Back when I first became interested in illustration from the mid-20th century, I found this piece below, signed "Lucia". I thought it was so great, I immediately sent it out to the Today's Inspiration group. I didn't know much about illustrators from the '50s back then, but I knew enough to catagorize this Lucia with the likes of Coby Whitmore, Joe Bowler, and Joe De Mers. Lucia was clearly adept at painting georgous women in romantic settings. His work had a lively roughness, a sketchiness - that textural quality - that was emerging during the mid-fifties among the top boy/girl illustrators, especially those at the Cooper studio in New York. I say "his" because at that time I presumed only male illustrators could have done work in this sort of style. Shows you how very little I knew at the time! But with no listing in "Illustrator in America" and with my most knowledgeable contacts unable to shed any light on who "he" was, Lucia remained just a signature on the occassional magazine ad I came across. Lucia's accounts included Gibson greeting cards, Orlon textiles, and the Santa Fe rail line. For the longest time I thought Lucia was strictly an advertising illustrator... then I discovered pieces like this one below, proving that the artist had also done editorial work. I found pieces in Collier's, American, and Better Living, always signed ( or even just credited ) with that single name: Lucia. Then, in 2006, an email arrived out of the blue: "I have info about Lucia for you..." Those seven words sent an electric thrill through me. An illustrator named Will Nelson had stumbled upon my post and decided to contact me. Will began relating to me his recollections of working as a young up-and-coming illustrator in the 1950's at the Chicago powerhouse art studio, Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco: "When I came on board," wrote Will, "there were about ninety people in the organization. When I started right out of Art Center the head of the Los Angeles studio was Howie Forsberg, an illustrator, along with a staff which included Fritz Willis and Morgan"Joe"Henninger. It was in Chicago that I met Lucia (last name Larner)." Hearing all this from Will absolutely blew my mind! Up to this point I had not even realized that Lucia was a woman. Since commercial art was, relatively speaking, a "boys club" in the 50's, I had presumed that "Lucia" was a male artist's last name. But Will set me straight: "Right...I said "she". Lucia... was a very classy lady in addition to being a talented illustrator. At a time when the profession was dominated by men Lucia more than held her own in the studio ranks." "Lucia was the only female artist around that I know of. Maybe other cities? But in the SBD family she was queen and treated accordingly." So began a long and rewarding correspondence with Will, who related not only his recollections about the mysterious Lucia, but also a wealth of invaluable first-hand information about one of Chicago's premier art studios of the day - Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco. Lucia (pronounced "Loo-Shah") Lerner was "a shapely brunette, attractive, around 5'5'. I never saw her in anything but a conservative dark dress," wrote Will. "I don't remember her wearing anything else to work in. Her medium and style was a combination of india ink line and gouache washes. Much like others of the time who were using line and washes in inks." The November 1952 issue of Art Director & Studio News (the "Special Chicago Issue") contains a couple of interesting pages relevent to Lucia and SBD: first is this ad announcing the formation of the studio. "I do remember that starting SBD required getting some top talent to come in...one of those was Lucia," wrote Will. Second is this page highlighting a tradition of fashion illustration in the Chicago commercial art scene. Will wrote, "Lucia was a unique individual. We often played chess on lunch breaks...I seldom won a match...and she would talk about her art and how she grew into illustration from a newspaper, fashion artist, background. I think her style evolved from the desire to be different from the several other figure artists in the studio." "You have to remember that Chicago was the "product" center of the U.S. We were heavy into foods, electronics, fashion related areas like cosmetics, etc. So...Lucia was always in demand in the ad agencies. The sales people were always trying to get her for their respective accounts." "We were always competing with Cooper for editorial assignments. Barry Stephens constantly sought new samples from all of us to show in New York." "I think [Lucia] enjoyed the work out of New York more for the change from agency assignments than for the work itself. She was very confident in her career and had her own idea about what her work was worth." "She seemed rather indifferent to other illustrators and rarely commented on changing styles or other artists." Like another female illustrator from 1950's Chicago, Joyce Ballentyne, who can claim a long-standing American icon as her own (she created the Coppertone girl), Lucia is responsible for the 1950's redesign of the Morton Salt girl as she would appear on millions of packages throughout that decade. I found two ads from the 50's of the Morton Salt girl - but this one, from 1952, looks like it came out of the Sundblom studio (or perhaps it is also by Ballentyne). I thought I had hit the jackpot with this 1957 ad... but Will wrote, "[This] Morton Salt girl looks like a version done after Lucia's ...hers was more of an outline technique. This one could have been done by any number of illustrators around Chicago in the fifties." Nonetheless, all these pieces are great examples of the type of work top illustrators in Chicago like Lucia Larner might have been expected to do. Some time ago I spoke with another Chicago artist, Carl Kock, who began his career at Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco in the late 50's. As Carl put it, he did not fit the mold