The Whittier Art Gallery continued to exhibit the work of prominent artists while bracing for World War II and living through the most difficult of the War years. Exhibits of the work of Edgar Payne, Enjar Hansen, Eleanor Colburn, Clyde Forsythe, Sam Hyde Harris, Hanson Puthuff, and others, […]
The exhibit of Richard Munsell oil and water color paintings was proclaimed, “Years outstanding local one-man painting show”, by Arthur Millier, Los Angeles Times art critic. Richard Munsell was a California Art Club exhibiting Member, 1935 – 1938. He taught at the Chouinard Art Institute.
Wayne Long is known widely through out California for his ceramic work. He is president of the Whittier Art Association.
The Whittier Art Association begins their annual Membership Drive, remembering their first year in the gallery
they built on Painter Ave.
Sam Hyde Harris wins award in Whittier Art Association’s Competitive Member’s Exhibit.
Camera Club members remember the origin of the club’s name, “Circle of Confusion.”
Architect William Harrison exhibits his drawings and photographs. It was W.H. Harrison that donated the plans
for the Whittier Art Gallery in 1938.
Ejnar Hanson exhibits oil paintings and watercolors. He is president of the California Water Color Society, and has been represented in both the New York and San Francisco World Fairs.
Architect William Harrison, who donated the plans for the Whittier Art Gallery in 1938, is praised by the
𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦.
Paintings by Millard Sheets, Edgar Payne, Marian Kavanagh Wachtel, Anna Hills, and Paul Lauritz have been
loaned for the gallery’s exhibit of “Art Gems”. Mabel Haig is chairman of the committee in charge.
Loan exhibit opens with 35 oil and water color paintings by American, Canadian, and European artists.
Sueo Serisawa, Japanese-American artist, exhibits paintings at the gallery. Click article twice to enlarge.
Pruett Carter, illustrator, exhibits illustrations from such magazines as 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯, 𝘔𝘤 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴, and 𝘓𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭.
He is considered as “one of the top ranking Illustrators for popular magazines”.
Ceramic artist, Wayne Long, will visit major cities to give ceramics demonstrations. Wayne Long served as
Whittier Art Association president 1939-1940.
A Proclamation of the Mayor of Whittier urges all citizens to enroll as members of the Whittier Art Association.
This article appeared on the newspaper’s front page, five weeks before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Millard Sheets attends a dinner party before his evening as a guest speaker at the Whittier Art Gallery.
Mabel Haig studied with Millard Sheets in 1930.
An exhibit of work by the late Eleanor Colburn features her Modern Madonna paintings. The exhibit was
scheduled to open on Sunday, December 7th, at 3:00 pm. Pearl Harbor was bombed at 10:00 am that morning,
and the whole town of Whittier was locked down.
Edgar Payne exhibits oil paintings. He is the author of 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘳𝘵, and 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘖𝘶𝘵𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘗𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨
(published 1941). He is “one of the best known American artists…”.
Edgar Payne attends his reception at the Whittier Art Gallery where his large paintings of Arizona scenes, studies
of the High Sierras, and Mediterranean seascapes are exhibited.
Art Association provides pot luck dinner with bargain cafeteria price of only five cents per serving.
The association will furnish coffee, strawberries and sugar (These would be welcomed words during this time of
war rationing of sugar).
Mabel Haig exhibits water colors in group exhibit. She has exhibited at the Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles.
Note: The Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in Los Angeles were located in the elegant Ambassador Hotel.
Sam Hyde Harris exhibits 14 paintings during January. He will give a demonstration of “how to paint an
oil painting…proceeding through each step”.
E. Roscoe Shrader, Dean of Otis Art Institute, will speak at the gallery. “An additional attraction will be the showing
of a colored film of art students at work at Otis”. The current exhibit is student work from Otis.
Otis Art Institute sends Traveling Exhibitions to Army bases and provides art kits to young artists in the service. Excerpts of servicemen’s letters were read at the gallery’s open meeting.
Clyde Forsythe and Dean Cornwall use “humor, wit, and gay banter” as they engage in an impromptu debate on commercial art verses pure art.
Art Landy’s painting, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘥 𝘊𝘢𝘳, receives first place in water colors. “The Red Car” creator must have hunted diligently through all California to find the ugliest combination of hill, houses, fence and vegetation, and then stuck a sadly drawn electric car with a gigantic power pole thrust up its middle smack in the center of the hill of horrors…”
Sam Hyde Harris exhibits 17 of his oil paintings. At the open meeting, he painted a Demonstration picture of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Ida O’Keeffe attended the presentation and helped serve refreshments.
Hanson Puthuff exhibits landscape paintings in oil. The artist’s friend, Sam Hyde Harris will speak on the “Life and Works of Hanson Puthuff at the open meeting.
Note: Hanson Puthuff painted the mural backgrounds for the animal dioramas in the Los Angeles
County Museum of History, Science, and Art. He is a member of the California Art Club.
Paul Lauritz exhibits 13 large oil paintings in the main floor gallery. He will demonstrate Charcoal drawing at an upcoming open meeting.
An exhibit of paintings of New Guinea by Whittier Art Association Past President Wayne Long, is planned.
Whittier Art Association Past President, Wayne Long, and Whittier artists Forrest Randall, Roger Hollenbeck, and Larken Vaught exhibit their artwork at the gallery.
More than 600 visitors from 16 cities visited the Servicemen Art Exhibit in January.
Ejner Hansen exhibits paintings. He was born in Denmark, and studied painting and sculpture in Copenhagen.
He praised the Whittier Art Gallery, which he said, “possesses great charm”. He is an instructor at Otis Art Institute, and a member of the California Art Club.
