An artist, a teacher, a lover of all things beautiful...
Education
While a very young school girl, Nona's natural talent as an artist was noticed and nurtured. At the age of eight, she "began the study of art." She was in the third grade then and remembers that Sarah Pett Fain was her teacher, a woman who has encouraged many others to find their life work. 'On Fridays' Nona recalls, 'the best pictures in the class were hung on the board. Mine was always there, and so one day Miss Fain went home and talked to my mother.' The teacher had recognized the talent that lay in this small girl and the upshot of that talk was that she began studying art at Sullins College, only two blocks from her home. She went there every afternoon after school and on Saturdays." Nona's natural talent, her love of beautiful things, and the proper encouragement established the foundation upon which she would build her career as an artist and a teacher. Source: "74 Years of Painting"; Dorothy Hamill, July 1975
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After grade school, Nona attended Sullins College where she graduated in May of 1911 with a degree in Fine Arts. While at Sullins College, Nona's natural talent was sharpened into a refined skill with multiple applications. This is largely attributable to the vision and oversight of her development by Mrs. Mary Collier Forbes. Mrs. Forbes joined the staff at Sullins College in 1908 as the Director of the Art Department where she brought a level of prominence and notoriety to the school and its fine arts program. Also on staff at this time was Miss Lillian Selden Lloyd who was an art teacher at Sullins during 1910 to 1911 and was well known throughout the area. Miss Lloyd was the granddaughter of Hubard, the celebrated portrait painter.
B: 1890 - D: 1969
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Nona's longest documented relationship was with Eliot O'Hara, with whom she studied and painted extensively under his teaching. The first documented study under Eliot O'Hara was during the summer of 1938 where she attended his school at Goose Rock Beach in Maine. Pictured above is a watercolor painted by Nona of the street view nearby his studio at Goose Rock Beach. For more on Eliot O'Hara and her relationship with him click here.
B: 1864 - D: 1940
During the summer of 1938, Nona traveled to Maine and New England states where she "took a special course under Charles Woodbury in his studio on the rock cliffs near Oqunquit, Maine." Pictured above is a watercolor painted by Nona of the cliffs. For more information on Charles Woodbury click here.
Sullins College
Founded 1868
Bristol, Virginia
Sullins College was founded about 1868 and named for David Sullins, a Methodist minister. It was both a high school for girls and later also a junior college, operated by the Methodist Church. After the original school building burned down in 1915, the school was rebuilt in a new location and was no longer a Methodist institution. The school was then operated as a proprietary women's school attracting a clientele from among wealthy families throughout the Southeast looking for a junior college with the prestige of being in Virginia.
After graduating from Sullins College in May of 1911, Nona further pursued her studies in art; a pursuit that continued to the end of her life. The influence of Mary Collier Forbes and Nona's determination set in motion a lifetime of learning that encompassed many different disciplines in art and artistic expression. Nona continued her post-graduate work at Sullins College and "two years of study at Columbia University. She studied ceramics under Miss Maud Mason of Greenwich Village, and spent some time studying under Walter Carl Titze of St. Paul and Albert Heckman of New York in New York City. In Birmingham, Alabama, [she] took special work in Batik under Miss Annie Southern Tardy. For three summers, she was a student at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts [or Parsons School of Fine & Applied Arts in New York], and in connection with the Paris branch of that school, did special research study into the work of Robert Adams in England. Mrs. Hodge has done freelance painting in Germany, France, Italy, and England. While in London, she took a course in Interior Decoration at the Victoria and Albert Museum, noted for it's collection of furniture." Source: "With Brush and Pen;" Helen Cooper, June 1932.
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Over the course of the next 45 years, Nona also studied at Franklin's Professional Art School in New York, McDowell's School of Design in New York, George Peabody School in Nashville, the Chicago Art Institute, Ringling Brothers School of Art, Metropolitan Museum, Modern Museum Gallery Lecture Class, Craft Students League of New York City, John Herron Art Institute (Indianapolis, Indiana), Goose Rock School of Art, Flat Rock School of Art, Sir John Soan's School (London, England), as well as attending many art demonstrations given by nationally recognized artist of the time.
