Walter Hunt Everett

By Armand Cabrera

Walter Hunt Everett was born on August 20 1880. He spent his childhood on a farm in Haddonfield, New Jersey. In his teens he attended The Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art. Sometime later he attended the Drexel Institute and studied under Howard Pyle.

He began getting professional work in his early twenties. Everett worked for The Saturday Evening Post, Scribner’s Monthly, Women’s Home Companion, McCall’s, Collier’s,Ladies Home Journal, and illustrated a number of books. He provided color frontispieces for the eighteen volume set of The Works of Louise Muhlbach.

Everett also taught briefly at the Spring Garden Institute and The School of Industrial Art from 1911 to 1915 but quit when he felt teaching was too confining.

Everett’s early work shows the influence of Pyle and other successful illustrators of the day like E.A. Abbey. The designs while strong are simple and the color is subdued.

As he matured his work became more personal. He developed an intricate sense of design and color and he incorporated more figures in his work. His later work becomes more focused on flat planes of painted color and even more sophisticated designs. His brushwork is bold and free but never sloppy or haphazard.

Although he was in demand as an illustrator through the 1920’s and early 1930’s, his temperamental nature and perfectionism caused him to miss deadlines. In a fit one day he burned most of his life’s work and very few originals survive. He was married briefly but his wife left him when he continually failed to pay bills and rent on time. He ended up moving in with a brother in Pennsylvania sometime in the 1930’s and spent the end of his life painting for the pure joy it gave him. Walter Hunt Everett died in 1946 at the age of 66.

Bibliography

Walter Everett Forgotten Master
Step by Step Graphics Volume 4 Number 1
Benjamin and Jane Sperry Eisenstat

200 Years of American Illustration

Henry C. Pitz

The Illustrator in America (3 volumes)

1900-1960, 1880-1980, 1860-2000

Walt Read

I want to thank Kev Ferarra for some of the Everett pictures and information in this article.

Other Articles on the web about Walter Everett

http://www.schoonoverstudios.com/howard-pyle-a-students/pyle-students-bios.html?start=22

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2008/07/walter-everett-1880-1946.html

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2011/11/walter-h-everett-man-preoccupied-with.html

http://gregnewbold.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-walter-everett.html

Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered

By

Armand Cabrera

This week I had the pleasure of seeing the Howard Pyle Exhibit at the Delaware Art Museum. The Preview and show were well attended proving once again how starved the public is for this type of art. The exhibit really shows his range as an artist.

This is the largest showing of his work since his death 100 years ago. The museum also displayed the work of some of Pyle's students, showing his influence as a teacher. Walking around with the other artists we were all struck by his use of color and value and his great eye for unusual compositions.

5am. When I was younger I would've been coming home at this time

In Chads Ford, 10 miles away at the Brandywine River Museum they also had a tribute to Pyle and some of his students, plus all seventeen of N.C. Wyeth’s Treasure Island Paintings on display.

Margo, myself, Jeanette, James, Jean Baptiste, Lester

My trip started with a 5:30 am Friday morning drive up to the Brandywine River Museum to meet James Gurney and his wife Jeanette, Jean Baptiste Monge and his wife Margo and Lester Yocum when the museum opened at 9:30am. Jim had these little pieces of paper with 11 on them and at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11 we took a picture of ourselves. I think it caused a rip in the space time continuum somewhere. 

Myself and Garin and our portraits

After seeing the show we went and had lunch and were joined by two other artists Kevin Ferrara and Garin Baker.While we all  talked James painted watercolor portraits of me and Garin.

At 5pm there was a 2 hour preview party at the Delaware Art Museum which was very well attended.

Afterward, we left James and Jeanette who had prior committments, and found a diner and talked art for a few hours.

                              left to right, Garin Baker Kev Ferrara, Margo and Jean Baptiste Monge

Saturday, I was back at the Delaware to get an early look at the show before James Gurneys lecture. People were waiting for the Museum to open when I got there. As I was walking around with James and Kevin we met Noah Bradley who was up for the Lecture and show as well as Patrick O’brien. I was also introduced to John R. Schoonover and Ian Schoenherr.  James Gurney gave a 45 minute talk on Howard Pyle and Composition Techniques to a packed crowd.

Kev Ferrara briefly eclipsed by Garin Baker and Noah Bradley

Afterward, a few of us took our lives in our hands trying to caravan to the diner we had been to the night before. After a few close calls we finally made it and enjoyed a simple lunch with more great conversation.

Heading home, I had plenty of time to think about Pyle and his legacy that still touches artists of all ages to this day.

If you are on the East Coast it is a must see show.

