LAGUNA BEACH – Richard Challis, owner of the longest-running commercial art gallery in Laguna Beach, died in his home Saturday of natural causes, his family said. He was 94.
Born in London in 1920 and educated at well-to-do boarding schools, Challis joined the Royal Army Service Corps as second lieutenant in 1940.
He served through the London Blitz in World War II and survived malaria and black water fever while on assignment at Lake Chad, British Nigeria.
In 1946, Challis moved to Laguna Beach to care for an ailing aunt and bought a picture-framing business on Coast Highway soon after.
In 1950, Challis opened the Laguna Studio Gallery, showing the work of noted California watercolor painters such as Phil Dike, Rex Brandt, George Post and Roger Kuntz.
Though he was self-taught in the realm of art, “His English accent gave him instant credibility and lent a certain gravitas to his sales pitches,” recalled daughter Diane Challis Davy, who helped provide refreshments for the gallery’s monthly parties along with her brother David.
Those who knew Challis through the gallery remember him as a charming and sociable host – a well-groomed Brit full of anecdotes about the painters he represented.
“I learned more by visiting his gallery than I did at school,” said art historian Gordon McClelland, who has written more than 15 books on California art and the local watercolor movement.
“His was really the only gallery that continued to regularly exhibit work by artists internationally recognized as masters of the (watercolor) medium,” McClelland said.
The pair met several times over the years to discuss California watercolor art in Challis’ living quarters above the gallery. He often provided information about the social context of the movement that McClelland needed for his art history books.
Laguna Studio Gallery went through several incarnations, becoming Challis Galleries in 1966 and The Esther Wells Collection in 1984.
Challis suffered a stroke in 2011, and the gallery closed down for good later that year for financial reasons.
Throughout the years, Challis also donated his time to philanthropic efforts, organizing art auctions to raise money for hospitals, the Laguna Art Museum, and for victims of the 1971 Laguna flood and the 1978 Bluebird Canyon landslide.
He is survived in the United States by his two children, Diane Leslie Challis Davy and David Richard Challis; a grandson, Thomas Stevenson Davy; and in the United Kingdom by his sister, Beryl Serjeant.
Contact the writer: ahernandez@ocregister.com
