Ella Mewhinney

"Southern Memories" - Ella Mewhinney, Texas Female Artist

Circa 1930s

F. W. Ayers (Fred) "Still Life Magnolias, 1943" (1884-1966) Houston Artist Image Size: 20.25 x15.25 Frame Size: 23.5 x 18.5 Medium: Oil "Still Life Magnolias, 1943" F.W. (Fred) Ayers. Vice President of Hughes International Tool Houston Texas Biography F. W. Ayers (Fred) (1884-1966) Background Ayers, Fred Wesley was born on November 13, 1884 in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. Son of Frank Marion and Annie Elizabeth (Perry) Ayers. Education Mechanical Engineering, Scranton (Pennsylvania) Corresponding School, 1910. Career Junior executive, plant manager, works manager Éleuthère Irénée duPont Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1911-1921. Vice president Klaxon Horn Company division General Motors Corporation, Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, 1922-1926, works manager Pontiac Motor Car Company, 1926-1928. Management engineer Auto Car Company, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, 1929-1930. Construction engineering layout, tooling for automobile plant Brandt & Associate, Moscow, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1931-1932. Management, construction engineering budgetary control, cost systems, Birmingham, England, managing director Daimler Motor Car Company, Coventry, England, director Benton & Stone, Ltd., Birmingham, Chairman of the Board, director Samuel Booth & Sons, Ltd., Birmingham, 1932-1939. Senior vice president, general manager Hughes Tool Company, Houston, since 1943, also director. Director Trans World Airlines, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, National Bank Commerce, Houston. Membership Mason.; Clubs: Petroleum, River Oaks...

F. W. Ayers (Fred) "Still Life with Flowers and Asian Figurines, 1938 " (1884-1966) Houston Artist Image Size: 24 x 16 Frame Size: 26.5 x 18.5 Medium: oil Dated 1938 "Still Life with Flowers and Asian Figurines, 1938 " F.W. (Fred) Ayers. Vice President of Hughes International Tool Houston Texas Biography F. W. Ayers (Fred) (1884-1966) Background Ayers, Fred Wesley was born on November 13, 1884 in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. Son of Frank Marion and Annie Elizabeth (Perry) Ayers. Education Mechanical Engineering, Scranton (Pennsylvania) Corresponding School, 1910. Career Junior executive, plant manager, works manager Éleuthère Irénée duPont Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1911-1921. Vice president Klaxon Horn Company division General Motors Corporation, Bloomfield, Pennsylvania, 1922-1926, works manager Pontiac Motor Car Company, 1926-1928. Management engineer Auto Car Company, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, 1929-1930. Construction engineering layout, tooling for automobile plant Brandt & Associate, Moscow, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1931-1932. Management, construction engineering budgetary control, cost systems, Birmingham, England, managing director Daimler Motor Car Company, Coventry, England, director Benton & Stone, Ltd., Birmingham, Chairman of the Board, director Samuel Booth & Sons, Ltd., Birmingham, 1932-1939. Senior vice president, general manager Hughes Tool Company, Houston, since 1943, also director. Director Trans World Airlines, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri, National Bank Commerce, Houston. Membership Mason.; Clubs: Petroleum, River Oaks...

Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842 - 1904) Rhode Island Artist Image Size: 36 x 28 Frame Size: 42.5 x 34.5 Newcomb Macklin Frame. Medium: Oil Dated 1889 "Duck Hunt" Mergansers Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842 - 1904) Edward Chalmers Leavitt, artist, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, March 9, 1842, the son of Rev. Jonathan and Charlotte Esther (Stearns) Leavitt. His paternal ancestor was John Leavitt, who came to Massachusetts Bay in the first ship and settled in Hingham. On the maternal side, he is descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullens, who came to Plymouth in the Mayflower. Leavitt was educated in private schools in Providence, and at Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire. During the Civil War in 1862 and 1863, he served in the navy on the U.S.S. Galena. In his profession of artist, Mr. Leavitt is especially noted as a painter of fruit, flowers and still life. He exhibited in the National Academy for several years and has made many successful exhibitions in Providence and Boston. He was a member of the Boston and Providence art clubs, and the Providence Press Club. He was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. In politics his proclivities are mainly Republican. He has been twice married: first, May 19, 1877, to Ellen M. Fuller; and second, April 22, 1880, to Elizabeth S. Chace. Submitted November 2004 by Edward Bentley, Art Collector and Researcher from Lansing, Michigan. Source is the publication "Men of Progress: Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life from the State of Rhode Island." New England magazine. 1896. Edward C. Leavitt, born in 1842, has been described as "Providence, Rhode Island's leading still-life painter" in the late 19th Century. (Zellman 324) His teacher, James Morgan Lewin, was a prominent still-life painter in Fall River, Massachusetts, a neighboring town. Leavitt, a detailed, sharp-focused, realistic painter, was in love with texture and light, and was prolific and successful, painting a variety of still life subjects including flowers, fruit and even fish and dead game animals. His objects, including costly antiques and household decorative items, were often placed on ornamental, gleaming surfaces. He was a frequent exhibitor at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and 1890s. The artist, who died in 1904, moved from a position of success and popularity to being ignored for many years until the publication of William H. Gerdts and Russell Burke's American Still-Life Painting in 1971. It is uncertain whether this disastrous loss of respect took place because Leavitt's work declined in quality during the last decade of his life, or because he was a victim of the periodic shifts in taste and fashion that afflict the arts. Sources: Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art Biography from Roger King Fine Art Edward Leavitt was one of the leading still life artists of nineteenth century New England. He lived and worked in Providence, and studied with James Morgan Lewin, a leading painter of the Fall River School, which, in the late 19th Century, was one of the most important centers of still life painting. While Lewin branched out into other types of painting, Leavitt remained devoted to the art of the still life. His paintings are sharply focused, realistic, and carefully finished. Ornate objects such as urns, ewers, platters, cut glassware...

