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Elmer Rising

 
Elmer Rising

(Rockland, Maine, 1906 - 11/29/1987, Danvers, Massachusetts)

Obituary from: http://kalloch.org/obits_r.htm#elmer_rising Rising, Elmer, READING, MA -- Elmer Rising, 81, well-known area artist, formerly of Reading, died Nov. 29, 1987 in a Danvers nursing home, as he had lived, quietly and peacefully. He was the widower of Elizabeth (Mercer) Rising who died in 1962. Mr. Rising was a native a Rockland, where the ships, lighthouses and rocky inlets of the area of his youth were the subjects of many of his works. Because of color blindness, he worked in pen and ink, and his sketches were rendered with an awareness of detail and sensitivity that brought life to a lobster pot or deserted farmhouse as well as to faces of his subjects. He had an uncanny ability to capture mood, translating the essence of character into shades of black and white. It was his desire that his work portray things so realistically that people “...feel they could reach right down into the lobster pots...or climb right up into a tree.” After leaving Maine in 1924 to attend the School of Practical Art in Boston, he worked as a scientific illustrator at Harvard University for 42 years. Upon his retirement, he worked full time at his art, chronicling the New England scene until a cataract operation and ill health forded him to lay down his pen in 1985. His work has been exhibited throughout New England, in the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Addison Gallery of Art at Phillips Andover Academy, and the Concord Art Association. This past summer, a special showing of his pen and ink renderings was held at the Art for America Gallery in Newcastle. An art book of fine prints, “New England in Black and White” was published in 1985. Mr. Rising was a member of the Reading Art Association and his work is displayed at The Harbor Gallery in Rockport as well as The Artist’s Shoppe and Gallery in Reading. He is survived by a daughter and son-in-law, Linda and Willard Buddenhagen and two grandsons, Erich and Curtis Buddenhagen, all of Manchester, MA. A memorial service was held Wednesday in the Northshore Unitarian Universalist Church in Danvers. Interment followed in Forest Glen Cemetery, Reading. Visitation hours were Tuesday evening at the Peterson Funeral Home, Maple Street, Danvers. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to the Elmer Rising Art Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 513, Manchester, MA 01944. (The Courier-Gazette, Rockland, Maine, Dec. 3, 1987).

1 objects

The Woodshed

1970
ink and wash on paper
Gift to Bowdoin College from Linda Rising Buddenhagen, August 2010
2010.31