Gladys Gray was born in Truckee, California and was raised in a family of artists on a cattle ranch. She spent her summers in the Truckee-Tahoe area. She studied watercolor with Eliot O’Hara, Harold Forgostein, and Phil Paradise and took design with Jean Ames and Millard Sheets. In the 1950s she studied with Rex Brandt in San Luis Obispo. She was a prolific artist who worked each day from 9 am to 3 pm in her studio. This painting is a mixed media of colored tissues and dyes. She worked on the series that includes this painting during the 1970s.
In 1977, she helped form the Central Coast Watercolor Society. Gladys Gray was a member of the National Watercolor Society.
Both she and her husband were patrons of the Art Center, and donated generously to construction and maintenance of the Gray Wing-named in their honor.
Mr. Arne Nybak, the curator at that time, requested the artist to donate this painting to the permanent collection.