Born in San Diego, Rex Brandt was a painter of broad, splashy, cubist watercolors and became a foremost leader of California artists who brought national attention to California artists in the 1930s and 1940s. Also as a teacher, he influenced countless numbers of students to become skilled in watercolor. Brandt grew up in San Diego and Riverside, and first attended Chouinard Art Institute at age 13. He also studied art at Riverdale Junior College and the University of California at Berkeley where his interest in abstraction began due to the pervasive influence there of Hans Hofmann, Abstract Expressionist. In 1937, he and Lawson Cooper organized "The California Group," a traveling watercolor exhibition that developed interest in the California style of watercolor. In 1947, he and Phil Dike opened a summer school of painting in Corona del Mar, California. He married artist Joan Irving. He died on March 21, 2000 at Corona del Mar, having painted nearly to the end of his life time.