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Langley Library - Artwork
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| Name: | After the Rain |
| Artist / Description: | Ed Nordin was born in 1941 in Kirkland, Wash., and currently resides in Langley, Wash. He attended Seattle University, but considers himself a self-taught artist. He has shown in a number of northwest galleries. Nordin has been described as a disciple of Leo Kenney and John James Audubon. He paints watercolor marshy landscapes and sculpts birds in bronze. |
| History / Background: | This piece was painted in the mid-1970s and purchased by Joan Watson at the Choochokam Arts Festival. |
| Medium: | Watercolor on paper, mounted on board |
| Installation Date: | 1981 |
| Funding Source: | Donated by Joan Watson in 1981. |
| Name: | Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh |
| Artist / Description: | From the Disney White Swan series of garden ornaments. |
| History / Background: | In memory of "the flower guy" Irving Lundquist. |
| Medium: | Resin |
| Installation Date: | March 1999 |
| Funding Source: | Donated by Debbie Holbert of Something Special Flowers, a florist in Langley, Wash. |
| Name: | Door of Ebey's House |
| Artist / Description: | Florence H. Nesbit was born in Seattle in 1910. She attended the University of Washington, Cornish School, California School of Arts and Crafts, and Scripps College. Nesbit was one of the founders of the Northwest Watercolor Society; she was also a landscape painter as well as fashion illustrator and educator. At the 1933 opening exhibition of the Seattle Art Museum, Nesbit won first prize in watercolor. She taught at the Charette School of Costume Design, Whitman College, and Corona and Riverside in California. In 1973, Nesbit returned to the Northwest until she passed away in 2001. |
| History / Background: | Unknown |
| Medium: | Watercolor |
| Installation Date: | Unknown |
| Funding Source: | Donated by Artist. |
| Name: | First Street in Langley |
| Artist / Description: | Margaret Gove Camfferman (1881 – 1964) was among the earliest modernist painters in the Northwest. Margaret attended the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and the New York School of Applied Arts & Design; she studied with Robert Henri in New York and with Andre Lhote in Paris. Margaret was an active exhibitor with the Northwest Annuals since the early 1920s and for many years at the Seattle Art Museum. In Langley, Margaret and her husband Peter built their home called “Brackenwood,” where they offered art classes. The Camffermans became part of Seattle’s Group of Twelve and were very highly regarded within the regional art community. |
| History / Background: | Unknown |
| Medium: | Oil |
| Installation Date: | Unknown |
| Funding Source: | Donated by Artist. |
| Name: | Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie! |
| Artist / Description: | Ron Childers of Langley has been an art educator and artist for many years. He and his partner owned the Childers/Proctor Gallery in Langley from 1983 to 1999. Childers has also been active in the local arts scene, helping form the Island Arts Council, the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, Choochokam Arts Festival, and the Langley Art Walk. His work has been widely exhibited and has received numerous awards. Childers currently lives in Palm Springs and Langley, and remains active in arts organizations. |
| History / Background: | This piece was part of a project in 1977 when the artist was attending the University of Washington MFA program. |
| Medium: | Acrylic on primed masonite |
| Installation Date: | Approximately 1979 |
| Funding Source: | Donated by the artist. |
| Name: | Helen Coe |
| Artist / Description: | Margaret Gove Camfferman (1881 – 1964) was among the earliest modernist painters in the Northwest. Margaret attended the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and the New York School of Applied Arts & Design; she studied with Robert Henri in New York and with Andre Lhote in Paris. Margaret was an active exhibitor with the Northwest Annuals since the early 1920s and for many years at the Seattle Art Museum. In Langley, Margaret and her husband Peter built their home called “Brackenwood,” where they offered art classes. The Camffermans became part of Seattle’s Group of Twelve and were very highly regarded within the regional art community. |
| History / Background: | Helen Coe, mayor of Langley from 1919 to 1922, deeded a plot of land to the Langley Civic Club for the purpose of constructing a Langley Public Library to be dedicated to "the honor and memory of the young men of Langley and vicinity who served in the World War." In 1923 the library was dedicated, and Helen Coe became the first Langley librarian. The artist Helen Camfferman was Helen Coe's niece. |
| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Installation Date: | Circa 1923 |
| Funding Source: | Donated by Margaret Camfferman and Helen Coe. |
| Name: | I Am a Child |
| Artist / Description: | Jessie Willcox Smith was born in 1863. She attended the School of Design for Women and later studied at the Pennslvania Academy of the Arts. Smith was a prolific contributor to books and magazines during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, illustrating stories and articles for clients such as Century, Collier's Weekly, Leslie's Weekly, Harper's, McClure's, Scribners, and the Ladies' Home Journal. Smith may be most well known for her covers on Good Housekeeping, which she painted from December 1917 through March 1933. She also painted posters and portraits. |
| History / Background: | Framed by Lowry-James of Langley |
| Medium: | |
| Installation Date: | Unknown |
| Funding Source: | Unknown |
| Name: | Otter Head |
