The decades of 1930s and 1940s marked a turning point in American art. The social and economic upheaval brought about by the Great Depression caused many American artists to reject European influences and to seek distinctively "American" themes and idioms. The resulting phenomenon, known as American Scene Painting, spurred the development of regional schools of art across the country. On the West Coast, the movement produced a distinctive body of art known as California Scene Painting. California artists investigate their surroundings with intense interest, painting every aspect of the visual world, from tenements and trolleys to circuses and citrus groves. They also made a fresh and spontaneous style of watercolor painting one of the hallmarks of the California Scene.

In this three-part series, producer Paul Bockhorst highlights the works of more than two dozen artists, including such important figures as Millard Sheets, Phil Dike, Ben Messick, Rex Brandt, Emil Kosa, Jr., Milford Zornes, Fletcher Martin, John Haley, George Post Dong Kingman, Lucien Labaudt, and John Langley Howard. Commentators include Paul Karlstrom, Susan Anderson, Harvey Jones, Janice Lovoos, David Stary Sheets, Palmer Schoppe, Phil Paradise, and Robert Perine.