Early Life, Family and Training

Arden von Dewitz was born on March 7, 1915, in New York City, United States. He was the son of Baron Hrolf von Dewitz of Denmark and Valda Valkyrien. When his parents divorced in 1919, he was adopted by his stepfather, Albert T. Otto. During these formative years, he was known as Arden Otto.

His early interest in drawing appeared as a child, often carrying a paint box while walking the cobblestone streets of Copenhagen. This early inclination led him to formal studies at the Soro Academy of Art in Denmark. His training continued as he moved through various institutions in the United States, seeking to refine his technical skills.

His education took him to the Stickney School of Art in Pasadena, California, and later to the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California. He also spent time studying at the Parsons School of Art in Manhattan, New York. These diverse environments provided the foundation for the many mediums he would eventually master.

Artistic Career and Professional Roles

His early creative impulses found an unexpected direction when he shared watercolor drawings of small dwarfs in wooden shoes with Walt Disney. These sketches, created when he was only eighteen, provided the visual inspiration for the dwarfs in the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This period of experimentation transitioned into more formal service when he became the Official Combat Artist for the Pacific Fleet, working with both the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard.

The camera became another medium for his instruction. He was the first artist to appear on television to teach painting through ABC-TV's Guideline and Scope weekly series, and later did the same for CBS-TV's Steps in Learning. Beyond the screen, he shared his methods in classrooms at the Laguna Beach School of Art, Marymount College, and through the Los Angeles Board of Education. He also wrote several instructional books for Walter Foster Publications, focusing on specific subjects like red barns, rocks, surf, and acrylic painting.

• Red Barns and Other Scenes
• How to Paint Rocks and Surf
• A Fun Book on Acrylic Painting

Major Collections and Notable Works

His brush captured the changing face of Los Angeles through the Historical Bunker Hill Art Collection, a series of twenty-five original oil paintings. These works documented the Victorian era of the neighborhood before it was largely erased by urban renewal. Other pieces from his hand reside in various institutional settings, such as Destroyer, which is held in the United States Navy Museum in Washington, D.C. His ability to translate specific atmospheres is seen in Spirits and Ghosts and Winter Storm, both of which are part of the Laguna Beach Museum of Art in California.

The reach of his work extends to several significant private and public collections. White Thunder is kept in the California State Capital Museum in Sacramento, while Riding High is part of the President Ronald Reagan Collection in Los Angeles. His landscapes and coastal scenes also find homes in specialized archives, including Big Sur in the Signal Oil Collection in Los Angeles and Papeete Tahiti in the Matson Lines Collection in San Francisco. In Europe, his painting Do Your Thing is held by the Hans der Kunst Museum in Munich, Germany.

• Moonlight Sea - Pacific Far East Collection, San Francisco
• Paradise Cove - National Cash Register Collection, Los Angeles

Later Years and Death

The steady hand required for his craft began to falter in 1987. Parkinson's disease gradually took hold, making it difficult to hold a brush and eventually impairing his ability to paint. This physical shift brought a quiet end to a long period of active creation. He continued to live and exist within the world he had spent decades observing through paint and color until his death in 2004.

He left behind a family that carries his lineage forward. His only child, Marlene von Dewitz DeMontford, remains part of his personal history. His legacy is also seen in his granddaughters, Gigi Kristine Nelson and Mimi Nicole Christensen, and through his six great-grandchildren.