Connecticut WPA Art

Gully, Alvin (1902-1985) Alvin Gully was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 29, 1902. He attended public school in Brooklyn until his parents moved to Westbrook, Connecticut in 1911. Before working for the WPA Federal Arts Project, he worked as a factory hand, mechanical draftsman, machine designer, model builder, pianist at a silent movie theater, musician in a dance orchest...

Weiland, James G.(1872-1968) James Wieland was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1872. His father was a sash-factory foreman. Before he began studying art, Wieland worked as a newspaper man, an illustrator, and in advertising. He studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Art Students League, both in New York City, and then at academies in Munich and Paris. Although he painted...

North, Lois (1908-1988) Lois North was born in New Haven, Connecticut on May 21, 1908. She attended grade school in New Haven before going on to four years of Mrs. Day’s Private Girls’ School as well as Columbia Summer School. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1930. Before working for the WPA Federal Arts Project, she worked for th...

Lauretano, Michael (1915-2008) Michael Anthony Lauretano was born August 28, 1915 in Thomaston, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University in 1938 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and began his work for the WPA Federal Arts Project on August 4, 1938 restoring colonial designs and painting murals in historic buildings throughout Connecticut and New York. Most of his work under ...

Haley, Duane (1892-1959) Robert Duane Haley was born in Lambertville, New Jersey on January 6, 1892. In his youth he drew and painted what he saw on the railroad in Connecticut from Fairfield and Stratford which included engines and later Indian heads and profiles. Later he used cameras and paintings with oil. He studied at the Art Studio of NY and did studio work in Boston. I...

Earle, George F. (1913-2010) George Frederic Earle was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He began oil painting at the age of 8. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the College of Fine Arts at Syracuse University, and while at Syracuse he organized the institution’s first ski team. After graduating from Syracuse Earle “travelled alone by burro through the tropic...

DeMaio, Salvatore (1908-1960) Salvatore DeMaio was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1908. He attended the city’s public schools. He entered the Yale School of Fine Arts, and in 1930, his senior year, won the Prix de Rome which granted him a free residence in Rome and an $8,000 scholarship for three years to study there and in other European cities. When DeMaio returned to t...

Pavia, Phillip (1912-2005) Phillip Pavia was one of the founders of the New York School of abstract expressionism, often called the first “American” style of art. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1912, the son of a stone cutter and carver. He attended the Yale School of Fine Arts, dropped out, and then went to New York City to attend classes at the Art Student League....

Butler, Frank (?) There is little known about Frank Butler except that he worked for the WPA from 1936-1937 while living on Shore Beach in Branford, Connecticut. He painted several signs with images of insects, animals, and plants known to be at East Rock Park. He used the medium larcoloid, an acrylic latex gloss enamel applied to primed metal surfaces. For information about...

Gruelle, Justin C.  (1889-1978) Justin Gruelle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1889. His father was the noted landscape painter Richard B. Gruelle, and his brother, Johnny Gruelle, was a popular illustrator and creator of the Raggedy Ann books. Justin studied art with his father from an early age, and moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League. After a yea...