Art or Illustration

By Armand Cabrera

                                  N.C. Wyeth
The conversation about art and illustration keeps coming up. People want to draw a line making one better than the other. I think this is foolish.

Since I work both sides of the fence as it were, I thought I would lay out a couple of things I’ve noticed about the different disciplines and maybe help dispel some myths about both along the way.

                                   Aldro Hibbard
First myth, gallery artists have to sell which means they have to paint what people want and that means they are just like illustrators. Wrong. In gallery work people may commission you to paint a painting, they may even ask you to paint a specific scene but what they don’t do is ask you to submit roughs, then color studies and then fiddle with your picture as you paint it. Gallery artists paint what they want to paint and then take it to a gallery that sells it for them. No one has ever told me to fix or change a painting that I have delivered to a gallery. This happens all the time in illustration. Very few illustrators get a phone call for work, come up with an idea and paint an image for the client without outside feedback on that image.

Second myth, gallery artists are more artistic than illustrators. Wrong. The level of artistic accomplishment lays with the individual not the profession. Many golden age illustrators have stood the test of time and the works they created are now considered art. I would argue their work was always art. Their work has transcended the original intent of the painting. Some gallery work on the other hand has not done so well because of its trite treatment or overly sentimental subject matter.

                                      Jeff Jones
Third myth, if you take money for your art you are selling out. Wrong. Selling out is a term that gets thrown about quite a bit in the artist versus illustrator discussion. Artists look at illustrators as sellouts for offering their work as a commodity designed by a committee. Those same artists have no problem giving up their self-respect begging for grant money to fund their projects or going to openings trying to sell paintings at a show of their work. I think selling out is copying another artists style for monetary gain. Neither profession can claim the high ground here. And both fields have their hacks that chase the style of whatever artist is commanding the most work and highest prices. I see it in galleries and illustration.

People who respect their craft and their profession create things worthy of any museum; to label it unworthy because of the original intent is ignorant. All creative work is communication and will be judged by the ability to reach other people. An artist must impart truth to what they create for it to have value beyond the moment. Successful artists must satisfy the needs of their profession and the desires of their soul if they wish to survive and continue to create works that can stand the test of time.

                                       Dennis Miller Bunker
 
 
All art for this article is copyrighted to the respective artists, their estates or the artwork owners

Quotes from Harvey Dunn part 5

This will be my last post on the Harvey Dunn quotes. The blog is a labor of love for me and one of its perks is getting to correspond with other likeminded artists. Some of these people I have not met in person but still I am glad for their contact with me.

Kev Ferrara is one such person. I would like to thank Kev Ferrara for sending me some more Dunn images to post with the quotes. Between fighting the good fight on just about every art blog and forum I read and also offering his insight and knowledge about the art process to people, I don’t know how he finds the time to draw and paint. Thanks Kev! I hope we get a chance to meet some day.





To visualize the simple values, think of how things appear in the shadow when your eyes are accustomed to the bright light and of how things appear in the bright light when your eyes are accustomed to the shadow. How many values can you distinguish on coming from indoors into the brilliant sunlight and vice versa?

Lick touches of light into the shadow field to give zip to the points of interest in the quiet tones and to tie the light field and the shadow filed together, similarly put a few flicks of dark in to the light field.

Only the greatest contrasts are at first perceivable. The value range will be light, halftone, shadow. The subtler values will be lost. This is the effect to aim at when expressing strong light. To see simply is to see pictorially. In strong light there will be no color in the shadow. By using absolute shadow or black, to draw in the shadow forms, all the values can be painted in local color.



Balance: Opposition of lines, values, colors forms, textures etc. in unequal but related proportions.

Maintain the integrity of the local value of every form. Paint the black, black and the white, white as it appears. The light will unify the values. One fleck of light on the dark will serve to bring the whole form into light.



Ideas are intelligent active things which present themselves to your consciousness for expression. You can only be receptive and express them as they will be expressed. It is not possible for a man to sit down and cold-bloodedly think up ideas- ideas can only come to you when you have an open mind to receive them.



If your life is full you will paint full pictures If it is empty your pictures will be empty too.



Any picture that needs a caption is a weak picture.



Get it down and get it said, to hell with everything else.

Harold Von Schmidt

By
Armand Cabrera


Harold Von Schmidt was born in 1893 in Alameda California. One of five children, he was second to the youngest. Von Schmidt’s father was a sea captain and his mother was a ballet dancer. Both his parents were killed in an accident when Von Schmidt was only five. His sister who was the oldest child was sent to live with an aunt. The boys were sent to an orphanage in San Mateo where they were split up again because of their ages. Von Schmidt stayed with his younger brother Roland. Von Schmidt immediately had to learn to fight to protect himself and his brother. The fights continued when he entered elementary school where he was singled out for being from an orphanage.