Rolla Taylor (1872-1970) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 16 x 20 Frame Size: 20 x 24 Medium: oil Circa 1918 "Still Life" Biography Rolla Taylor (1872-1970) Taylor, originally...

Marisa Mallol was born in Alcoy, Alicante, Spain in 1942. At the age of thirteen, Mallol began her first studies of painting at La Escuela de Artes y Oficios in Alcoy. After completi...

Large 20th Century Still Life Oil Painting (unsigned) circle of Emilio Greco (Italian, born 1932) Very nice gilded frame with Arched panels. 72" x 40". Very attractive wall filler.

LaValley is an American artist born in New York in 1858. His style is realism and most of his paintings were either landscapes or still lifes. This perticular painting is an exclent ...

Jean Grimal is a true 20th century discovery. This breathtaking piece is a gorgeous example of his mastery as an artist. He beautifully creates chiaroscuro in this painting. The way the light touches the edges of the Chinese bowl and the grapes is an example of his skill in representing light. Jean Grimal (1942-1998) was born in the town of Tulle, France in 1942. Jean’s family moved to Paris when he was 8 years of age. After receiving a classical French education with studies in Latin and Greek, Jean Grimal entered the University to receive his Baccalaureate. He then attended Claude Barnard School for three years, when he received his Art Degree.  Upon completion Grimal taught art for seven years.  As Grimal’s own interest in formal painting and art began to possess him, the artist’s destiny changed.  In 1967 Jean Grimal stepped aside from teaching and pursued a career in professional painting and working as an illustrator in advertising.  As an advertising illustrator, Grimal worked with Lise Goldfard for more than 25 years at Studio 44 where they collaborated with major and important accounts, such as: Air France, Christofle, Peugeot, Lacoste, to name a few. At the same time he began presenting his formal paintings to galleries in Paris and Cannes, France and in London and Windsor, England.  Much to his surprise, Grimal found that his paintings were sought after by major art galleries and collectors throughout Europe.  After a number of years of being an important and successful art illustrator for these major accounts, he found himself having to choose between the two.  Fortunately for collectors, he chose to dedicate his life to the classical style of painting.  Jean looked at the simplest things in life through a microscope, where he could take the simplest object and depict the age of the fruit or the leaf. Jean Grimal received great pleasure from his work and painted for over thirty years.  As his style matured and became ever more perfect Jean Grimal truly reached the pinnacle of his career.  The artist’s methods were particularly distinguished when measured against his peers.  Grimal’s painting skill was distinctive and exceptional. Jean Grimal was known for his realistic trompe l’oeil and still life paintings.  The artist would carefully arrange the objects to form a satisfying composition.  By painting every shadow, highlight, and reflection within each composition Grimal brought mundane subjects to life.  His tight rendering combined with his attention to light and detail allowed him to blur the lines between illusion and reality, truly making his works one of a kind.  Grimal’s trompe l’oeil paintings consist of intricate compositions of cards, envelopes, photographs, paper of different materials and weights, backs of canvases, images of other artists’ works, kitchen utensils, pistols, and more.  Grimal had a talent for mastering these illusions that deceive the eye in his trompe l’oeil paintings.    No matter what genre Grimal was painting, tight, unperceivable brushwork characterizes his work.  The artist painted every crease and crinkle, every shadow and highlight, every detail.  By doing so, he was able to capture each individual surface texture of the objects in his paintings.  Grimal was also fabulous at depicting light in his paintings- often contrasting strong lights with strong darks, creating chiaroscuro modeling.  His still life paintings are reminiscent of Dutch seventeenth century...