Art can do a lot—inspire, provoke, entertain, communicate. In the case of John Ramos, it transports. Highway One Woody is a behind-the-steering-wheel view out of an old woody station wagon driving up the coastline. The Bath places the viewer in a bathtub with their feet under running water as a rubber duckie looks on. Todos Santos sets the viewer on a Baja beach next to a palapa at sunset.
Celebra la Casa Ramos
Casa Ramos (1034 Los Osos Valley Road, Los Osos) celebrates its one-year anniversary and its namesake John Ramos’ 45 years in the fine arts world with a retrospective of Ramos’ work, on Saturday, Nov. 8, from 2 to 7 p.m. Expect food, drink, and acoustic live music. You can also meet the gallery’s other artists, Mike Golling, Jon Miller, George Jercich, Philip Lopez, and Adrianne Jenkins. Visit losososart.com for more info.
John is the namesake of Casa Ramos Art Gallery, owned and operated by his daughter, Elena Ramos-Peffly, and her husband, Brian Peffly. The Los Osos gallery will celebrate its first anniversary on Saturday, Nov. 8.
John was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1942, and turned 84 this year. He’s been painting professionally since the ’70s and selling fine arts prints since the ’80s. Elena recorded his responses to emailed questions about his life and career, like his first art memory.
“I was 12 years old. I liked to draw,” John told Elena. “A friend had paints. That was really a new thing for us as a family living in Paramount, California. Then it was a dairy and farming community with a lot of Mexicans and poor white families. Not many people would do art. It wasn’t really talked about. I started to pinstripe cholos’ sunglasses to make money.”
When John came of age, he took art classes at Cal State Long Beach.
“Eventually, I became a professor and met Dick Oden, a well-known artist and professor who also taught corporate identity and graphic design,” John recalled. “We started an advertising firm in Orange called Sunshine Studios. Quit the college job and went on to do logo work, and work on TV sets for Ed Sullivan and CBS Studios.”
His gift for graphic design and knack for putting the viewer in an idyllic place made his work hugely popular. He’s sold more than 6,000 paintings and limited edition prints over his career.
“My work in advertising, I see things differently than the more classically trained artists,” John reasoned. “My work makes people feel good; it takes you away. And if it makes you feel good, then great, what more could I want?”
He did a commemorative painting called Pura Vida for Jose Cuervo’s 200-year anniversary that put the viewer in a hammock looking out to Matanchen Bay, San Blas, Mexico, with a frosty margarita in hand.
“That one really made people feel like they were on vacation,” he laughed.
He also wisely jumped early on the printmaking bandwagon of the 1980s that made huge names of Patrick Nagel, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol.
“In the 1970s, I lived in Laguna Beach and opened a studio above a place called the Jolly Roger in downtown,” John noted. “Laguna Beach was starting to get popular for artists and the Sawdust Festival. Printing wasn’t very popular because it was expensive. I did a series of paintings that I wanted to sell as a set.”
The details are fuzzy, but John secured a $10,000 loan from “a man named Bob” who owned a concrete company and “built all the freeways in Los Angeles.”
“That was a hell of a lot of money back then, and for a Mexican artist. I printed four prints in Los Angeles and took them to the Sawdust Festival, and, no shit, I was able to pay Bob back all the money in one month.”
Then he created his highly popular lithograph Hussong’s Cantina, which led to work with the LA Olympics, Juanita’s Foods, Pico Pica Hot Sauce, and more.
In the early ’90s, he transitioned from watercolors to oil paints and opened his first art gallery in Los Osos around that time. Later he moved his gallery to San Luis Obispo.
“After the [2003] San Simeon earthquake, the building was damaged, and they said we’d have to move out, so I drove to Mexico to find a new spot,” he explained. “When I got to Loreto, Baja, I found a 110-year-old adobe and restored it on the town square. Donna [his wife] and I made a wonderful life in Loreto. It was a fun time.”
They stayed for six and a half years before returning to Los Osos.
“There’s no place like home. I’ve lived a wonderful life. I have a beautiful home with my studio, [with] Donna and my paintings around me. I live on a property with all my family around me. I’m blessed. What more could I ask for?” he laughed. “Some people work their entire lives and never get to be happy. I’ve always been happy with my art as a Mexican immigrant. Who else has done what I’ve done?”
Addressing daughter, Elena, he continued, “You know my art; you lived in these places. It feels good to see another gallery doing really well. The world is scary right now. We don’t know what will happen in the USA politically, but all through wars and recessions, I’ve continued to sell my art. I love to come to your gallery, close to home, in my favorite place. I feel so fortunate. You’re doing an amazing job, Elle.”
John continues to paint, but it’s harder now, yet his most recent is beautiful, colorful, and deftly rendered.
“At 84 years old, it feels really good to still be painting. My newest painting of the Western Flyer, John Steinbeck’s boat, you know, Elle, I’m so glad I finished it. And you sold the painting to the captain. Wow! In one month! Can you believe that? That was incredible. I just feel so blessed at this time in my life. I thank my wife, Donna, for being by my side. She’s the reason my work has done what it’s done. I’m so damn blessed.
“This will be a really great show. I think it will be a big one for me.”
Elena is opening John’s archives of paintings, “many of which the general public has never seen, including watercolor originals of his most iconic paintings,” Elena explained. “This large of a retrospective hasn’t been done in John’s career, and at 84 years old, it deserves to happen while he’s still here to experience it and see his work find new homes.” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 9 2025.