Floral Still life Fragment by Elmer Ham

Elmer L Ham Watercolor  5" x 7" framed.

This is a fragment of an unfinished floral watercolor by Elmer L Ham.    In addition to many finished paintings, the portfolios of paintings I purchased had many paintings in various stages of completion.  There were many finished still lives, others that were clearly studies of floral still life in watercolor and pastels and still others that were started but not finished beyond the pencil sketch (outline really) and some areas of finish.  

You can see the faint pencil indications in this sketch - which would be erased partially or completely in finished painting depending on the artists decision on whether the pencil added to or distracted from the desired effect.

I gave much consideration to the uncompleted still lives.  Many studies were on full sheets of watercolor paper - too large to be displayed with so much unfinished and all unsigned.  After studying the paintings intently, I decided to experiment and crop, mat, and frame some of the more finished pieces.  The above painting is one example of those efforts.

I have to admit, still lives had not held much appeal to me - being far more interested in landscapes.  But I'd never taken the opportunity to study so many up close.  I've also been considering doing still lives of items of loved ones no longer with us.  My parents, and my sister Cathy to name a few.  I also found the process of considering different compositions from different paintings to be a very engaging activity.

   

Ham's teacher, Laura Coombs Hills, was and still is very well known for her still life floral paintings in both pastel and oils.  She would summer in the town of her birth, Newburyport Mass, often picking flowers from her own garden and painting them.  She would then move to her winter studio in Boston, Ma. When speaking with the curator of a recent retrospective of Hills, she stated that Hills did teach occasionally and only select students as she was actively painting, exhibiting, and selling through galleries.  There are many other areas where Hills was a recognized expert but that is a subject for another time.

  

     by   Laura Coombs Hills

                                                               Laura Coombs Hills

How and when she met and decided to teach Ham I haven't been able to determine at this time.  She definitely had an influence on him, as evidenced by his exhibition of a floral still life in the Annual Exhibition of New England painters at Jordan Marsh Galleries in Boston in 1946 and the many still life paintings in his portfolios.  

Interestingly, I did find an old newspaper clipping, describing how a young teenage Elmer L Ham left his home in Portsmouth NH to "see the world" (without his parents knowledge).  Ham slept overnight in a barn and was discovered the following night wandering around the Market Square in Newburyport.  Maybe that spirit of adventure was remembered and noted by Hills - as the journey did make the papers.  Ham's father collected him safely the following day, thanking the police for their kindness.

Throughout his life, Ham explored and painted along the Maine, NH, and Massachusetts coast as well as the California coast.  Ham definitely captured the movement of water and the action of waves and mist - which only comes from long study and observation.  His California seascapes capture a different atmosphere that I've never had the pleasure of visiting, but compared with other known California Artists, he's captured the West Coast as surely as he did the East Coast.

Eastport Maine Afternoon Light

Eastport Maine - Abandoned Cannery, Tides Institute

Charcoal and Gouache on paper

This painting is an elaboration of an on location watercolor sketch that I did in Eastport last summer.  The effect of the light striking the abandoned cannery and the strong shadows was what drew me to this subject.   I'll set this aside and go back to it at a later date.

Its also another example to me that I'm never quite sure where a painting is going to lead me.  When I think of Eastport and the coast of Maine in general - I don't think of barely including the ocean in a scene painted on the coast.  

I plan to do five or six variations of this subject, including increasing the space between the buildings to show more of the harbor and the working coast.

While working, I had a visit from one of my studio assistants (Whisper).  I think he likes the painting - but he's not saying.  The cat has his tongue.  

Yellow House

Here is another light filled watercolor landscape painting from the portfolios of Elmer L Ham that I discovered in New Hampshire.  Ham spent much of his long life along the Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachsuetts Seacoast (Portsmouth, Boston, Newburyport, Eliot, and Kittery Point to name a few).  This includes nearly a decade that Ham spent in Los Angeles California.

Although the ocean (or river) is not a large part of this subject, it is important to the composition and color pallette of this painting.  It creates more of sense of light and brings the yellow maple into focus as well.  This is a quintessential New England Scene.

The effects captured in this painting, of light and shadow, of the atmospheric effects of the clouds and sky lend further credence to my belief that Ham spent much of his time observing and painting on location prior to executing these full sheet watercolors.

Another thing that attracts me to these paintings is their sense of spontaneity.  The effects are broad and loose, yet precise and accurate at the same time.  It's a difficult balance to achieve, yet Ham has been able to accomplish that in painting after painting.

Whether these paintings were done for enjoyment, exhibition, or sales in general, I have no evidence.  But a number of the far better known Boston School Painters, including Ham's teacher - Laura Coombs Hills - executed similarly freely painted watercolors which were quite different from their more well known subjects.  Artists such as Aiden Lassell Ripley, John LaValle, and Frank Benson executed impressionistic watercolors throughout their long careers while painting formal portraits, commissions, and still lives as well.