The atmosphere is so different from Southwest. It taught me how to look at things differently, through veils of fog. Even on a sunny day, the way the coastal moisture affects the light in wonderful ways." Hook spent his childhood in Kansas City, Missouri, surrounded by art from the cradle: his father was a professional photographer ; his grandmother an architect. Paint is in his blood. Famed Italian painters Gino and Bertha Venanzi are limbs on his family tree. And there's a literary gene in his DNA as well. His father's first cousin was Pulitzer Prize win- ning author Willa Cather. "Willa died a year before I was born," the painter says in his 2014 book, "William Cather Hook: A Retrospective." "I didn't realize her significance in the world of literature until I got into junior high school." But his architect grandmother was a big influence from the beginning, providing the talented lad with art supplies. Formal art training took place at a variety of institutions: Kansas Art Institute, University of New Mexico, Italy's Universita Per Straniere and the 140 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 1

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