A. Barbara Frith, Artist
01/03/25 to 12/21/07
Barbara and her two sisters were brought up on a ranch in northern Colorado. All three sisters were talented in art and earned their way with scholarships through Colorado Women's College, and then the Cleveland Institute of Art. Barbara received an additional scholarship, the Agnes Page scholarship, to continue painting a fifth year.
That same year she was struck with polio. Barbara was paralyzed on her entire left side, but with the help of the Sister Kenny Treatment Center at the St. Frances Hospital in Peoria, II., she was abe to rehab herself enough to return to graduate school at Denver University. There she met her husband, Don Frith, and they were married in 1949.
They moved to San Bernardino, CA and set up lives as teachers and artists. Three years later her husband became an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, and they moved to Champaign/Urbana, IL, where they raised a family of four children and continued their professional careers as artists. When Don retired, in 1989 they moved back to California, setting up their studio in Santa Maria, CA.
As an artist, Barbara continued to receive much recognition until the end of her life. She struggled with post-polio syndrome and died December 21, 2007. She will be sorely missed by her husband of 58 years, Don and her four children and her seven grandchildren.
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BARBARA FRITH - BIOGRAPHY
Barbara Frith has been an active, producing artist over the past fifty years. She has a BFA in Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art; a MA in Painting from Denver University, and has studied art history, printmaking, painting and ceramics for five years at the University of Illinois where her husband was professor of ceramics for 37 years. She exhibits widely. She has been in many national exhibitions throughout the United States of America, receiving many awards. She was selected by Life Magazine to be one of the "30 Artists Under 30" show in theModern Museum of Art in New YorkCity in 1950
Frith has shown in the Gilman Gallery in Chicago for more than 30 years: she has shown and is showing in galleries in Peoria, IL and Springfield, IL. In California she is in galleries in Santa Barbara, Los Osos, San Luis Obispo, Carmel, Fresno, Cambria, and Santa Maria. She is a member of several printmaking guilds and art associations. She has had more than 50 one-man shows. Her latest was last summer at the Grossman Gallery in Lompoc... but in 1996 Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo honored her with a 50 painting Retrospective show. The year of 2000 finds her in a selected 4 Women show of flower paintings at the Plums Gallery in Fresno, CA. And, 2001, month of March, she shared a two person show at Allen Hancock College Art Gallery with her husband.
Frith has shown and painted in many countries around the world... Europe & England, Columbia, Korea, Japan, Honduras, India, Thailand, Spain, Malaysia and Haiti. She has traveled with her husband on sabbaticals and IESC assignments; and, now after many years at the University of Illinois, they are sharing a studio together, he making pots, and she interpreting the Central Coast scene in watercolor, oils, printmaking and ceramics.
Who's Who in America 58th Edition 2004
ABFA in Painting, Colo. Women''s Coll., Denver 1944
Cert. in illustration, Cleve. Sch. of Art, 1946
BFA in Painting (Hon), Cleve. Western Reserve U. 1947
MA in Painting, Denver U., 1950
attended, U. Ill., Champaign, 1975-89
Tchr. figure drawing Denver Art Mus.1942-45
tchr. figure drawing, summers Chappell House, Denver, 1942, 43, 44, 45
tchr. ceramic sculpture San Bernardino (Calif.) Jr. Coll., 1950, 51, 52
tchr. art H.S. San Bernardino, 1953
part-time tchr. women's classes U. Ill., Champaign, 1955-80
tchr. Sat. and pvt. classes, conductor workshops in field
Exhbns. Include Gilman Gruen Gallery, Chicago
The Peoria (Ill.) Art Guild, Prairie House Gallery, Springfield, Ill.
Mus. Modern Art, N.Y.C., 1950
one-woman shows include:
Jullian McPhee Univ. Gallery San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Calif. Poly. U. 1996
Lompoc, Calif., 1999
participient Mary Agnes Page award Cleve. Inst. of Art, 1946
Excellence award for watercolor painting Calif. State Fair, 2002
