Artist Biography

Born in Scotland, Gordon Coutts is best known for his desert landscapes of California. He began his art studies in Glasgow and continued in London and in Paris at the Julian Academy. He married artist Alice Gray and they spent several years in Melbourne, Australia where he was also an instructor at the Art Society of New South Wales in Sydney. In 1899, he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. In the early 1900s, he and Alice moved to the San Francisco area, and he became an active member and exhibitor at the Bohemian Club. An itinerant traveler, Coutts went to many remote areas including Africa. He painted throughout the Southwest including Canyon de Chelly. In 1925, because of tuberculosis, he moved to Palm Springs, and built a French Moroccan style castle reminiscent of ones he had seen in Tangiers. “Korakia” still exists as an historic landmark, now a famous bed and breakfast hotel.