of the typical commercial artist who could draw "good-looking people standing next to a refrigerator". His work was too avante garde, too stylized. But this was the type of work Lucia excelled at. It was the sort of high paying, high profile work SBD wanted its artist to do, and that made Lucia a valuable commodity for SBD's salesmen. Will Nelson wrote, "Hotpoint was one of the accounts we had for quite some time. Lucia was always in demand in the ad agencies. The sales people were always trying to get her for their respective accounts." "Her studio was the only one with a private counter and sink....the rest of us shared individual two man studios. You knew you had "arrived" when you were placed on the north side of the building." For those of us working in commercial art today its a point of interest to hear how similar - or different - the circumstances of payment were half a century ago. We learned in previous posts on Today's Inspiration that at the Cooper studio in New York the artists were free to keep all the money earned from editorial assignments -- the studio took no commission at all. And at Rahl studios, where Andy Virgil worked, in-house artists received 60% of commissions while the studio took 40%. Will explained the circumstances at SBD in those days: "All of the staff artists were on commission...no salaries, but very comfortable "draws". From my stand point....my monthly draw was like a salary, which was brought up to par with quarterly updates...referred to as extra draws which picked up the additional amounts credited to my account from billing activity. I was fortunate in that I was always ahead of the amount of my draw." "The sales rep [at SBD] was Vince Salerno and he was always crossing swords with Lucia over fees quoted. She had her own idea about what her work was worth...and held her ground until she got it." "Like I said earlier, she was a class act." Ken Krull, who was a salesman at Stephens, Biondi, DiCicco, when Lucia worked there during the 50's, confirms Will's description with the following anecdote: Bringing up Lucia's name reminded me of our first job to together," wrote Ken. "I had just started in sales at SBD in the late 50's. An art director from FCB wanted to use Lucia on an ad featuring two women's heads. His budget was $200 (this was the 50's). I approached Lucia with the layout. Her question was "What will this bill for?" [When I told her the budget] she said, "That's really not very good - plus I'm very busy." Her way of turning down work." Disappointed, I left, forgetting to take the layout. Next morning when I arrived the finished art of the heads was on my desk with a note... "Ken; Don't tell anyone what these billed for." "L" "We went on to do much work together...She was the Queen." "It's only these last few years that I have come to appreciate just how young I was when I was on staff with the Stephens, Biondi and DeCicco Studios," wrote Will Nelson in his first long letter to me. "Through an extraordinary sequence of events I went from Art Center College, Los Angeles, to the SBD studio headquarters, Chicago, in less than six months. I was on staff with a group of artists fifteen to twenty years older than me." "Being single, I was on my own in Chicago. My time spent in the studio with the staff ended after 5:00. Lucia was an exception...she invited me to some of her friends' poker games." "She had a male friend at the time whom I only met a couple of times (he was a reporter with the Chicago Tribune)." "Lucia had a daughter she was raising on her own. She was very private about her so I can't add much more. I think she was about 12 years old at that time... around 1956 or '57... but I can't be sure." Reading this last part of Will's correspondence felt like a bomb going off. Having read up to this point, I'm sure you must have felt (as I do) that Lucia Larner was not only an exceptionally talented and successful illustrator, but a strong-willed and confident woman, determined to succeed despite the hurdles of prejudice and chauvinism that she must surely have encountered in the "man's world" of commercial art. To discover that she was dealing with the additional challenges of being a single mother in 1950's America is truly stunning -- and only makes me admire and respect her all the more. Younger people may find my emphasis of this point a little odd... but anyone who grew up even as late as the 1970's, as I did, will probably recall how rare it was to know a kid who came from a single-parent household - and the stigma attached to that situation. Go back another 20 years and try to imagine how daunting it would be to step out the door each morning and face the societal attitudes of America in the 1950's. I think you'll begin to appreciate what I'm getting at. Knowing now that Lucia Larner was a single mother, I can't help but look back over her body of work and take note of how often she created scenes of mother and daughter - with no man present. And perhaps assignments such as these seen here today were all the more meaningful to her considering her unique (and challenging) personal circumstances. Will added, "Did I mention your site came up somewhere along the line after I put Lucia's name on Google in hopes of finding out if she was still around? And this was probably the first I had thought of her in several years. All of this brings back vivid memories of the studio and the wonderful experience it was." "We occupied the top 7th floor on Ohio St. Just a block off Michigan Ave. Next door to the studio was a upstart publishing group with a new magazine called Playboy." "Barry Stephens constantly sought new samples from all of us to show in New York. I was sent to New York for a couple of months to work on large toy project requiring extra hands. Getting work out of New York was considered a major accomplishment...and Lucia did do well." "I think Lucia may have come from the same previous studio base as Reno (Biondi) and Frank (DeCicco). They had worked together prior