Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C. The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating. The word vitreous comes from the Latin vitreus, meaning "glassy".
John Egerton Christmas Piper CH was an English painter, printmaker and designer of stained-glass windows and both opera and theatre sets. His work often focused on the British landscape, especially churches and monuments, and included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics. He was educated at Epsom College and trained at the Richmond School of Art followed by the Royal College of Art in London. He turned from abstraction early in his career, concentrating on a more naturalistic but distinctive approach, but often worked in several different styles throughout his career.
Jules Guérin was an American muralist, architectural delineator, and illustrator. A painter and widely published magazine illustrator, he gained prominence for his architectural work such as in the 1906, Plan for Chicago, and for the large murals he painted in many well-known public structures such as the Lincoln Memorial.
The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal work-relief program that employed professional artists to create sculptures, paintings, crafts and design for public buildings and parks during the Great Depression in the United States. The program operated from December 8, 1933, to May 20, 1934, administered by Edward Bruce under the United States Treasury Department, with funding from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
Blue Sky is an American painter and sculptor best known for his mural, Tunnelvision.
Virgil David Cantini was an American enamelist, sculptor and educator. He was well known for innovation with enamel and steel and received both local and national recognition for his work, including honorary awards, competitive prizes and commissions, along with a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957. Cantini long served as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, where he helped to create the Department of Studio Arts. A longtime resident of the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cantini died on May 2, 2009, at the age of 90. Today, many of his large scale works are on display throughout the city of Pittsburgh.
Alfonso Angel Yangco Ossorio was a Filipino American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Manila in 1916 to wealthy Filipino parents from the province of Negros Occidental. His heritage was Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese. Between the ages of eight and thirteen, he attended school in England. At age fourteen, he moved to the United States. Ossorio attended Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island, graduating in 1934. From 1934 to 1938, he studied fine art at Harvard University and then continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. He became an American citizen in 1933 and served as a medical illustrator in the United States Army during World War II.
Paul Coze was a French/Serbian-American anthropologist, artist, and writer, most notable as a French authority on Native Americans, and for his public art in the 1960s.
The Cleveland School refers to the flourishing local arts community in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio during the period from 1910 to 1960. It was so named in 1928 by Elrick Davis, a journalist with the Cleveland Press. The Cleveland School was renowned for its watercolor painting, and also included well-known printmakers, sculptors, enamelists, and ceramists.
Daniel Cody Muller, generally known as Dan Muller (1889–1976) was a cowboy, an artist, illustrator, and writer of the American West. Having grown up on a ranch, he learned to break in horses, a skill he utilized for the United States Army during World War I. He made and sold paintings of the American Old West and worked occasionally as a ranch hand into the 1920s. In 1933, his first published story was Break 'Em Gentle for Esquire magazine. He wrote and illustrated books, like Chico of the Cross Up Ranch and Horses. He created three large murals for the Chicago World's Fair which were awarded a gold medal and a $1,200 cash prize.
Fred Uhl Ball (1945-1985) was an American enamelist. He has work collected in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He is best known for The Way Home which he said is his interpretation of aerial views of the Sacramento River. He died after a violent attack in 1985 and his murder remains unsolved.
Austin Montgomery Purves Jr. was a twentieth-century American artist and educator. His works include painting, mosaic, fresco, and sculpture.
Thelma Frazier Winter (1903–1977) was an American enamelist, ceramic sculptor, and painter. She worked at Cowan Pottery and belonged to the Cleveland School of artists.
Karl Joseph Maria Drerup was a leading figure in the mid-twentieth-century American enamels field. Trained as a painter, Drerup taught himself to enamel in the early 1940s, fusing glass to metal through a high-temperature firing process. Through his inventive, "painterly" approach to the medium, he advanced enameling to new levels of beauty, power, and expressiveness. Drerup's love of nature is apparent in every detail of his intimate woodland scenes, just as his depictions of humble workers in natural settings reveal his profound respect for humanity. A modest, self-deprecating individual, he exerted an enormous impact on the generation of enamel artists that emerged in the United States in the period immediately following World War II.
Florian Kenneth Lawton was an American visual artist and a realist painter who worked primarily in a regional style.
Ellamarie Woolley (1913–1976) was an American enamel artist, muralist, and educator. She and her husband, Jackson Woolley collaborated on enamel pieces. The School of Art+Design at San Diego State University established a scholarship in her name.
Gloria Rosenthal Plevin is an American painter and print-maker living and working in Northeast Ohio. She works in watercolors, pastels, acrylics and monoprints and is best known for her realistic renderings.
Elmer William Brown was an African-American artist. He worked in multiple mediums, including painting, printmaking, murals, stage design, ceramics, and enameling.
Clark McDougall was a Canadian painter known for his black enamel style.
Terry Schoonhoven (1945-2001) was an American muralist, lithographer, and painter. Interested in the environment, architecture, film, history, geography, and the fluidity of time, he painted more than 40 large scale public murals over the course of his career, including six as co-founder of the LA Fine Arts Squad. His work -- "terrifying by the intensity of its reality and powerful associative qualities"—often explored dystopic environmental themes.
