Jessie Botke Murals of Tropical Forest featured at Inner Visions

Page 1

Featured at The Irvine Museum in Irvine, California is the wonderful tropical jungle mural of Jessie Arms Botke, 1953, in the show

Inner Visions: Women Artists of California March 17 through June 7, 2012

The central attraction in Inner Visions is the 7 feet by 26 feet mural by Jessie Arms Botke, a gift to The Irvine Museum from The Oaks at Ojai, for which the mural was painted in 1953. Many people have heard that FACL, Inc. (aka Fine Art Conservation Laboratories) was responsible for the mural conservation and restoration that saved this wonderful, gorgeous mural of a tropical jungle by Jessie Arms Botke from demolition but few have heard the story. So, here it is! In 1992 Scott M. Haskins, art conservator, got a call from The Oaks health resort in Ojai, California about a wonderful 7′ x 26′ mural by Jessie Arms Botke, painted in 1953. Botke has become very well known in the art history of early California art and is collected by all the major collections of this type of art. Her prolific number of paintings of birds, fish and wonderful plants are usually all of high quality and can be expensive my most people’s standards. The Oaks was about to go through a remodel which was going to involve the demolition of the wall on which this mural was painted. Actually, the mural was painted, in oil, on canvas then was glued to the wall. Scott Haskins and FACL, Inc. were hired to carefully remove the canvas (that was adhered with wall paper paste) in a way that did not set into motion the mass flaking of the paint layers.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.