to starting SBD." "Lucia moved to the L.A. studio (of SBD) when she left Chicago. Dan Toigo (he was featured a few years later in the American Artist magazine for his watercolors) went at the same time. I saw both of them a year or two later at SBD in L.A. while on a vacation trip. As I recall, Lucia was immediately in demand in the high end fashion market...I. Magnin, Bullocks, etc. I assume she fell back on her considerable fashion skills." "I lost track of her after about 1960. I just don't know if she is still with us or not." After Lucia moved to SBD's L.A. office, she did the piece below for Petersen Publishing's Teen magazine. Long-time TI list member, Armando Mendez, who was kind enough to send me the scan, added this bit of chronology to the Lucia story: The month before [March 1965] had another very stylish Lucia DPS illustration with a dark-haired girl (who could be based on the same model) reading through old magazines but without the heavy containment line and flat blacks of this month; a very open, sketchy, continous line Briggs/Fawcett (lithographic crayon) type drawing. I don't have a complete run but I can tell you a year later and what little story illustration remains would be 180 degees different in approach. Around that same time, wrote Armando, "The large department stores ran incredible full page fashion drawings in the two main [L.A.] newspapers (even as a young boy, the drawings amazed me) but weren't signed. I certainly think Lucia had the chops for these." That jibes well with Will Nelson's thoughts on what became of Lucia: "As I recall, Lucia was immediately in demand in the high end fashion market... I.Magnin, Bullocks, etc." Perhaps someone out there will have saved some of those 1960's newspaper fashion ads and will read this post. With a little luck, we may yet get to see Lucia Lerner's work from that later part of her career. In February 2009, the following comment was added to one of my early Lucia posts: "Hi, I ran across your blogs about Lucia Larner while researching an art piece that has been passed down through the family. She was my grandmother's sister. She was a wonderful woman who used to visited us randomly throughout the years. She has finally passed away several years ago from what my mother told me. She was always fun to visit with. She had a very vibrant and fun personality. She would always share stories about the art she was involved in." - Adam * My Lucia Larner Flickr set

Back when I first became interested in illustration from the mid-20th century, I found this piece below, signed "Lucia". I thought it was so great, I immediately sent it out to the Today's Inspiration group. I didn't know much about illustrators from the '50s back then, but I knew enough to catagorize this Lucia with the likes of Coby Whitmore, Joe Bowler, and Joe De Mers. Lucia was clearly adept at painting georgous women in romantic settings. His work had a lively roughness, a sketchiness - that textural quality - that was emerging during the mid-fifties among the top boy/girl illustrators, especially those at the Cooper studio in New York. I say "his" because at that time I presumed only male illustrators could have done work in this sort of style. Shows you how very little I knew at the time! But with no listing in "Illustrator in America" and with my most knowledgeable contacts unable to shed any light on who "he" was, Lucia remained just a signature on the occassional magazine ad I came across. Lucia's accounts included Gibson greeting cards, Orlon textiles, and the Santa Fe rail line. For the longest time I thought Lucia was strictly an advertising illustrator... then I discovered pieces like this one below, proving that the artist had also done editorial work. I found pieces in Collier's, American, and Better Living, always signed ( or even just credited ) with that single name: Lucia. Then, in 2006, an email arrived out of the blue: "I have info about Lucia for you..." Those seven words sent an electric thrill through me. An illustrator named Will Nelson had stumbled upon my post and decided to contact me. Will began relating to me his recollections of working as a young up-and-coming illustrator in the 1950's at the Chicago powerhouse art studio, Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco: "When I came on board," wrote Will, "there were about ninety people in the organization. When I started right out of Art Center the head of the Los Angeles studio was Howie Forsberg, an illustrator, along with a staff which included Fritz Willis and Morgan"Joe"Henninger. It was in Chicago that I met Lucia (last name Larner)." Hearing all this from Will absolutely blew my mind! Up to this point I had not even realized that Lucia was a woman. Since commercial art was, relatively speaking, a "boys club" in the 50's, I had presumed that "Lucia" was a male artist's last name. But Will set me straight: "Right...I said "she". Lucia... was a very classy lady in addition to being a talented illustrator. At a time when the profession was dominated by men Lucia more than held her own in the studio ranks." "Lucia was the only female artist around that I know of. Maybe other cities? But in the SBD family she was queen and treated accordingly." So began a long and rewarding correspondence with Will, who related not only his recollections about the mysterious Lucia, but also a wealth of invaluable first-hand information about one of Chicago's premier art studios of the day - Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco. Lucia (pronounced "Loo-Shah") Lerner was "a shapely brunette, attractive, around 5'5'. I never saw her in anything but a conservative dark dress," wrote Will. "I don't remember her wearing anything else to work in. Her medium and style was a combination of india ink line and gouache washes. Much like others of the time who were using line and washes in inks." The November 1952 issue of Art Director & Studio News (the "Special Chicago Issue") contains a couple of interesting pages