Marty Stanley has passed away.

A celebration of Marty Stanley's life and art was hosted by friends and family at the historic Grand Island Mansion Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 2:00 PM.

In lieu of flowers a memorial fund for the family has been established at Bank of Rio Vista, 14211 River Road, Walnut Grove, CA 95690. To contact the bank, call (916) 776-1755.


Summer Wind Gallery Show of Marty's Work -- November 6 - 30, 2008

Levee Gallery Has Closed -- July 2007

Sac Bee: Delta's Landscape Was His Legacy -- October 6, 2006

Sac Bee: Columnist R.E. Graswich -- October 4, 2006

Lodi News-Sentinel: Marty Stanley Remembered as Creative, Prolific Painter -- October 3, 2006

Sac Bee obituary -- October 3, 2006

Sac Bee: Delta Painter Found Majesty Along Rivers -- October 2, 2006

Sac Bee: Memorial Gathering for Delta Artist -- October 1, 2006





SUMMER WIND GALLERY SHOW OF MARTY'S WORK
Thursday, November 6 through Sunday, November 30, 2008
Gallery is located on 45 Main Street in Isleton.
Open Thursday - Sunday, 12 - 5pm and by appointment.
For information about the show please call 916-777-6906.







LEVEE GALLERY HAS CLOSED
For Marty Stanley's artwork, please call Linda Korth:









Sacramento Bee Article


DELTA'S LANDSCAPE WAS HIS LEGACY
Friends mourn Marty Stanley, who captured region's beauty on canvas.
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer

October 6, 2006

Sherry Stanley, right, wife of the late Marty Stanley, is consoled by a friend after a memorial service for the well-known Delta artist who died Sept. 28 at the age of 51. More than 500 attended the service at the Grand Island Mansion near Courtland. Sacramento Bee/Jay Mather

The Delta sky arranged itself for Marty Stanley on Thursday.

A brilliant sun lit the clouds from beneath, setting the landscape aglow. Mount Diablo framed the distance. The lazy curve of Steamboat Slough reflected all.

But Marty wasn't there to paint this sunset. Instead, it was enjoyed by more than 500 people who gathered for his memorial service -- people who loved the man and his art.

"I know of no one who captured that sunset -- the essence of the Delta -- the way he did," said Chiles Wilson, a friend since childhood. "He understood the Delta. He appreciated it."

Stanley died Sept. 28 at the age of 51, leaving a legacy as the foremost painter of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta landscapes. The Delta, long overlooked in a state packed with natural wonders, earned respect through his work for its wild and subtle beauty.

He produced more than 400 original paintings of the region, its people and architecture.

"His paintings really depict what it's like down here," said John Cox, a Sacramento native who moved to the Delta 20 years ago. He and his wife, Cheryl, purchased one of Stanley's original works. "We found out what a treasure the Delta is, and Marty personified that."

Stanley's wife, Sherry, said a battle with depression drove her husband to end his life. He had been diagnosed recently and was fighting to understand the illness, but it overtook him.

"The Marty Stanley we knew was not here when this happened," she said.

Thursday's memorial, at Grand Island Mansion, featured memories of the eager personality Stanley shared with everyone.

"He has a way about him where you automatically love him. To meet him is to love him," said Lorraine Scribner, who with her husband, Mark, commissioned Stanley to design a label for their Scribner Bend wines.

Stanley grew up in Isleton, where his father owned an upholstery shop. He graduated from Rio Vista High School in 1973.

A few years later, he rented a shop in Isleton's Chinatown from Marion Wong to start a sign-painting business.

"His father's shop was too noisy, so he was looking for a quiet place to paint," Wong, 90, recalled.

Chris Spencer met Stanley around that time. A budding painter himself, he said Stanley invited him out to the Delta to go painting. But the clutch failed on Spencer's car, and he called to cancel.

Instead, Stanley drove to Spencer's house in Stockton, changed the clutch in his driveway, and then they went painting.

"He will continue to be an inspiration to me as a painter," Spencer said. "More importantly, this guy was a true friend, and I'm a better person because I knew him."

Seeking to advance his art, Stanley made a two-month trip to Greece in 1985. He discovered the island of Santorini and stayed six more months, creating a large body of images inspired by the island. Almost all were destroyed in a subsequent fire.

"I watched his art develop, and he came into his own style," Peter Chedester, a Midwestern artist who met Stanley on Santorini, said this week. Stanley later persuaded him to move to the Delta.

"He was connected to other things," Chedester added cryptically.

As an example, he said, Stanley had a dream about entering a soapbox derby on Santorini in a car that oriented the driver headfirst. The event was only three weeks away, and he would face an experienced German team.

Stanley built a car from junkyard scraps that was meant to resemble the space shuttle. And he won the race.

"Most men in this room will admit, at one time or another, they wanted to be Marty," longtime friend Kenny Clyde said. "But I think Marty just wanted to be one of us."

In addition to his wife, Stanley is survived by son Skyler, 10, and daughter Callista, 5.