Eventually Von Schmidt and his brothers went to live with their grandfather who was in his eighties. His grandfather had been an engineer and a surveyor in the Sierras. The stories his grandfather would tell about eastern California delighted the young Von Schmidt. He spent his time drawing cowboys and horses. His Grandfather gave him a set of watercolors and would encourage him to paint things. He studied at the California School of arts and Crafts for a year and a half starting in his last year of high school and later taught as an assistant at the Unviersity of California Berkeley.

Although he always wanted to be an artist, Von Schmidt had many rough jobs when he was young. He worked in a logging camp, helped build dams, and worked on the docks and in railroad yards as a lumper, loading and unloading freight. In high school and college he played football and rugby. In 1920 at age  twenty seven Von Schmidt played rugby in the Olympics for the American team and they won the gold.

His first job as an artist was in San Francisco, working in advertising, he rented a space in a building with other artists of the time, Maynard Dixon, Armin Hansen and Gottardo Piazzoni. Von Schmidt worked as Dixons studio assistant for three years where he was introduced to Dixons friends Charlie Russell and Ed Borien.

In 1924 after a failed marriage to his high school sweetheart Von Schmidt moved to New York. His friend Joe Sinel, an illustrator he had worked with in San Francisco, convinced him to come east and there he began getting work in advertising. He remarried and he and his new wife had two children.

Von Schmidt still wanted to be an illustrator for the magazines, at thirty one he had been working as an artist for nine years. He knew he wanted to be a better artist. Von Schmidt enrolled in Harvey Dunn’s night classes and credits Dunn with changing the way he thought about illustration. Dunn taught him not just to illustrate the story he was assigned but to paint the epic so that the painting would stand as a picture in its own right.

Von Schmidt went on to illustrate for all of the major magazines of the time including Colliers Weekly, Liberty Magazine, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and The Saturday Evening Post. He was president of the Society of Illustrators from 1938 to 1941, served as an artist war correspondent in World War II, and helped form the Famous Artist Course School in 1949.

Von Schmidt was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1959, and was commissioned by the Postal Service in 1960 to create a stamp commemorating the Pony Express. He was the first artist awarded the Trustees Gold Medal from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1968.

Harold Von Schmidt died in 1982 at the age of 89

Bibliography

Harold Von Schmidt Draws and Paints the Old West
Walt Reed
Northland Press 1972

200 Years of American Illustration
Henry C. Pitz
Random House 1977

The Illustrator in America (3 Volumes)
Walt Reed
The Society of Illustrators 1966, 1980, 2000

Famous American Illustrators
Arpi Ermoyan
Rotovision 1997

Quote

I draw and paint outdoors not to make easel pictures but to acquire experience and knowledge as reference for both the form and color of a locale and the people who live there or travel through it. This has helped me to handle a variety of subjects. It has further sustained my interest in illustration. The world exists as reference, and I try to use it. I constantly bring parts of it into my files in color and forms, through sketches and drawings. They are mine alone and have paid me well for the time, money and love expended on them. The beauty and value of field work is that though many have commented on nature, here is one place where each artist can work out their own approach to it.~ Harold Von Schmidt

Donald Teague

by
Armand Cabrera

Donald Teague was born in Brooklyn New York in 1897. After high school he studied watercolor briefly at the Pratt Institute before attended more extensive studies at the Art Students League under George Bridgman and Frank Vincent Dumond. In 1918 Teague served in the Navy at the end of World War 1 On his return to the states he continued his studies at the Art Students League and met and was helped by Dean Cornwell. Teague credit Cornwell as having the most influence on him as an illustrator.


Teague landed his first illustration job in 1921. HE received his first assignment for the Saturday Evening Post in 1923. After the Post he quickly gained recognition and began working for Colliers, McCall’s, American and Women’s home Companion. The work helped him to meet and friend many other illustrators of the day. Teague became friendly with Harrison Cady, Harvey Dunn, N.C. Wyeth, Mead Schaeffer ,Norman Rockwell and Tom Lovell just to name a few.

In 1927 Teague moved to London and rented a studio in Chelsea. He met Frank Brangwyn and Norman Wilkinson. Teague Studied watercolor and marine painting with Wilkinson. After returning to New York it was a meeting with Henry Quinan the editor of Colliers Magazine. Quinan encouraged Teague to focus exclusively on Watercolor’s promising him all the work he could handle. It was a pivotal point in Teague’s career and helped to establish him as one of the premier watercolorists of the 20th century.