relevent to Lucia and SBD: first is this ad announcing the formation of the studio. "I do remember that starting SBD required getting some top talent to come in...one of those was Lucia," wrote Will. Second is this page highlighting a tradition of fashion illustration in the Chicago commercial art scene. Will wrote, "Lucia was a unique individual. We often played chess on lunch breaks...I seldom won a match...and she would talk about her art and how she grew into illustration from a newspaper, fashion artist, background. I think her style evolved from the desire to be different from the several other figure artists in the studio." "You have to remember that Chicago was the "product" center of the U.S. We were heavy into foods, electronics, fashion related areas like cosmetics, etc. So...Lucia was always in demand in the ad agencies. The sales people were always trying to get her for their respective accounts." "We were always competing with Cooper for editorial assignments. Barry Stephens constantly sought new samples from all of us to show in New York." "I think [Lucia] enjoyed the work out of New York more for the change from agency assignments than for the work itself. She was very confident in her career and had her own idea about what her work was worth." "She seemed rather indifferent to other illustrators and rarely commented on changing styles or other artists." Like another female illustrator from 1950's Chicago, Joyce Ballentyne, who can claim a long-standing American icon as her own (she created the Coppertone girl), Lucia is responsible for the 1950's redesign of the Morton Salt girl as she would appear on millions of packages throughout that decade. I found two ads from the 50's of the Morton Salt girl - but this one, from 1952, looks like it came out of the Sundblom studio (or perhaps it is also by Ballentyne). I thought I had hit the jackpot with this 1957 ad... but Will wrote, "[This] Morton Salt girl looks like a version done after Lucia's ...hers was more of an outline technique. This one could have been done by any number of illustrators around Chicago in the fifties." Nonetheless, all these pieces are great examples of the type of work top illustrators in Chicago like Lucia Larner might have been expected to do. Some time ago I spoke with another Chicago artist, Carl Kock, who began his career at Stephens, Biondi, DeCicco in the late 50's. As Carl put it, he did not fit the mold of the typical commercial artist who could draw "good-looking people standing next to a refrigerator". His work was too avante garde, too stylized. But this was the type of work Lucia excelled at. It was the sort of high paying, high profile work SBD wanted its artist to do, and that made Lucia a valuable commodity for SBD's salesmen. Will Nelson wrote, "Hotpoint was one of the accounts we had for quite some time. Lucia was always in demand in the ad agencies. The sales people were always trying to get her for their respective accounts." "Her studio was the only one with a private counter and sink....the rest of us shared individual two man studios. You knew you had "arrived" when you were placed on the north side of the building." For those of us working in commercial art today its a point of interest to hear how similar - or different - the circumstances of payment were half a century ago. We learned in previous posts on Today's Inspiration that at the Cooper studio in New York the artists were free to keep all the money earned from editorial assignments -- the studio took no commission at all. And at Rahl studios, where Andy Virgil worked, in-house artists received 60% of commissions while the studio took 40%. Will explained the circumstances at SBD in those days: "All of the staff artists were on commission...no salaries, but very comfortable "draws". From my stand point....my monthly draw was like a salary, which was brought up to par with quarterly updates...referred to as extra draws which picked up the additional amounts credited to my account from billing activity. I was fortunate in that I was always ahead of the amount of my draw." "The sales rep [at SBD] was Vince Salerno and he was always crossing swords with Lucia over fees quoted. She had her own idea about what her work was worth...and held her ground until she got it." "Like I said earlier, she was a class act." Ken Krull, who was a salesman at Stephens, Biondi, DiCicco, when Lucia worked there during the 50's, confirms Will's description with the following anecdote: Bringing up Lucia's name reminded me of our first job to together," wrote Ken. "I had just started in sales at SBD in the late 50's. An art director from FCB wanted to use Lucia on an ad featuring two women's heads. His budget was $200 (this was the 50's). I approached Lucia with the layout. Her question was "What will this bill for?" [When I told her the budget] she said, "That's really not very good - plus I'm very busy." Her way of turning down work." Disappointed, I left, forgetting to take the layout. Next morning when I arrived the finished art of the heads was on my desk with a note... "Ken; Don't tell anyone what these billed for." "L" "We went on to do much work together...She was the Queen." "It's only these last few years that I have come to appreciate just how young I was when I was on staff with the Stephens, Biondi and DeCicco Studios," wrote Will Nelson in his first long letter to me. "Through an extraordinary sequence of events I went from Art Center College, Los Angeles, to the SBD studio headquarters, Chicago, in less than six months. I was on staff with a group of artists fifteen to twenty years older than me." "Being single, I was on my own in Chicago. My time spent in the studio with the staff ended after 5:00. Lucia was an exception...she invited me to some of her friends' poker games." "She had a male friend at the time whom I only met a couple of times (he was a reporter with the Chicago Tribune)." "Lucia had a daughter she was raising on her own. She was very private