Katherine Sibley McEwen, founding member

Katherine Sibley McEwen

Alexandrine McEwen, Katherine Sibley McEwen at the 7-Bar, their Arizona ranch (from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art)

Katherine McEwan at Cranbrook in her Scripps-Booth automobile, 1916

Katherine and Alexandrine McEwen’s initial instruction was at the Detroit Art Academy, after which they attended the William Merritt Chase School in New York City and spent summers abroad with the Chase Art Class in Spain. Katherine also participated in Charles Herbert Woodbury’s summer school in Ogunquit, Maine. The influence of such teachers is said to be visible in her painting.

Katherine McEwen, “Yukon Sunset” 1922, Detroit Institute of Arts Permanent Collection

Katherine McEwan, painting of Dragoon Mountain, Arizona

Katherine McEwen, “Mt Niblock” (Alberta, Banff Provincial Park), late 19th/early 20th century, Detroit Institute of Arts Permanent Collection

Katherine McEwan, untitled, 1921 (source: https://www.artnet.com/artists/katherine-sibley-mcewen/)

Katherine McEwan, Alaskan Mountains,1931, water color (source: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/katherine-a-mcewen-watercolor-27-c-83d4f91abb)

Charles Herbert Woodbury, co-author with Elizabeth Ward Perkins of *The Art of Seeing: Mental Training Through Drawing* (1925): “Paint verbs, not nouns”

Charles Woodbury, “The Cliff,” oil, 1929 (Ogunquit Museum of American Art permanent collection: https://ogunquitmuseum.org/about-us/history/charles-woodbury/)

David Alfaro Sisqueiros, “Street Mural,” 1932 (source: https://www.california-mexicocenter.org/siqueiros-2022/)

As a muralist specializing in fresco, Katherine belonged to the American National Society of Mural Painters. In 1932 she was part of a team called the “Fresco Block of Mural Painters” who helped Mexican artist David Alfaro Sisqueiros (1896-1974) complete his first Los Angeles Mural, “Street Meeting”, on an exterior wall at Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles. Thought lost, it was rediscovered in 2004 (https://www.chouinardfoundation.org/home/siqueiros-mural-discovery/)

Katherine contributed extensively to adornments at Cranbrook Christ Church, Cranbrook School, and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. The frescoes in Christ Church are hers:

She created interior and exterior murals for Brookside School (the lower school at Cranbrook) and did interior stenciling at Stoney House (ow Brookside Cottage):

She painted the ceiling murals for the studio of Loja Saarinen at Cranbrook:

And she painted a large fresco in the Cranbrook School for Boys Lower Dining Hall:

Katherine served as DSWPS president from 1915 to 1918, and she exhibited at the Annual Exhibit for Michigan Artists 1918-1921. She travelled throughout the west for painting, often spending time on her family dude ranch, The 7 bar ranch near Dragoon, Arizona. In 1942, she moved with her sister to British Columbia, where she became a member of the Arts Center of Greater Victoria and continued to paint landscapes. She passed away 1957, two years after her sister Alexandrine.

#73 Detroit School of Design Classroom 1912

In 1911 the Detroit School of Design was opened on Jefferson and Rivard. Society member Marion Loud, was dean at one time. She was later head of the Art Department of Ligget University School for 25 years.

Some Society members have relatives who attended the school. Current member Charmaine Kaptur’s father attended Detroit School of Design. He designed

#74 Woman with work at Detroit School of Design

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#75-76 Scarab Club

The Scarab Club was formed in 1907 as the Hopkins Club after marine painter Robert Hopkins.

The Scarab Club board repeatedly asked the Society to become a women’s auxiliary group to the men’s only club. The Scarab Club allowed the Society to hold its annual exhibitions there but did not admit women until 1962. The DSWPS declined the offers and has remained an independent group since its inception.

#77 DSWPS members in Spanish Costume

The club's themed costumed balls, held from 1917 to 1950, were the single most important social event in Detroit each year.

#78 DSWPS Exhibition Catalog 1947 Scarab Club

For 40 years beginning in 1933 DSWPS held it annual exhibits at the Scarab Club.

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#79 Detroit Artists Market 1952

DSWPS members have been accepted to DAM open-call shows since its inception.

