Summer 2025

A merican humorist Robert Benchley once said, “Who said time machines haven’t been built yet? They already exist. They’re called books.” But he could have easily and accurately substituted the word “paintings” for “books.” Stepping into Joaquin Turner’s Dolores Street gallery is proof positive that the delicate art of putting paint to canvas can speak to us through the years and transport the viewer to a bygone place and time. Now celebrating 10 years in business,Turner has carved a niche as one of the area’s preemi- nent authorities on early California artists. And, informed and inspired by those masters, his own evocative paintings take pride of place next to those of the artists he has studied. “When I first opened my gallery, I was only selling my paintings,” he says. “Fortunately, my paintings 112 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 5 (Above) A Mary DeNeale Morgan of the Asilomar dunes, painted in 1928. (Below) A depiction of Monterey’s Alvarado Adobe, “After the Gringo Came,” is an important work by Charles Rollo Peters which won silver at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.