about her so I can't add much more. I think she was about 12 years old at that time... around 1956 or '57... but I can't be sure." Reading this last part of Will's correspondence felt like a bomb going off. Having read up to this point, I'm sure you must have felt (as I do) that Lucia Larner was not only an exceptionally talented and successful illustrator, but a strong-willed and confident woman, determined to succeed despite the hurdles of prejudice and chauvinism that she must surely have encountered in the "man's world" of commercial art. To discover that she was dealing with the additional challenges of being a single mother in 1950's America is truly stunning -- and only makes me admire and respect her all the more. Younger people may find my emphasis of this point a little odd... but anyone who grew up even as late as the 1970's, as I did, will probably recall how rare it was to know a kid who came from a single-parent household - and the stigma attached to that situation. Go back another 20 years and try to imagine how daunting it would be to step out the door each morning and face the societal attitudes of America in the 1950's. I think you'll begin to appreciate what I'm getting at. Knowing now that Lucia Larner was a single mother, I can't help but look back over her body of work and take note of how often she created scenes of mother and daughter - with no man present. And perhaps assignments such as these seen here today were all the more meaningful to her considering her unique (and challenging) personal circumstances. Will added, "Did I mention your site came up somewhere along the line after I put Lucia's name on Google in hopes of finding out if she was still around? And this was probably the first I had thought of her in several years. All of this brings back vivid memories of the studio and the wonderful experience it was." "We occupied the top 7th floor on Ohio St. Just a block off Michigan Ave. Next door to the studio was a upstart publishing group with a new magazine called Playboy." "Barry Stephens constantly sought new samples from all of us to show in New York. I was sent to New York for a couple of months to work on large toy project requiring extra hands. Getting work out of New York was considered a major accomplishment...and Lucia did do well." "I think Lucia may have come from the same previous studio base as Reno (Biondi) and Frank (DeCicco). They had worked together prior to starting SBD." "Lucia moved to the L.A. studio (of SBD) when she left Chicago. Dan Toigo (he was featured a few years later in the American Artist magazine for his watercolors) went at the same time. I saw both of them a year or two later at SBD in L.A. while on a vacation trip. As I recall, Lucia was immediately in demand in the high end fashion market...I. Magnin, Bullocks, etc. I assume she fell back on her considerable fashion skills." "I lost track of her after about 1960. I just don't know if she is still with us or not." After Lucia moved to SBD's L.A. office, she did the piece below for Petersen Publishing's Teen magazine. Long-time TI list member, Armando Mendez, who was kind enough to send me the scan, added this bit of chronology to the Lucia story: The month before [March 1965] had another very stylish Lucia DPS illustration with a dark-haired girl (who could be based on the same model) reading through old magazines but without the heavy containment line and flat blacks of this month; a very open, sketchy, continous line Briggs/Fawcett (lithographic crayon) type drawing. I don't have a complete run but I can tell you a year later and what little story illustration remains would be 180 degees different in approach. Around that same time, wrote Armando, "The large department stores ran incredible full page fashion drawings in the two main [L.A.] newspapers (even as a young boy, the drawings amazed me) but weren't signed. I certainly think Lucia had the chops for these." That jibes well with Will Nelson's thoughts on what became of Lucia: "As I recall, Lucia was immediately in demand in the high end fashion market... I.Magnin, Bullocks, etc." Perhaps someone out there will have saved some of those 1960's newspaper fashion ads and will read this post. With a little luck, we may yet get to see Lucia Lerner's work from that later part of her career. In February 2009, the following comment was added to one of my early Lucia posts: "Hi, I ran across your blogs about Lucia Larner while researching an art piece that has been passed down through the family. She was my grandmother's sister. She was a wonderful woman who used to visited us randomly throughout the years. She has finally passed away several years ago from what my mother told me. She was always fun to visit with. She had a very vibrant and fun personality. She would always share stories about the art she was involved in." - Adam * My Lucia Larner Flickr set

Leonor Fini by André Ostier, 1949 Bohemian "It Girl" of Paris, master of surrealist disguise and generally a badass female libertine, Leonor Fini was one of the most photographed people of the 20th century. And yet barely anyone I ask knows her name, even here in Paris, where she once ruled the b

“I do not know of anything that has given me more pleasure than such an appreciation of simple flowers in their vase breathing air.”

This symposium is organised in the frame of a partnership between the Musée National d’Art Moderne and the Département Culture et Création – Centre Pompidou and the association AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions. It is part of the programming in parallel to...

Leonor Fini by André Ostier, 1949 Bohemian "It Girl" of Paris, master of surrealist disguise and generally a badass female libertine, Leonor Fini was one of the most photographed people of the 20th century. And yet barely anyone I ask knows her name, even here in Paris, where she once ruled the b

This bright new exhibition lets the brilliant painter step out from the shadow of her famous husband.

