Creator Record
Images
Metadata
Name (Artist/Photographer/Author) |
Sheets, Millard Owen |
Role |
Artist |
Dates of birth and death |
Born in Pomona in 1907-1989 The precocious Sheets won his first art competition at the Los Angeles County Fair when he was 12. Theodora Modra, the fair's artistic director, became the boy's mentor. |
Nationality |
American |
Places of residence |
The following information was provided by Millard's son, Tony Sheets: "Dad was hired to teach at the University of Hawaii in 1950-1951, so he decided to move the whole family to the Big Island of Hawaii for the year. He rented a home on the Kona Coast just above Kealakekua Bay. I was the youngest at eight and my oldest brother was in his first year of college. He transferred to the U of H for the year and my brother David, my sister Carolyn and I went to school locally. It was the most wonderful year of my life. Barefoot for a whole year except for one weekend when Dad had to buy us shoes for a fancy wedding we were invited to at the only Inn in Kona at the time. Things were so rural then that the ranch hands still drove the cattle down the main street and swam them out to the anchored ship, while still on horseback, for transport to market. They picked up the cattle with slings and swung them on board into deck-top corrals. Dad was also doing calendar paintings for United Airlines and teaching part time at Scripps College on the Mainland. So when he came to Kona for a much needed rest he either took us kids out to catch tropical fish for him to do paintings of or to the beach where he would paint and we would play. His paintings of that time were extremely fresh and direct, a reflection of a man relaxing, doing what he loved. Tony Sheets" |
Education |
Sheets went on to study at the Chouinard Art Institute (the predecessor to CalArts) where he helped develop a new style of bold watercolor painting and won national recognition. |
Titles & Honors |
He also produced watercolors, prints, and mosaics while serving as chair of the art department at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School, and he later directed the Otis Art Institute. |
Publications |
(Steadman, Millard Sheets, Scripps College, 1976) |
