Catherine Comstock Seideneck 1885-1967 Born and raised in Evanston, Illinois, Catherine Comstock developed a keen interest in fine art from a young age. She received early training in crafts and decorative arts under Elbert Hubbard and “Herr Kranz” at the Roycroft Studio in East Aurora, New York, where she perfected the art of sculptured leather. She then studied watercolor and pastel at the Art Institute of Chicago. By 1909 the Comstock family had relocated to Santa Rosa in Northern California. With her sister Cornelia and brother John, Catherine founded an Arts and Crafts Guild known as Los Compañeros. The three siblings operated a gift shop where they sold their hand-made jewelry and leatherworks. In 1915 Catherine shared a gold medal for sculptured leather at the prestigious Pan Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. That same year she continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and the California College of Arts and Crafts. She also served as an instructor in crafts and jewelry design at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club Summer School. Catherine became a permanent resident of Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1919. Her brothers Hugh and Hurd had already moved to Carmel where they became early residential home developers. Hugh invented the post-adobe construction method known as “Comstock.” He also designed and built Carmel’s distinctive Hansel and Gretel-style cottage houses. Well-known locally for his portrait and landscape paintings, artist George Seideneck first visited California in 1918 on a sketching tour. He intended to stay for three months, but his plans changed while in Carmel. There he fell in love with artist Catherine Comstock. The two had much in common. They were both born in Illinois in 1885, and they both studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. Catherine and George married in Santa Rosa in January of 1920. They spent the next two and a half years on an extended honeymoon, studying and traveling across Europe—especially England and Italy—before returning to Carmel where they began buying, decorating, and selling houses. They also produced landscape paintings in their joint studio space in the Seven Arts Building on Ocean Avenue. As Catherine’s career in art began to accelerate in the late 1920s, the couple shared an equal partnership of extraordinary artistic talents in multiple mediums and disciplines. In addition, they were both active in the local Artist Colony and very popular among arts community members, including artist luminaries Armin Hansen, Francis and Gene McComas, and William Ritschel. The pair also worked on downtown Carmel landscape designs and other civic improvements. Catherine was a member of the Carmel Garden Club, and George helped start the Carmel Music Society and directed early productions at the Forest Theater. When the Carmel Art Association was founded on August 8, 1927, both Catherine and George were present for its birth in the Gray Gables home of Josephine Culbertson and her life partner and fellow artist, Ida Johnson. The Seidenecks were among Carmel Art Association’s initial charter members. Catherine’s mother, Nellie Comstock, was the patron who provided CAA with its initial funding. By the 1930s George had added photography to his many artistic pursuits, including illustrating for several architectural magazines. He joined the Carmel Camera Club alongside Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. While George used a camera to capture sweeping, pastoral Carmel Valley images, Catherine became known for her distinctive Carmel Valley pastels—a type of oil wash resembling watercolor. Because George also enjoyed working with tools, designing architecture, design, and building structures, it seemed natural for the couple to adopt Carmel Valley as their next home. In 1929 Catherine and George purchased thirty-four acres on Miramonte Road, near Mid-Valley. In 1931 the Seidenecks began constructing what was originally intended to be their weekend cottage. It quickly grew into a real home. George kept expanding the rooms and adding cabinetry, brickwork, and wood carvings. Catherine added her oil, watercolor, pastel, and oil wash paintings to the interior décor. Every window was located with a Valley view in mind, and the home’s interior became a showplace for their antiques, ceramics, and wrought silver and hammered brass and copper collections from their extensive travels across California, Mexico, and Europe. These artifacts included pieces from old barns, mills, and shipwrecks as well as tapestries, Italian furniture, ceramic tiles, and pottery. The Seidenecks lived in Carmel Valley for the rest of their lives, and their unique home became a regular gathering place for friends and fellow artists. Catherine died on February 13, 1967, and George, on March 7, 1972. During her very accomplished lifetime in the arts, Catherine was not only a co-founder of the Carmel Art Association. She was also a member of the Society of Watercolor Artists and the National Society of Craftsmen. Besides exhibiting in the Pan Pacific International Exhibition of 1915, she also showed in the Washington State Fair (1912); Carmel Arts and Crafts Club (1920); many Santa Cruz Statewide Annuals; Stanford Art Gallery; a large, solo exhibition of award-winning Monterey coastal scenes and Carmel Valley landscapes at the Carmel Art Association (1948); and the Monterey Peninsula Museum (with her husband, in 1966, the year before her passing).