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For six decades Amos explored race and gender in prints, paintings and fabrics. She died at 83 from complications of Alzheimer's but she knew that the Georgia Museum of Art show was in the works.

Puerto Rican artists bundle of Art Lessons, Sketchbook Prompts Inspired by Puerto Rican Art for homeschool or traditional school, parents and/or teachers. Artists included: -Jose Campeche, 18th century -Amalia Cleto Noa, 19th century (female Puerto Rican artist!) -Francisco Oller, 19th century -Ramon Frade, 20th century With sketchbook prompt ideas inspired by each artist Want to learn while teaching your loved ones about famous Puerto Rican artists? Check out this resource! You also will learn Puerto Rican history in the process. THIS IS A DIGITAL PRODUCT. You will receive 6 sheets (plus additional sheets about usage rights). Please let me know if there is a problem with your order. These art work descriptions with sketchbook prompt handouts are intended to connect students to a work of art through its story, and also relate to the life of the artist. I aim to make art practical to everyday life. This is why I include an art making activity that taps into the lived experience of students. Included: -Image of the art work -artwork description/story -short artist biography -vocabulary words for some of the art works -sketchbook prompt (art making suggestion) I included a color copy of the handout as well as a b/w version for easier printing if necessary. There are so many ways to use this handout: -Pair with other American or European artists of the time. Compare and contrast, have conversations about the similarities and differences. -Early finisher assignment -weekend art appreciation activity -Do Now -Bell ringer -Homework assignment -homeschool art work study I hope this resource is helpful. If there is anything else I can help you with, let me know. © 2023 Nellie Escalante/Nelarte

Arpie Ermoyan was one of two female artists working at Rahl Studios during the 1950s (the other being Dorothy Monet). Her husband, Souren Ermoyan, was the art director of Good Housekeeping magazine. Here are a few more examples of Arpie Ermoyan's work, along with a picture of the stylish young artist herself. Thanks to this short article in the September '53 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine we now also know that the Ermoyans were part of that same Westport, Connecticut community of high profile illustrators that included Al Parker and Austin Briggs. The article mentions that she also modelled for some of those same artists. That's not surprising, considering what an attractive lady Arpie Ermoyan was. Over the course of the past few years, who knows how often we may have looked at some lovely lady in a painting by one of the Westport artists... and not realized we were actually looking at Arpie Ermoyan? The article suggests that this assignment from Cosmo was a sort of "debut" for Ermoyan . She had apparently been studying illustration for the previous five years. If that's the case, then she arrived on the scene fully formed! Her work on this assignment is top notch. So why is there so little of it to be found in the various mainstream magazines of the mid-1950's? That, for now, remains unknown. * If you'd like to read the article on Arpie Ermoyan without straining your eyes - or just want to admire her illustrations at full size - you'll find all of today's scans in my Arpie Ermoyan Flickr set.

Black women artists might just be the most overlooked group in art. Through the decades, black women have used art to capture the joy, the pain, and the glory of black culture, among other things. Yes, they are painters and sculptures, but they are also true documentarians of black life. The list we have for […]

A look back at 10 nude art pieces that changed art history.

On a sunny day in early April, 2010 I spent a delightful hour on the phone with a remarkable lady named Sheilah Beckett. Sheilah is 97 years old. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1913, Sheilah Beckett always loved to draw. She doesn't recall being inspired by the "Sunday Funnies" or any specific illustrators from her childhood but she does remember loving the artwork in her children's books and that those illustrations made a big impression on her. Sheilah never attended art school... she is entirely self-taught. She began working immediately when she graduated from high school. Her first job was creating advertising artwork for a Portland area department store. From there she quickly moved on to Los Angeles and landed a contract to illustrate a series of Gilbert & Sullivan books. "I went to England," Sheilah tells me, "to catch up with the Gilbert & Sullivan Players - the real ones - and followed them around during their summer season. I did three books... and then the war came." "The war was just looming when I left, " explains Sheilah. "The Germans were already bombing England." She chuckles as she remembers, "I came back on a ship called 'The American Farmer.' There were twenty-seven passengers on board and I didn't see a single soul until we arrived in Boston." "We were hit by this terrible hurricane that went on for days and day. So the only man I saw on the the way across was the Captain who," she says with a tone of reverence, "was a great man." Sheilah finally landed in New York where she managed to secure an artist representative. That rep found Sheilah some work illustrating children's books. More importantly, it was during those early days in New York that Sheilah met the man who would become her husband - another illustrator - named J. Frederick Smith. She also connected with a friend from Portland who told her about an art studio where she should try to secure a position... ... an art studio owed by one Charles E. Cooper. The Cooper Days Sheilah Beckett recounts for me how she came to join the Charles