Oils & Early Works
C. Ronald Bechtle began his love affair with art in the early 1930’s doing figurative works using oil paint, charcoal and pastels. In 1952 he started using oil paint on canvas and appears to have painted his last figurative work in mid 1954. Beginning in late 1954 he shifted his emphasis to abstract art and never returned to figurative painting. From late 1954 to 1959 he focused his efforts on abstract oil paintings. This period coincided with his membership in Group 55 followed by his founding of Philadelphia Abstract Artists. He painted is last work using oil paint in 1959 and from that point forward painted only with watercolors.
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