Eleanor Church

“Crashing Surf”

Circa 1965

Very well executed oil on masonite painting of a sunset in Topeka, Kansas by the American artist, Pauline Haynes Shirer. Signed lower right. Circa 1950. Condition is excellent. Recently professionally cleaned. Newly framed in a custom gallery frame. Overall framed measurements are 17.5 by 20.5 inches. Provenance: A Long Island, New York collector. Pauline Haynes Shirer (1894 - 1975), American Born in Topeka in 1894, Pauline is said to have been at least partially raised by her aunt, Hannah Haynes Headlee (Pauline’s mother died when she was 8 years old). By 16, she was living as a ward in the Topeka home of Elizabeth Cunningham, a dressmaker. After graduating from Topeka High School, she attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (later Parsons School of Design), completing a two-year course in one year (1913-1914). At the same time, she took weekend classes at the Art Students League. Returning to Topeka, she studied and taught at Washburn College (now University) from 1914 to 1915 and instructed summer sessions at Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburgh, during the same period. Afterward, she returned to the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, where she taught and took classes (1915-1918). She spent the summer of 1916 as an instructor at the Skidmore School of Art, Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1917, Pauline married Hampton F. Shirer, an architect from MIT, who was also an artist and came from a prominent Topeka family. The couple later settled in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1921, living in a house which they built and decorated themselves. During the next 16 years, they raised two children and Pauline also found time to illustrate promotional brochures and primary school texts. During the early years of her career, Pauline focused on the applied arts – such as watercolor designs for curtains, silk fabrics, wallpaper as well as poster designs, theater backdrops and book covers. Later she would transition into creating her own representational works of art. Shirer returned to Topeka in 1937. During her career as a painter in oils and watercolors, she sketched in Europe four times and did paintings of New England subjects. However, most of her paintings were of the West. She executed Kansas views first, and they continued to hold her interest throughout her life. Typical were her studies of rustic buildings on the plains, glimpses of the prairie country, and the historic buildings of Topeka. She also painted New Mexico landscapes and Colorado mountain scenes. Among her exhibitions, mostly solo but occasionally with her husband, were those held at the Harlow and Harland’s Gallery, Boston (1922); The Scattery, Wellesley, MA (1925); Vose Galleries, Boston (1931); Topeka Art Guild (1952); Copley Society...

Beautiful oil on fiberboard painting of fishing boats at the docks of Gloucester by the well known North Fork Long Island artist Caroline M. Bell. Circa 1945. Signed lower left by the artist. Condition is very good. Housed in its original silver leaf over wood frame in restored condition. Overall framed measurements are 20 by 18 inches. Provenance: Sarasota, Florida estate. Biography: Caroline M. Bell (1874 -1870) Caroline Bell was the leader of a group of artists known as the Peconic Bay...

Artist: Wally Ames, American (1942 - ) Title: The Old Sawmill at Westminster, Vermont Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed l.r. and verso Size: 20 x 24 inches

Signed lower right, 'C. Sideman' for Carol Joy Sideman (1925-2021) and painted circa 1975; titled, verso, on old artist's tape, 'Surf and Rocks'. Carol Sideman received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley and, subsequently, attended the Oaklands College of Arts and Crafts. Sideman specialized in architectural illustration...