Mel Carter is highly revered in the Denver area as a unique artist and an insightful teacher. He moved to Denver in 1965 and taught art at the University of Colorado at Denver for nearly 30 years. Many artists attribute their success, at least in part, to Mel’s encouragement and instructive comments on their work. They hold him in high esteem as both mentor and friend.

Always an artist, Mel was born in Birmingham, Alabama but studied worldwide. He earned his MFA at the University of Illinois and then studied in the Netherlands on a Fulbright scholarship. He attended the Catholic University in Lima, Peru, and the Lorenzo de Medici Institute in Florence, Italy. Whether teaching at University College in London, the University of Rome or the Sorbonne in Paris, or merely experiencing life, he painted the people and places of his travels.

Mel was acknowledged as a master at bringing life to landscapes and capturing both powerful and evocative nuances in his male and female studies. Mel’s work has been admired and honored in many local, national and international exhibitions.

He is recognized as one of the 30 most significant artists of this century. Besides showing well over 70 exhibits, Mel’s work has been featured in art films and a wide variety of publications. He was a member of the Governor’s Selection Committee for Excellence in the Arts, on the Board of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and a juror for numerous art shows. His works are included in collections in the Denver community and around the world.

Not merely a painter of life, Mel was a participant! He involved himself with his students, whether by accommodating schedules of those who needed to work, or holding the line if they fought against themselves. As Mel traveled, he documented his journeys through beautifully illustrated sketchbooks. Then he showed his students how to engage with the world as they passed through it and make sketchbooks of their own.

As a Commissioner of Art for the City and County of Denver, Mel took an active role, with a particular eye toward public funding for minority artists. Among other kindly works, an exhibit of Mel’s yearly Christmas cards, always with the word Peace, and the presence of an angel, served as a fund raising gift to Project Angel Heart.

Mel’s love of old Denver architecture kept him happily settled in Capitol Hill for 20 years, until his death in 1998. Denver is honored to remember Mel Carter not only as an artist, but as a teacher, a role model and a friend.

KAYE HURTT

Painting has occupied my leisure time for almost 20 years.  As a plein air painter, I find pleasure in being outside in nature painting shadow and light on the landscape, architecture and figures.  Extensive training at the Denver Botanic Gardens Botanical Illustration School set me on a painting path that ultimately led to plein air painting.  Further training includes workshops with notable painters across the United States.  My passion for painting is especially inspired by the works of Richard Schmid, Quang Ho, David Demers and Dave Santillanes.

Mildred Huie

Mrs. Huie was a remarkable woman. She was an American impressionist artist, sculptor, avid historian, and writer. Born in Augusta, Mrs. Huie spent much of her childhood at her family’s home in Savannah, and was one of Juliet Gordon Low’s first Girl Guide Troops (now known as the Girl Scouts of United States of America). The Mildred Huie Mediterranean House Plantation Museum on St. Simons Island houses a permanent display of Huie’s works, including the parlor dolls for which she is so well known.

One day in 1965, Huie gathered three of her friends, Stella Morton, Selma Shelander, and Marja Albright, also artists, in the living room of her East Beach home to discuss the need for an outlet to sell their art. The result of that gathering was the formation of The Left Bank Art Gallery. Mildred initially ran the gallery, but soon discovered that managing the business left her no time to paint. Fortunately, Mildred’s daughter, Mildred Huie Wilcox, and her husband, Robert, were willing to step in and take the reins.

Mildred’s daughter, Mildred Huie Wilcox, affectionately known to most as Millie, is no less remarkable than her mother. Born in Albany, Georgia, Millie attended college in Bristol, Virginia, then returned to Georgia to major in English Literature at the University of Georgia. After graduating from UGA, Millie moved to New York City in 1950 and began working in Estonian couturier Madame Eleanora Garnett’s Fashion House, where she selected fabrics for the designer’s creations, thus developing her eye for art and fashion and beginning a lifelong career in aesthetics. She then traveled to Rome and began modeling the fashions as well.

Millie returned to St. Simons Island in 1966. It was then that she met and later married her husband, Robert Wilcox, a hotelier who had been raised in France. His connections there were invaluable to establishing relationships with French artists. Millie and Robert would travel to France several times a year to meet with artists and select works from their ateliers. They began expanding The Left Bank Art Gallery from a showcase for local artists to a home for national and international artists, with an emphasis on French Impressionism. The roster of artists that they developed over the years created high quality collections of which even the leading metropolitan galleries would be envious.