Eve Drewelowe
| Eve Drewelowe | |
|---|---|
Drewelowe with one of her paintings at a Boulder Art Guild show in the 1970s
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| Born |
April 15, 1899 April 15, 1899 New Hampton, Iowa |
| Died | October 22, 1988 (aged 89) Boulder, Colorado |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of Iowa |
| Known for | Painting |
| Spouse(s) | Jacob Van Ek (m. 1923–88) |
Eve Drewelowe (1899–1988) was an American painter. Her career spanned six decades and produced more than 1,000 works of art in oil, watercolor, pen and ink and other media in styles that included impressionism, social realism and abstraction.
Eve Drewelowe was born in New Hampton, Iowa on April 15, 1899 to George Drewelow and Mary Marguerita Martin. The eighth child of twelve, she grew up on a farm with a tomboyish spirit. Her father died when Eve was just 11 years old. She did not take art classes in her youth due to her farm duties, but she later came to appreciate this. She believed a formal artistic education would have hindered her development of a unique artistic style. She graduated from New Hampton High School in 1919. She attended the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, receiving a bachelor's degree in graphic and plastic arts in 1923. Working closely with her father figure and mentor Carl Seashore, she encouraged the university to establish a graduate program in the arts. In 1924 she became the first student to earn a master's degree in studio arts from the university, and one of the first in the nation.
Throughout her undergraduate and graduate school educations, Drewelowe experimented with impressionism. Art professor Charles A. Cumming discouraged any influences on her work outside of classwork. She was educated with little emphasis on contemporary art. Regardless, she showed interest in Cubism and other forms of abstract art.
Despite warnings from Cumming that marriage could be fatal to her career, Eve married a fellow University of Iowa graduate and political scientist Jacob Van Ek in 1923. Shortly after, the couple moved to Boulder, Colorado where he taught and became dean at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Drewelowe became a founding member and president of the Boulder Arts Guild in the city. She taught part-time at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1927-1928 and in the Department of Fine Arts in 1936-1937 for two summer sessions.
Drewelowe's father George Drewelow, a farmer and environmentalist, was a large influence on her work. This and her love of Western landscapes had a strong impact on the subject matter of work. In the early years of her artistic career, Eve painted landscapes almost exclusively. She especially favored the views in Colorado, featured in works such as Pine and Peak, Aspen, Colorado. Although some paintings feature figures and most others simply a landscape, all of the paintings from this period in her life are painted within the spectrum of social realism. Eve traveled with her husband Jacob to 23 countries in a span of 13 months. She filled seven sketchbooks with the inspirational sights she encountered. She produced many vivid landscape paintings based on her travels. She produced Telling Trails, a series of ink drawings documenting her trip. This is the first documented incidence of what would become characteristic for Eve in this time—“flowing, undulating lines and unusual perspectives.”
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