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"How often has the plantiff chant 'I wish I could have pretty things!' issued from the mouths of feminine beings?" A question put forth by Evelyn Tounsley in her article "Mrs. Hodge Satisfied Her Wants For Beauty In Life." In her article dated November 1948, Nona was highlighted as the Woman of the Week. "Nona Bunn Hodge has done something about it. From murals to hats she expresses her love of beauty in a creative way. And has done so well with it that she has won distinction far afield from just her native Bristol." Nona's passion for art, more specifically, for finding the beauty in all things, fueled her pursuit of art in all forms of expression. As further stated by Tounsley, Nona's calling propelled her to take advantage of every new trend and innovation by branching out in all forms of artistic expression "from interior decorating to clothes designing to china painting to intricate, realistic oils, including a one-man showing of water colors and commissions for church murals." Nona, it seemed, would have traveled to the ends of the earth an back in pursuit of learning "all things beautiful." "When you teach, you must know more than one thing." Nona is quoted as saying in the July 1975 article, "74 Years of Painting."
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As cited by Helen Cooper in her article "With Brush and Pen," Nona also spent three summers (1927-1936) in New York where she attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Art or Parsons. Nona not only had a passion for art in a traditional sense but a passion for artistic expression in all forms including fashion and interior design. She had a desire to impart practical wisdom on all her students and her pursuit of knowledge in these areas lend evidence to this desire. During the summer of 1930, Nona traveled extensively throughout Europe where she spent time studying art in situ as well as conducting studies of original master pieces. Nona set sail on the Tuscania of the Cunard Line, after spending time studying in New York, on a seven day journey across the Atlantic. Her travels span the entire summer and took her to many countries including Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and England. She had a commission to do research work in the art galleries of Pritti College in Florence, the Cluby Museum in Paris and the British Museum in London. In each of these galleries she spent two weeks of study. Nona was also given special direction in art history under the supervision of Miss Edith Blackwell, an art historian.
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During the summer of 1938, Nona traveled to Maine and New England where she took "a special course under Charles Woodbury in his studio on the rock cliffs near Oquinquit, Maine. A summer course in water color painting was also taken under Eliot O'Hara at Goose Rock Beach and Miss Eleanor Barry of the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, and Milo Winter Jr. at the Chicago Art Institute." Source: "Mrs. Luther Hodge Sr. Visits Here Following Study of Art in Maine;" Kingsport Times, September 1938. Attending such courses enabled Nona to continue to build her knowledge of new and emerging trends as well as sharpen her skill in traditional areas of study. Additionally, she was able to continually draw on the relationships she forged and nurtured throughout the years.
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Nona's longest documented relationship was with Eliot O'Hara, with whom she studied and painted extensively under his teaching. The first documented study under Eliot O'Hara was during the summer of 1938 mentioned above. Over the course of the next 30 years until his death in 1969, Nona studied and painted with Eliot O'Hara. In 1947, she took a leave of absence and attended the John Herron Art School in Palm Beach, Florida. Mr O'Hara was at the school at that time and was the reason she went. She also attended his courses at the Flat Rock School of Art in 1963 and 1965 where Eliot O'Hara also taught for several summers. In addition, under the direction of Mr. O'Hara, student groups including Nona would travel painting in plein air. The following slide show are pictures taken by Nona during some of her times studying with Eliot O'Hara.
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Nona also studied extensively under many different artists in an attempt to sharpen her existing skill but also to expand her understanding of new and emerging trends. In a newsletter to her friends and students dated 1963-1964, Nona stated that she spent two months "in New York studying oils under Harold Bowler and other teachers." Further, she spent "the summer [studying] landscapes, still life and portrait in watercolor under Eliot O'Hara, and oil painting under Wasyl Palijczuk (pictured in slide show above), all of which [she] enjoyed very much and instead of reaching that retiring age, [she] feels as if [her] work in painting had just begun." She continued, "I hope before long, that I can let you see some of the twenty or more oil canvases and eighty or more water colors I have from this summer's work. The oils under Wasyl, are mostly non-objective and abstract. Most of you know my work as realistic and will not recognize these new canvases although I do have several still life which are more or less realistic. These canvases are so large, I can hardly hang them in my own studio, but I will find a way for you to see them before much longer. Those of you who are more advanced will be given an opportunity to try some of these different methods in oil, especially the 'wash in' and 'scrumble' techniques."
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Among the variety of other instructors Nona studied under during her lifetime of learning were: Dorothy Short, Phoebe Walker, Minerva Goldsmith, Clint Carter, Walter Colebrooks, Milo Winters Jr., Gerry Peirce, Eleanor Barry, Miss Annie Tardy, Mrs. George Dutch, Mrs. Edgar Allen Forbes, Karl Martz, Mrs. Raymond L. Thayer, David Payne and Justin Brady. Ongoing research is being conducted in attempt to further expand this list.
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