Jeane Coutts Anguiano

1922 - 2017

Jeane Coutts Anguiano

Jeane Granada Coutts Anguiano passed away peacefully and surrounded by her family on May 9th, 2017, of complications from Parkinson's. Jeane was born on November 2, 1922, in Granada, Spain, to Gordon Coutts, the renowned Scottish artist, and his musician/artist wife, Gertrude. The family moved to Palm Springs in 1925 where Gordon built "Dar Morroc," their "Moorish Castle," now known as "Korakia Pensione". John Lavery, the well-known Irish artist and family friend, was an occasional visitor to their home and mentored Jeane during his stays. Because of her extraordinary artistic capabilities, at 15 Jeane attended the Otis Art Institute, where she received a full-time scholarship.

Her father's protégé, she became a well-known artist in her own right, exhibiting her paintings in the desert communities as well as San Francisco, San Diego, New York and Los Angeles where she contributed to LACMA's California Centennial Exhibition.

She was also instrumental in keeping the focus of the Palm Springs art scene alive by teaching about the meaning of art and its importance in our society through media. While living in Palm Springs, she helped to establish the Allied Arts Association of Palm Springs, now known as The Desert Art Center. In the early 1970s, she hosted "Gallery," an hour long television program, shown once a week in the Coachella Valley, where she chose and interviewed guest artists and writers as well as demonstrated figure painting.

Jeane was a prolific artist who thoroughly enjoyed using her talent in a variety of ways. She was not only known for her realistic portrait paintings, but had also been commissioned to paint a series of twelve large paintings celebrating the peoples of West Africa for the PanAmerican-PanAfrican Foundation in New York; sketched paintings at the World's Fair in San Francisco; drew images for The New Yorker magazine, and she opened the Gordon Coutts Art Gallery in Palm Springs, where she was the curator and taught art classes for eight years. She was just as adept in using a palette knife to bring to life her subjects, as she was using delicate brush strokes.

Jeane loved to teach and help others express themselves through art. She earned a B.A. in Art from the University of Redlands, as well as four teaching credentials which included teaching art to those with disabilities as well as for therapy, even writing a book on the subject titled, "Song of the Meadowlark." An avid swimmer who enjoyed walks on the beach, she never wanted to be too far from the water and swam daily into her late 80s.

With her parents passing away within the same year, when she was only 15, Jeane yearned for a large family and married Mele Anguiano in 1950. She showered her eight children with Mele with love and encouraged their own creativity. She was known for being non-judgmental and compassionate, her quick wit and mischievous spirit. Jeane will be greatly missed by many.

Jeane was preceded in death by her parents, her husbands, Lee Knight and Mele Anguiano, and her daughter, Bernadette. She is lovingly survived by her children, Vickie Bridgman, Mark, Kent, Kurt and Bruce (Leah) Anguiano, Roxanne (Ike) Eilers, Maristella Bachelder, and Tamara (Mark) Chafin, her sister, Mary Coutts-Korst, her nieces and nephews as well as 15 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

A memorial in her honor will take place on June 24th, from 12- 2pm at the Mariners Church, 5001 Newport Coast Dr., Irvine, CA 92603. For details please contact roxanneeilers@gmail.com

To view and sign this guestbook, please visit:

desertsun.com/obituaries.