His gallery manager, Donna Anderson, said Stanley left an additional 300 original paintings that have never been reproduced. She said he recently found photo transparencies of the burned Greek paintings.

"At one time, we talked about doing a 'Phoenix exhibit' and bringing those back," she said.

About the writer:
The Bee's Matt Weiser can be reached at (916) 321-1264 or mweiser@sacbee.com.

Marty Stanley holds his cat in his gallery in Ryde in this 1987 photo. The pet was the slightly singed survivor of a fire that destroyed many of Stanley's works. Sacramento Bee

A reception after Delta artist Marty Stanley's memorial service on Thursday featured several of his paintings. Sacramento Bee

Rod Faszer, left, and Ron Kehoe listen to a speaker at a memorial service for artist and friend Marty Stanley, who struggled with depression but saw beauty in the Delta. Sacramento Bee

Sacramento Bee Column


By R.E. Graswich - Bee Columnist

October 4, 2006

Sunset in Delta: The death of Delta artist Marty Stanley erases a unique perspective on one of the country's most tranquil locations. Marty could see a Delta sunset, capture it with pastels and make it immortal. His 2002 and 2004 calendars were stunning best sellers. He liked to say, "I'm a very lucky guy because I get to live in a beautiful place, look out my window and paint what I see." Now Marty is gone at age 51. He fought mental illness in recent years. May the Delta sunsets linger a little this week in Marty's memory.





Lodi News-Sentinel Article

Delta artist Marty Stanley is seen in his gallery located in Walnut Grove in this July 2004 file photo. (News-Sentinel file photo)

MARTY STANLEY REMEMBERED AS CREATIVE, PROLIFIC PAINTER
By Lauren Nelson - News-Sentinel Feature Writer

October 3, 2006

He painted the Delta in sweeps of glowing clouds, purple mountains and lush riverbanks. Shadows and reflections were illuminated in the summer and darkened by twilight. Vivid browns, reds, greens and blues jumped from the canvases he knew so well.

For more than 15 years, Marty Stanley painted his home, the riverbanks of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. He died Thursday at the age of 51.

From his roots in Isleton to his travels in Greece, an impressive collection of more than 400 oil paintings reveal Sanley's view of the world: Bright, sharp, powerful, heavenly.

His work is known from San Diego to Milan, but those who knew him best say Stanley was a small-town guy, who grew up on the shores of the Delta and hung out at local marinas and the small town of Locke, where his parents owned an upholstery business.

He didn't go to school for any trade, didn't even study painting, but Stanley's nephew Joe DaCruz said his uncle, who was more like a brother; was a master of anything he attempted.

"He could do anything he wanted to do," said DaCruz, who is still amazed at how Stanley could pull a motor out of a car, rebuild it and put it back without knowing anything about cars.

While in Greece, Stanley entered a makeshift soapbox derby race for the fun of it, DaCruz said. With odds and ends found on the side of the road, Stanley built a car to race against the fancy, highly-engineered cars other competitors paid big moeny for. Stanley not only completed the race, he won.

But Stanley was always known as the fun-loving guy.

Even after he started a family and "became responsible," as longtime friend Jim Baumann put it, Stanley would attend concerts and art shows when he wasn't perfecting the colors of the sunset or illustrating books. He was a Sacramento Kings fan, a season-ticket owner with his buddies.

A former roommate who met Stanley in 1971 while working at Isleton's Heinz pickle factory, Baumann says he continuously practiced his art in times when money ran low.

It was his love for the scenery and painting that earned him the success he enjoyed with his wife, Sherry, and their young children Skyler and Callista. He not only opened the Levee Gallery in Walnut Grove that showcases his landscapes, sunsets, art posters and limited edition prints, he also lived in a river-side Victorian house, where much of his inspiration was drawn. He was close to some of his favorite places: Snodgrass Slough, The Meadows and Steamboat Slough.

Longtime friend of the family, Kathleen Stevens speaks of her friend with love and admiration, unable to completely express the unique person she found in Stanley. From the oversized garden he tended, to the homey get-togethers to road trips, Stanley believed life is the journey, not the destination, Stevens said.

"He was just as creative in the kitchen as he was in the studio," she said, remembering how his proud Sicilian heritage would come out when he would do things in the kitchen like roasting homegrown peppers.

Whether building an armoire for his wife because the closet was too small, sewing himself an apron or painting a sunset, Stanley kept busy doing the things he loved.

Stanley had just finished a mural for Alex G. Spanos in the last few months of his life. He also painted wall and canvas murals for Tom Raley of Raley's Supermarket and for the Dutra family of Rio Vista, for their family museum on dredging in the Delta.

It was the Delta that Stanley once called his nourishment, the freedom and the lifestyle that allowed him to be himself.

And as himself is how friends and family will remember him, before a struggle with mental illness led him to end his own life. As the former pickle-pusher who knew how to do everything, the young man with wanderlust who showed Greeks the real way to race and a father who could freeze the sky in more color than the imagination could allow.


