John Pellew (1903 - 1993)
Born: Heamoor, England
John Clifford Pellew was born on April 9, 1903 in Heamoor, England. He studied art at the Penzance School of Art in Western Cornwall, England. His primary residences throughout his career are listed as Astoria, New York and Norwalk, Connecticut.
Pellew's preferred painting media are oil, acrylic and watercolor. He authored books on these types, but, received the most acclaim during his long career for his watercolors.
Pellew was elected as an Associate to the National Academy of Design in 1951, and as a full Academician in 1952. He was also a member of the American Watercolor Society, the Allied Artists of America, the Southwestern Water Color Society, and the Salmagundi Club.
He won several awards during his career including the Allied Artists Gold Medal for Watercolor, 1951; the Gold Medal for Watercolor, Hudson Valley Annual, 1954; the Marine Painting Award, Connecticut Watercolor Society, 1958; the Adolph and Clara Orbig Award and the Henry W. Ranger Purchase Award, National Academy of Design, New York, 1961; the Butler Award, The American Watercolor Society, New York, 1964; the Syndicate Magazine Gold Medal, Allied Arts of America, 1967; and the Silver Award, The American Watercolor Society, 1970.
He exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists 1924-1926, 1928-1931, 1940-1943, the Salons of America 1934, the Corcoran Gallery biennials 1935-1951, the Carnegie Institute 1943-1946, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 1936-1938, 1943, 1949, the Brooklyn Museum 1935-1936, 1939, 1943, the National Academy of Design 1937, 1942, 1944, 1948-1972, the Art Institute of Chicago 1938-1939, 1943, the New York Water Color Club 1934, 1938, 1944, the Whitney Museum of American Art 1937-1947, the Butler Institute of American Art 1964, the Metropolitan Museum of Art 1967, the American Watercolor Society 1970, the Exchange Exhibition, Canada 1972, and the Grand Central Art Gallery 1970s.
John Clifford Pellew's work is represented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Newark Museum, the Georgia Museum of Fine Art, the Adelphi College, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.
During his career Pellew worked as an instructor in New England and authored three books on painting. Acrylic Landscape Painting, 1968, Painting in Watercolor, 1969, Oil Painting Outdoors, 1971.
John Clifford Pellew died in Norwalk, Connecticut on February 26, 1993