MILLICENT KROUSE

Artist Bio

 

ÒI donÕt know why I paint, but I suppose it keeps me going.Ó Millicent is a Philadelphia artist whose career began with oil paints and might have ended with woodblock prints had she not switched to watercolor in 1985.

 

Millicent was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1950Õs where she became enamored of still life. There she was awarded the academyÕs two most coveted awards- the Cresson and Scheidt scholarships for travel abroad. After returning from Europe, she attended a woodblock printing course offered by Morris Blackburn, where she Òfell in love with printmakingÓ and quit painting altogether. She reasoned that when a print sold she would always have a copy for herself, whereas once a painting sold, it was gone forever. She did woodblock prints exclusively for the next 25 years, devoting herself to depictions of plants, animals and insects. Her prints were acquired by museums in the Philadelphia area.

 

After KrouseÕs husband died in 1985, she began using color, reworking some of her prints using colored pencil, pastel and gold and silver leaf. ÒThe use of color became therapeutic, like a lifelineÓ, she says. She also began longing for a medium that was more immediate because Òwoodblock printing took such a long time to do that even a small output of three or four editions began to wear on me.Ó So began her new technique of using only colored pencil and watercolor, but still maintaining her still-life subject matter.

 

Millicent never works from photographs, preferring to draw and paint from real life. When painting flowers, she works wet-in-wet because she is able to achieve softer edges and Òluscious color gradations,Ó as she describes them.

 

 

Graduate: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

 

AWARDS

 

Cresson & Scheidt Travel Scholarships

Honorable Mention. 11th Annual National Boston Printmakers

Lerch Purchase Prize, "Earth Art '73", Civic Center Museum, Philadelphia, PA

                           "Excellence in Graphics", Provident Bank Award -RSFAA, 1986

                           Graphics Prize -RSF AA, 1996

                           First Prize, ÒPaper ChaseÓ Exhibition, Plastic Club of Philadelphia, 2003

 

SOLO SHOWS

 

Philadelphia Art Alliance

Warehouse Gallery, Arden, Delaware

                           Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia

Houston Hall- University ofPennsylvania

                           Law School -University of Pennsylvania

Women's Cultural Trust Gallery -University ofPennsylvania

                           Berg Gallery, Jenkintown, PA

Newman Galleries, Philadelphia

                           Provident Bank, Philadelphia

                           Artists' House Galleries, Philadelphia

 

GROUP SHOWS

 

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

                           National Academy ofDesign, New York

Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts

                           William Penn Museum, Harrisburg, PA

Prints by Pennsylvania Artists, Penn State University Art Museum

                           Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia

Philadelphia Chapter Artists' Equity Triennial Exhibit, Civic Center Museum

                           The Gallery, Barnegat Light, New Jersey

                           "Prominent American Women Print Makers", Schoolhouse Gallery, Sanibel Island, Florida

                           Sailor's Valentine Gallery, Nantucket, Massachusetts                     

                           National Juried Print Exhibits, Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, NJ

                           ÒTen AlumniÓ; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibit at the 2002 Philadelphia Flower Show

                           2003 National Spring Open Juried Exhibit, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA

                           2005 Juried Painting Exhibit, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA

 

COLLECTIONS

 

Haverford School, Pennsylvania

                           First Union Bank, Philadelphia

                           First National Bank, Boston

Pierce Junior College, Philadelphia

                           Free Library of Philadelphia

Montclair Museum of Art, Montclair, NJ

 

COLLECTIONS  (continued)

                           Reading Public Museum and Gallery, Pennsylvania

                           National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (Rosenwald Collection)

                           New Jersey State Museum

University of Maine, Portland, Maine

University of  Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia

                           Rosenberg Gallery, Galveston, Texas

Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, Michigan

                           Medical College of Pennsylvania

                           State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

                           Bill Scott, ÒMillicent Krouse: Finding the Way to WatercolorÓ;  Watercolor, summer 2002

 

William D. Gorman, A.W.S., ÒHow to Create Woodcuts and Wood EngravingsÓ;  TodayÕs Art, vol. 25, nr. 5, May 1977, pp 8-13.