Marty Stanley
Age: 51
- Well-regarded artist known for his painting of the Delta.
- Graduated from Rio Vista High School in 1973.
- Lived on Grand Island in Walnut Grove.
- Owned the Levee Gallery at 14151 River Road in Walnut Grove.
Website: www.martystanley.com
Service: A memorial service will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Grand Island Mansion, 13415 Grand Island Road in Walnut Grove.





Sacramento Bee Obituary

MARTY STANLEY One of the country's most respected artists and lifelong resident of the Sacramento Delta passed away Thursday, September 28, 2006, in Walnut Grove, Calif. Marty Stanley is survived by his adoring wife Sherry, son Skyler and daughter Callista, his loving mother Nancy Dallas, brothers Thornton Stanley (wife Betty), and Don Murrow (wife Margarite), sisters Judi Da Cruz (husband Joe) and Diane Moreno (husband Gilbert). A celebration of Marty Stanley's life and art will be hosted by friends and family at the historic Grand Island Mansion this Thursday, Oct. 5, at 2:00 PM. The family asks that friends and supporters call the gallery at (916) 776-1282 if they plan to attend. Directions are available at www.grandislandmansion.com. In lieu of flowers a memorial fund for the family has been established at Bank of Rio Vista, 14211 River Road, Walnut Grove, CA 95690.

Sacramento Bee Article


DELTA PAINTER FOUND MAJESTY ALONG RIVERS
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer

October 2, 2006

Marty Stanley stitched together the fabric of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Like its wandering sloughs, its real-life towns and world-weary characters, Stanley's paintings gave the Delta a native texture that felt right in a Golden State that became a bit too gilded.

So ingrained were his images that, on a spring or fall evening, it was not uncommon for a Delta resident to gaze aloft and proclaim, "That's a Marty Stanley sunset."

Stanley died Thursday at his home on Grand Island. The manager of his Walnut Grove gallery, Donna Anderson, said he had been battling mental illness. He was 51.

[Clarification of above statement: Marty struggled with clinical depression for over a year, even tackling it with education and medical help. We are devasted to lose him to this battle.]

"Marty clearly was our spokesperson on canvas," said Gil Labrie, a Walnut Grove engineer and architect who knew Stanley for 30 years. "I think his work personifies the Delta."

He painted more than 400 original images of the Delta. Though best known for panoramic sunsets, his work covered the breadth of Delta nature, architecture and history.

He also painted murals throughout the region, including one on J Street in midtown and another in Walnut Grove. He also illustrated the book "Sturgeon Tales: Stories of the Delta," by Charlie Soderquist, who died in 2004.

Stanley also took commissions from the region's business leaders to record their stories, from the Raley grocery family to Dutra Engineering, which dredged and maintained many of the reflective sloughs Stanley loved to paint. His most recent commission was a massive 16-foot-wide painting of the history of the Stockton-based Spanos family.

Stanley had no formal art training. After graduating from Rio Vista High School in 1973, he started his own sign painting business at the age of 19, serving clients for nearly 10 years out of shops in Isleton and then Locke.

Then the sign-painting clients began to commission paintings. Seeking to inspire this new career, in 1985 he decided to visit Greece for two months.

He discovered the Greek island of Santorini and decided to stay for another six months. He returned with a large body of work featuring island architecture, still lifes and landscapes.

In 1987, after returning to the Delta, Stanley's home on Twitchell Island burned to the ground, destroying almost all the Santorini paintings.

Rather than a disaster, however, it became a catalyst that opened Stanley's eye to the landscape around him.

Stanley often donated his prints for fundraisers to protect the Delta, and he was one of its biggest boosters. Earlier this year, he donated original artwork for the first "Welcome to the Delta" road signs installed throughout the region.

Stanley is survived by his wife, Sherry, and their two children, Skyler and Callista.

A memorial service will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Grand Island Mansion, 13415 Grand Island Road, Walnut Grove. A memorial fund has been established at the Bank of Rio Vista, 14211 River Road, Walnut Grove, CA 95690.





Sacramento Bee Article


MEMORIAL GATHERING FOR DELTA ARTIST
Last Updated 12:14 am PDT Sunday, October 1, 2006
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B2

WALNUT GROVE -- The late Marty Stanley, an accomplished regional artist whose panoramic oil pastels of Delta river scenes were widely collected, will be remembered Thursday afternoon at a gathering at the Grand Island Mansion.

Friends and supporters of Stanley, survived by his wife and two children, are invited to attend the 2 p.m. celebration of his life, said Terry Black, proprietor of the Delta mansion. A display of his art will be arranged in the Grand Ballroom.

The well-known Walnut Grove colorist produced works ranging from murals to collectible art to super-wide body calendars featuring selections of his Delta landscapes and images of Chinese Delta architecture.

Contributions to the family are welcome through a memorial fund at the Bank of Rio Vista, 14211 River Road, Walnut Grove, CA 95690. To contact the bank, call (916) 776-1755.
-- Bee Metro Staff






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