| Artist / Description: | Georgia Gerber was born in 1955 and grew up in Chester County, Pa. She studied sculpture and bronze casting at Bucknell University and then moved west to attend graduate school at the University of Washington. Along with her husband, she lives on rural Whidbey Island, Wash., where she operates her own studio and foundry with the assistance of two women artisans and her husband. Georgia primarily works with life size animal and human figures, often incorporating architectural or abstract elements into the design. A career emphasis has been the creation of accessible public artwork that encourages viewer interaction. |
| History / Background: | Unknown |
| Medium: | Bronze |
| Installation Date: | 1990 |
| Funding Source: | Donated by Artist |
| Name: | Otter Memories |
| Artist / Description: | Georgia Gerber was born in 1955 and grew up in Chester County, Pa. She studied sculpture and bronze casting at Bucknell University and then moved west to attend graduate school at the University of Washington. Along with her husband, she lives on rural Whidbey Island, Wash., where she operates her own studio and foundry with the assistance of two women artisans and her husband. Georgia primarily works with life size animal and human figures, often incorporating architectural or abstract elements into the design. A career emphasis has been the creation of accessible public artwork that encourages viewer interaction. |
| History / Background: | Original sculpture installed in garden at the time of library building expansion. Plaque on stone says: "'Ripples become curves, Visitors under spring moon, Otter memories' In memory of William James Mansfield." |
| Medium: | Bronze |
| Installation Date: | 1995 |
| Funding Source: | Donated by son of William James Mansfield |
| Name: | The Old Langley Library |
| Artist / Description: | Anne Belov has been painting and drawing for more than 25 years. She received her B.F.A. from Philadelphia College of Art in Pa., and her M.F.A. from the University of Washington. Her work contains both still-life and landscape imagery, often within the same painting and she typically engages the viewer to participate in the creative process by painting the common place and familiar with a brilliant sense of light and color. Belov has stated that it is her objective "to create a sense of place and time through light, color, composition and the relationships between objects." |
| History / Background: | A gift to the library at the time of the 1995 addition/remodel. |
| Medium: | Watercolor |
| Installation Date: | 1995 |
| Funding Source: | Gift from the artist. |
| Name: | Tulip Farm |
| Artist / Description: | Florence H. Nesbit was born in Seattle in 1910. She attended the University of Washington, Cornish School, California School of Arts and Crafts, and Scripps College. Nesbit was one of the founders of the Northwest Watercolor Society; she was also a landscape painter as well as fashion illustrator and educator. At the 1933 opening exhibition of the Seattle Art Museum, Nesbit won first prize in watercolor. She taught at the Charette School of Costume Design, Whitman College, and Corona and Riverside in California. In 1973, Nesbit returned to the Northwest until she passed away in 2001. |
| History / Background: | Unknown |
| Medium: | Watercolor |
| Installation Date: | Unknown |
| Funding Source: | Donated by the artist. |
| Name: | Untitled Floral Still-Life |
| Artist / Description: | Margaret Gove Camfferman (1881 – 1964) was among the earliest modernist painters in the Northwest. Margaret attended the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and the New York School of Applied Arts & Design; she studied with Robert Henri in New York and with Andre Lhote in Paris. Margaret was an active exhibitor with the Northwest Annuals since the early 1920s and for many years at the Seattle Art Museum. In Langley, Margaret and her husband Peter built their home called “Brackenwood,” where they offered art classes. The Camffermans became part of Seattle’s Group of Twelve and were very highly regarded within the regional art community. |
| History / Background: | Still-life was painted circa 1935, and gifted to the Langley Library by the artist. It was on loan to Langley City Hall in the 1990s and returned to the Langley Library in the spring of 2008. It was reframed by Freeland framer Catherine de Witt, with donation by Linda Beeman (Langley Library board member). |
| Medium: | Oil on chipboard |
| Installation Date: | Unknown |
| Funding Source: | Painting donated by artist, reframed with donation by Linda Beeman in 2008. |
| Name: | Untitled Floral Still-Life |
| Artist / Description: | Margaret Gove Camfferman (1881 – 1964) was among the earliest modernist painters in the Northwest. Margaret attended the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and the New York School of Applied Arts & Design; she studied with Robert Henri in New York and with Andre Lhote in Paris. Margaret was an active exhibitor with the Northwest Annuals since the early 1920s and for many years at the Seattle Art Museum. In Langley, Margaret and her husband Peter built their home called “Brackenwood,” where they offered art classes. The Camffermans became part of Seattle’s Group of Twelve and were very highly regarded within the regional art community. |
| History / Background: | The still-life was painted circa 1910, prior to the artist's move to Langley and her marriage to Peter Camfferman. The painting was found in the former Camfferman house, which the Monroes purchased. |
| Medium: | Watercolor |
| Installation Date: | 1970 |
| Funding Source: | Gift from the Monroe family. |
| Name: | Untitled landscape |
| Artist / Description: | Theodor Basrak was born July 18, 1922, in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. He immigrated to the United States in 1949 from his home after World War II, and eventually retired to Whidbey Island where he resided for 31 years. He became a painter, drawing inspiration from the the island’s landscape and its changing weather. |
| History / Background: | Gift to branch manager Vicky Welfare. |
| Medium: | Print of watercolor |
| Installation Date: | 1999 |
| Funding Source: | Donated by artist. |
When I got my library card, that's when my life began.
- Rita Mae Brown
