Sylvia Fein

BORN: 1919, Milwaukee, WI

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As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Fein worked with Prof. James Watrous in the art history techniques laboratory. Here, she developed an affinity for experimenting with complex recipes for egg temperas, her favored medium. She also studied drawing with Roland Stebbins and design and commercial techniques with Jon van Koert.  

Fein, however, always counted Marshall Glasier, who taught her "the value of drawing above anything else," as the person who most influenced her understanding of art. In fact, Marshall Glasier was instrumental for bringing together the group of artists, which included John Wilde, Fein, Dudley Huppler, Karl Priebe, and Gertrude Abercrombie. In their own individual ways, they each "made art that explored the irrational and revealed the fantastic in the everyday." Fein and Wilde were especially stricken by the uncertainty of the world during World War II, and their work showed it. 

While Fein did few paintings that are specifically autobiographical, she closely resembles the women in many of her paintings.

In 1944, Fein relocated to Ajijca, Mexico, where she set up a studio and went to work on a series of paintings that were included in her first show with Perls Galleries, 1946. After her husband returned from the war, they moved to northern California. Fein completed her last series of large-scale figure paintings here in the 1950's. By 1956, she was painting landscapes and seascapes on a nearly miniature scale, capturing the minute details of the swirling waves of San Francisco Bay.  

To her delight, Fein found herself working with greater spontaneity and achieving faster results than ever before. By the 1970's, Fein had largely stopped painting to focus on literary pursuits. As recently as 2003 she has resumed painting.

Biographical Credit: AskArt.com

Photo Credit: Portrait by Karl Piebe of Sylvia Fein 1940