As his success continued Teague continued to travel the world in between his magazine assignments. In 1937 he sailed the world going from Brooklyn to Cape Town on a cargo ship and then continuing to Zanzibar, Mombasa, Singapore, Bali and finally returning home. Teague painted all along the way completing hundreds of watercolor sketches.

His family had always vacationed at a ranch in Colorado Which instilled a love of western themes in the young Teague. When Teague met and Married his wife Verna, the two moved to Encino California. Encino was the center for western work for Hollywood. From Encino Teague was surrounded by cowboys and ranch life; all of which added authenticity to his illustration assignments featuring western themes.

In 1949 The Teague family moved to Carmel. In Carmel Teague continued working at an illustrator but also had branched out into national art shows where he had won awards for his watercolors. In 1958 when Colliers stopped publishing Teague left illustration to concentrate on landscape paintings in watercolor. His timing was perfect and immediately became a successful gallery artist.

Teague went on to win many awards including gold medals from the American Watercolor Society and Gold medals for Western Art from the Franklin Mint. In 1969 he joined the Cowboy Artists of America where he won three gold medals and two silver medals. Teague was also a member of the National Academy of Design The National Academy of Western Art and The National Watercolor Society. =His work is part of the permanent collections in The Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis Indiana, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa Oklahoma and The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City Oklahoma. Donald Teague passed away in 1991.

Bibliography

Donald Teague: A Life in Color
Claudia Meyer
Nygard Publishing 1988

Forty Illustrators and How They Work
Ernest Watson
Watson Guptill Publications 1946

The Illustrator in America 1900 to 1960
Walt Reed
Reinhold Publishing 1960

The Illustrator in America 1880 to 1980
Walt Reed
Madison Square Publishing 1980

The Illustrator in America 1860 to 2000
Walt Reed
Watson Guptill Publications 2000

Quote

There is always someone who comes up with a new angle on time tried landscape subjects, an arresting arrangement of familiar objects or a different aspect of a figure subject which stops the viewer on his tour of an exhibition. I suggest that those things are arrived at by more acute observation, by an increased awareness of the possibilities involved in any subject, but most of all by the process of good solid cerebration combined with an intense emotional reaction.~ Donald Teague

Stanley Meltzoff

by
Armand Cabrera

Stanley Meltzoff was born in Harlem in New York City in 1917; At eight years old he enrolled in a cartoon mail order school. He was allowed to go through school at his own pace an was enrolled in college by the age of 15. He attended City College of New York graduating with a science degree. HE then attended the Institute Fine Arts at New York University. Meltzoff was drafted into the army and was in Italy WW II 1941-45. He worked for the Stars and Stripes, an independent newspaper published for the troops.

After the war Meltzoff taught painting and art history first at New York City College then at the Pratt Institute. In 1949 Meltzoff took the plunge and became a fulltime illustrator. Hi first assignments were for Scientific American, but he would go on to work for just about every major publisher of the time including the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Sports Illustrated, Field & Stream, Atlantic, Colliers, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic and New American Library for pocket book covers.

At a time when most artists were emulating a flat poster like graphic style with as few elements as possible. Meltzoff worked in oils creating complex scenes filled with people and things all fully rendered with a loose realism that set him apart from the crowd.

His successful career as an illustrator came to an end with the demise of the major magazines. Slowly photography replaced illustration in what was left of the market and at almost sixty Meltzoff struggled to make ends meet.

His second career was born out of this struggle and he turned to his love of diving and fishing and began painting the fish he hunted in their natural habitats. His work was unique at the time for showing fish underwater in their natural settings. His training as an illustrator gave him the tools and skills he needed to paint these pictures convincingly, using his visual memory of his dives, photography and specimens brought into his studio to be used to paint from life.

Collectors and sportsmen responded to his honest depictions and Meltzoff successfully created a new career for himself. That career was still going strong at the time of his death and he was considered one of the premier painters of fish in their habitats in the world. While working on the book of his life and work, Stanley Meltzoff passed away in 2006, he was 89. There is a website dedicated to his work which sells prints and originals and you can also purchase a copy of his book.

Bibliography

Stanley Meltzoff Picture Maker

Stanley Meltzoff, Mike Rivkin

 Silverfish Press 2010

Quote

Visual Equivalence is not transcription but translation. You cannot make a copy of the real world in a picture or a photograph, but only mimic some of its visible qualities and the feelings it provokes.~Stanley Meltzoff

All images and copyright belong to Stanley Meltzoff estate