E. Cooper studio during the early days of her illustration career. "I had a friend from Portland, Oregon who worked at the Cooper studio," she explains, "so I knew about it... and I went to see Chuck to ask what to do; should a get a representative or what - because I knew Cooper's was a men's studio - and he asked me to join." "I was the first woman Chuck ever took on." Sheilah began working as an illustrator immediately. "I had my own work doing children's books and I took on what ads Chuck could get me. The salesmen were great." Describing her work space at Coopers she says, "I had a very small, very nice studio right next to Chuck. Every person there had his own room. It was just the most ideal situation for an artist. Just heaven!" Sheilah seems to have had some steady accounts through Coopers - for Whitman's Chocolates and Necco Wafers at the very least - but she says she didn't get a lot of advertising assignments. The advertising art paid comparatively well, but, "I loved doing Christmas cards and I loved doing children's books... and I was busy with that." When I ask her about her Necco Wafers ads she says with great emphasis, "Oh, they're awful! The drawing is so... so... I don't know... " she chuckles, "it isn't very great." I assure her that they're wonderful and much admired by those of us who enjoy seeing her work. She remembers, "There was one ad that you don't have that was better than all of these others." Today, while hunting through my files for anything I might have overlooked, I came up with one more Necco Wafer ad - the 'rocket ship' scenario reproduced larger below. I hadn't had a chance to check with Sheilah or her son, Sean, before preparing this post, but I'm hoping that when she sees it, it'll be the one she was referring to and that it will be a nice surprise for her to see it again after all these years. I also took some time to check through some of my old New York Art Directors Annuals for Cooper Studio ads, and made a couple of interesting discoveries. I'm hoping that when Sheilah sees this post it will stir up some memories and that she'll be able to clarify some of the chronology of her career... In the ad from 1942, below, you'll notice that Sheilah is not yet listed as a Cooper artist - but her husband, Frederick Smith, is. When we spoke on the phone Sheilah remembered them both being represented elsewhere for a short time before they moved up to Coopers. This ad seems to indicate that Smith moved there first. The next volume I own is from 1946. This time, both Sheilah and Frederick are listed. But because of the gap in my collection, I can't say for sure what year Sheilah joined the studio. Also curious is that even in the '42 ad some women are listed. Edith Lawdham, Sally Quinn, Roberta Stephenson and Mary Tinker are names I've never come across before. If Sheilah remembers being the first female illustrator at the Cooper studio ( and she would certainly know, since she worked there in her studio room next to Chuck) then I wonder what the arrangement was with these other mystery women? Below, a Sheilah Beckett DPS ad from a 1960 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. This would have been a relatively rare ad assignment at that point in time. "When television came in," explains Sheilah, "that really made things difficult... there wasn't as much illustration. Even in advertising there wasn't as much, so business at Cooper's petered out." "I worked with Chuck Cooper until he died - after Cooper's was no more. "But it was such a wonderful place with such wonderful people... very creative people!" Coronet Magazine Sheilah's husband, J Frederick Smith, was also an illustrator during the '40s and '50s (an example of JFS' artwork below). Smith had a good client in Esquire magazine publisher, Dave Smart. Sheilah explains that this relationship resulted in her getting the opportunity to do a cover for Esquire. "And Esquire and Coronet were connected - they were from the same publisher - and the art director at Coronet saw my work and began giving me assignments." Based on the date of the cover above (1948) this was during a time when Sheilah and Fred were both at Cooper's. "We were living in the center of Manhattan and I would put the baby and the artwork in the buggy and walk it over to the studio," she recalls with a chuckle. But around 1950 - '51 the couple decided to move out of town to the countryside. They didn't move to the artist's mecca of Westport, where so many of that era's big name illustrators lived and would have been handy to socialize with, but even so, "[fellow Cooper studio artists] Joe Bowler was near, Joe DeMers was near, and Coby Whitmore and his family were here for years and we saw them constantly." Sheilah says, "Oh, I always wished we could be in Westport, only because I had so many illustrator friends there. We didn't have many illustrator friends where we were... they were hard to find." She chuckles again. If Sheilah's work up until this point in her career isn't already lovely enough, its clear that during the early-to-mid-'50s she really began to establish her style. You can begin to see it formulating in these examples from the December 1953 issue of Coronet. Sheilah says she always loved drawing children's books and fairy tales and its evident in these examples that she was meant to do work of that type. Her clean, appealing style and sense of whimsy is perfectly suited for that sort of subject matter. I asked if she was looking at the work of any other children's book illustrators of the time for inspiration - like the popular Golden Books artists of the '50s, Art Seiden, the Provensens, etc. - but Sheilah replies, "Not too much because I work so very differently." I think it shows in her work. Sheilah only recalls doing a couple of assignments for Golden Books... most of her projects came from other publishers. "It wasn't dependable," she emphasizes, "but you know, I