Palomar Mountain News

From: Ann Japenga  annjapenga@gmail.com

Hello,

I’m a writer in Palm Springs researching Robert Haley Asher, a Palomar Mountain pioneer, historian, poet, botanist, photographer and artist. I’m especially interested in his paintings. Mountain News editor Bonnie Phelps helped to preserve Asher’s legacy (along with archivist Peter Brueggeman) by rescuing his photos and his My Palomar manuscript. Asher was a skilled interpreter of the local landscape but few of his paintings have been found. If anyone has a forgotten Asher original stashed in a closet or under the bed, I’d appreciate any leads on his work to include with a forthcoming article. Asher lived on the mountain from 1903-1946, and sold postcards of his photographs to Palomar tourists.

He was part of a little-known Palomar Mountain art scene that included big names such as Maurice Braun (Asher took a class with him), Charles Fries and John Wesley Cotton. If you have information about Asher or the other artists who visited the mountain in the early days, I’d appreciate hearing from you at: annjapenga@gmail.com.

The painting of Asher’s Spruce Hill Camp, 1917, by John Wesley Cotton is from Peter Brueggeman’s archives, as is the Robert Haley Asher painting of two trees.