Mildred Simpson

As the story goes, DAM was founded in a garden in Grosse Pointe during the Great Depression (1932) as a venue for artists to exhibit and sell their work. The founders were led by socialite Mildred, or as she preferred to be known, Mrs. H. Lee Simpson.

#81 Detroit Artists Market 1952

#82 Amy Lorimer “Washington Boulevard” Solo Show at DAM

#83 1980 Free Press Article

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Artwork of some past DSWPS members

#84 Miriam L. Candler

#85 “Miss G” by Della Garretson of her twin sister Lillie

#86 Detail of photo from Detroit News showing Della and Lillie Garretson

#87 Jane C. Stanley

#88 Jane C. Stanley

#89 Jane C. Stanley

#90 Mary McLellan Hamilton (1891-1939)

“Pixie”, 1926, watercolor on ivory (3”x2”)

Metropolitan Art Museum Miniature Collection

#91 Brittany Market by Mildred E. Wiilliams

A fine American painter and lithographer, Mildred Emerson Williams first studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at the Art Students League of New York, under Robert Henri, John Sloan, and George Luks.

#92 Corner of Chartres (shart), lithograph by Mildred E. Williams

She later concluded her studies in Paris in the late 1920's. Corner in Chartres probably dates from this period.

#93 Detroit River and Skyline by Mildred E. Williams

#94 Alice Guysi

#95 Iris Andrews Miller - 2 paintings

Iris Andrews Miller 1881-1981
Studied under William Chase Merritt in Holland

#96 Elizabeth Palmer Bradfield – Sculpture of Great Dane

#97 Mary Longyear Palmer – 2 paintings

#98 Hanny Van der Velde

#99 Alice Hagerman Thurber

#100 Ann Bedford Goodman

#101 Lois Murphy

LATE 20TH CENTURY ARTIST MEMBERS

#102 Helen May

Art instructor, Detroit School of Design, Univ. Liggett and WSU.

Taught Louise Nobili and Mary Jane Bigler

#103-105 Louise J. Nobili

WSU Professor established summer art program in Italy

104- First Sunday in November (venice canal)

105- Japanese Fireworks over Hudson River

#106 Mary Jane Bigler

Instrumental in establishing the Michigan Watercolor Society

WSU professor emphasized self-discovery and personal content

#107 Helen Cartmell

A prolific oil painter and portrait artist, she showed in the Goedekke Gallery in Harmony Park to rave reviews in the Detroit News. She assisted in the murals in the People Mover stations, using dry pigments before the firing of the tiles. She received awards in most shows she entered.

#108 Lorraine Chambers McCarty

Lorraine studied with Glen Michaels (Cranbrook) Robert Wilbert (WSU) and Thomas Hart Benton to name a few. She taught at the Flint Institute of Art (1970-1985) and many other art venues in Southeast Michigan. A pilot since 1962, she flew in the Powder Puff Derby, and won the International Air Race for Women. She was the official artist of the United States Air Force (1981-1999). She was advisor & designer for the International Women’s Air and Space Museum in Ohio. Her works are in the DIA and Smithsonian Institute museums. Her many commissions include murals for General Dynamics, Alpena Light & Power Co., Lear Siegler Seating Co., the Capitol City Airport, MI, Upjohn Pharmaceutical Headquarters, Dow Chemical, and the Hi-Lex Corp. of Michigan and Japan. She also produced a television series The Artist in You, and was inventor and designer of Artist’s Eye: a Visual Aid for Artists.

#109 Nancy Prophit

In the 70s Nancy started a 6 member artists coop after the studio where she painted closed. She did all the organization and paperwork herself. There, and at another studio/gallery on Mack, she organized a Monday Evening “Life Study Workshop”. In recalling those Monday nights, her daughter says Nancy always made dinner before leaving for the studio. If a model had to cancel, she would enlist one of the kids to model. She was relentless in ensuring that her group of artist friends had a “live” model. Nancy and her husband would spend weeks cycling on a tandem bicycle in Scotland – living off what they had packed in their saddlebags.

Nancy loved learning new things and even studied gold leafing and icon painting. One icon is on the right side of the altar at St. Paul’s on the Lake Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe. So far, her kids have photographed 1,346 individual pieces and are still having people say, “I have one of your mom’s paintings.

Current Members 2017 (a few of the 160 members of 2017)