kept busy all the time." Greetings Cards, Paperbacks and Other "Emerging Markets" Sheilah Beckett recalls, "When television came along... that really made things difficult, you know. There wasn't as much illustration - even in advertising." Like many other illustrators, Sheilah had to find clients outside the traditional magazine and advertising industries. We looked recently at the emerging market in paperback cover art during the 1950s... ... here are a few examples of paperbacks illustrated by Sheilah. Paperback covers weren't exactly a rare thing for the artist but, like the album cover art below, they also weren't a major component of her various commissions. By contrast, one of Sheilah's long-running clients was American Artist Group greeting cards. "The change in magazines [around 1960, due to television and photography] didn't effect the market for children's books and it didn't affect greeting cards," Sheilah explains. "Everything was freelance... but American Artists went on for years and years..." "... until the price of stamps went up so much. That destroyed that business." When I told Sheilah I had been completely unaware of that aspect of her career she replied with a chuckle, "I've done murals too! I've done five hospital murals, one community center, and a church." "What I do is, my son sets up a four by eight foot panel, and then I paint the panels and then they put them together. One really huge one at a hospital I worked on for two years! (Only going once a week though) But that was on the wall... that was kind of fun!" When I express my amazement at her accomplishment and say, "Wow! So you were like Michaelangelo!" Sheila has a good laugh and corrects me: "On the wall - not on the ceiling," she says, with another chuckle. A Fairy Tale Career Last year there was a show at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, Maryland called "Golden Legacy, 65 Years of Golden Books". Some of Sheilah Beckett's originals were included in the show. As well, a title card provided a glimpse into the life and motivation of the artist. It read in part... "Ms. Beckett ... vividly remembered a fairy tale book from [her childhood] with a beautiful illustration of a prince and princess. She wrote, "It would be lovely if some child remembered an illustration of mine as vividly and with as much love. I always think of small persons studying each detail of a picture as I work, so I try to put plenty in to be discovered." I had really only been aware of Sheilah Beckett as one of the many talented advertising illustrators who worked at the Charle E. Cooper studio during the '40s and '50s... but advertising, paperbacks, record albums and all the rest had only been a sidebar for the artist. The one constant of Sheilah Beckett's varied career was her tremendous love for creating fairy tale pictures and children's stories. Early on in our conversation Sheilah had talked about how when she first considered approaching Chuck Cooper about a job she knew "Coopers was a men's studio." I asked her if being a woman had carried any negative connotation for her professionally at the time - either for clients or among her peers. She assured me it did not. "I didn't have that feeling," she said. Speaking specifically about her storybook work she said, "Publishers didn't care if [the artist] was a man or a woman." But she qualified her thought and added, "I don't think the prices for storybook work would keep a man very well though. I had to do an awful lot of books to make a living." Sheilah explained, "When you do children's books, they'll give you a very small amount... but then they always say, "but you'll get royalties." But the thing is, a lot of these books will be displayed on a spinner rack. And they always need space on that rack for new books. Usually your books would get taken off the rack every two years, so the royalties never really got going." If there is an up-side to this dilemma it is that we have had the benefit of enjoying Sheilah Beckett's tremendous output over the many years of her career. The blog Love for Books lists a few of the 70 books Sheilah has illustrated and shows several more examples of her artwork. And she shows no signs of stopping any time soon! With the help of her son, Sean Smith, Sheilah has even ventured into the field of print-on-demand self publishing. Her book, The Six Wives of Henry the VIII is available in hard or softcover at Xlibris.com Below, a real treat: pencil sketches and finished art from Archibald, a children's book in search of a publisher, written and illustrated by Sheilah Beckett. Sean tells me, "Archibald has been around for awhile, she started it around 10 years ago. It went to some publishers and one of the comments was the story was too moral. I'm trying to get the right people to see this work as I think it would be a very good story for our times." "The work was done traditionally, before my mother got into the computer." Yes, believe it or not, for the last four or five years, Sheilah Beckett has been illustrating in Photoshop with a Wacom Tablet! As we discuss illustrating with the aid of 21st century graphics technology, I have to pause and ask again, "Sheilah, how old are you... 96?" ... and she quickly corrects me with emphasis, "Ninety-seven!" I tell her, "Wow! I am just so incredibly impressed and inspired by you!" "Well," says the remarkable Sheilah Beckett, matter-of-factly, "its my life and I love it." "Its exciting all the time!" * Sheilah's son Sean asked me to let readers know that he has limited edition prints by Sheilah Beckett available for sale. Anyone interested in purchasing prints can contact him through his website for further details. * Sean has also set up a Facebook Fan Page, The Art of Sheilah Beckett where you'll be able to see many more examples of Sheilah's work. Become a fan! * My Sheilah Beckett Flickr set.

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