Cover Art for Westways Magazine

Passing through the Santa Ana / Orange / John Wayne Airport this morning, I came across a nicely realized survey of a century's-worth of orignal magazine cover art, done for the member publication of the Automobile Club of Southern California (known since 1934 as "Westways," the exhibit placard says).  There are dozens of them; many struck me as very fresh.

The above is credited to Gordon Brusstar, titled, simply, "Golden Gate Bridge."  It is gouache on board, and was for the cover of the February, 1952 issue of the magazine.  Hopefully some of the vibrancy of the color comes across in the photo above.

The piece just below is credited to Rex Brandt and is titled "Lassen Volcanic National Park."  It is watercolor on paper, and was for the cover of the March, 1950 issue.  My two photographs here are terrible; I did the best I could, given that the pieces are framed under glass, and I had to deal with reflections (you can see a plane on the tarmac in the glare below).  

According to a press release I found by typing the name of the magazine into Google Chrome, the exhibit opened at the John Wayne Airport last month and is to be on view throught October 19, 2009.  The space for the exhibit is called the Vi Smith Concourse Gallery, in honor of the former Chair of the John Wayne Airport Arts Commission.