Our local national treasure’: Ukiah artist Adele Pruitt passes away at age 99

By Carole Brodsky, for the Ukiah Daily Journal

The inland arts community lost a legend on Sunday, Feb. 20 with the death of longtime Ukiah resident Adele Foster Pruitt. An acquaintance discovered Pruitt had passed when she entered her apartment to assist with chores.

Pruitt was born in Chicago, moving with her family to California as an infant. The child of an artist, Pruitt displayed artistic prowess as a youngster and was enrolled in an arts program for gifted children. When Pruitt was 8, she was selected to demonstrate figure painting at a conference for art teachers, resulting in the honor of meeting legendary painter Diego Rivera.

She received her BA in Art and Education from San Francisco State University during the Second World War. She began her 70-plus years as an instructor, teaching in the elementary grades and later at colleges. In 1961, she received her MA in Art Education from the University of the Pacific. Her thesis became part of the argument that led to the development of art enrichment classes for California public schools. She was Mendocino College’s first art instructor.

Pruitt moved to Ukiah in 1967 following the unexpected death of her husband, Bob. In 1969, she opened the Renaissance Gallery, offering classes, framing and restoration of paintings – something usually found only in large cities. She later added the teaching of conservation and restoration techniques, garnering students from all over the United States.

Pruitt maintained a full schedule of teaching, restoring, painting and socializing with her friends and students.

“Adele had classes scheduled the week before she died and was working on several restoration projects,” notes Jayed Scotti, a longtime student of Pruitt who assisted her with the restoration and conservation of paintings and picture frames. Scotti recently organized a retrospective exhibit of Pruitt’s work that took place in January at the Medium Gallery – a project of the Deep Valley Arts Collective.

“We are so gratified we were able to facilitate what ended up being Adele’s final exhibit,” notes Chris Pugh, vice president of the arts collective. “It was a very well-attended show. Adele sold a number of her paintings and unsurprisingly, was kind enough to provide a donation to the gallery, as we operate on a commission-free basis. It was an honor to host so many members of the public, particularly those who had never seen her work and were astonished at her versatility and skill.”

Pruitt’s father, Sydney Hill Foster, was a financier and architect who built his fortune in banking, creating a trust company that financed public buildings and equipment loans to farmers. Her grandmother and her mother, Florence Jane McNeil Foster, both attended San Francisco’s Hopkins School of Art – the same school attended by Grace Hudson. The 1929 stock market crash changed the family’s life dramatically, with Pruitt resorting to cutting out cardboard insoles to patch the soles of her shoes. She described seeing families living in huge pipes along the roadsides, hanging up chenille curtains for privacy. “It reminds me of the tent cities we see today,” she noted.

To supplement the family income, Pruitt and her sister worked for a gift shop painting scenes on terracotta pots, receiving 15 cents per pot. She credited her future dexterity with a paintbrush from those long hours painting the pots. As a teenager, she received a commission for a mural project, which paid for her first semester’s tuition to San Francisco State. At the age of 17, she purchased her first store-bought garment – a wool raincoat.

“Adele was a quiet revolutionary, in her own way,” notes Scotti, who worked with Pruitt for over 25 years. “It was difficult for women to work as professional artists in the early ‘60s. To become an art conservator and restorer was highly unusual – even in today’s world,” he continues.

Pruitt enrolled in Academy of Professional Art Conservation and Science where she received instruction from Professor William F. Haney. The Academy was the only organization certified by the State of California to train conservators. Professor Haney considered Pruitt one of his most qualified and competent restorers and later, instructors. She restored everything – from poorly executed, sentimental family paintings damaged by time or fire to legitimate “works of art” by professional artists including Grace Hudson, American Barbizon painter William Keith, 18th century French painter Jean-Frédéric Schall and 17th Century Dutch painter Melchior d’Hondecoeter. In a field dominated by men and academics who still jealously guard the process of restoration, Pruitt advanced the field by offering public courses.

“Today, if you send a damaged frame to one of the country’s elite restoration houses, they charge $2,000 to inspect the frame and estimate repair costs. It would never have occurred to Adele to do such a thing. She made it possible for regular people to get a treasured family portrait repaired without breaking the bank,” says Scotti.

Pruitt described her artistic approach as “versatile,” and was known for her artistic inventiveness. Along with being a prolific oil painter, she painted with watercolor over starch, experimented with laminated encaustic painting and used oil paint over rice paper or sand. She created and sold hundreds of works throughout her life while maintaining a full schedule of classes and restoration projects. Despite the desires of the commercial market, Pruitt painted what she liked, not what she thought would sell.

“Adele took many artistic risks. She painted bucolic landscapes as well as anyone, but her most stunning work were abstracts, batiks, experimental paintings and portraiture, where she captured likenesses that were complete and compelling,” says Scotti.

Her classes included courses in Old World Painting, Portrait Painting, Figure Painting, The Barbizon School, The Sunny Sea, Tonalism, Arbitrary Color and Icons with Tempera and Gold Leaf. She was known for her “paint-alongs,” where students worked alongside Pruitt, planning the design of their compositions and mixing their own colors while learning technique.

Some of Pruitt’s students have been loyal followers since the 1970s, attending a weekly figure painting course that was started in 1969.

“I remember Adele critiquing a painting of mine,” recalls longtime student Jeanette Carson. “She said, ‘Your mountain is too high. You need to lower it a bit.’ My response was, ‘I just can’t lower a mountain.’ Her response was, ‘You’re an artist. You can do anything.’ I’ll never forget how that made me feel – terrified and empowered at the same time.”

“Adele has been a major influence in my life and the world of art,” says close friend Tara Sufiana. “Truly my dearest friend, her creativity inspired me to focus more on my creative expression. Besides being a master painter, she was always kind and helpful, even with various challenges in my own life. Adele will always hold a special place in my heart.”

“For those of us lucky to know and study with Adele, she was our local national treasure,” says Scotti. “Something that Adele would want people to know is that she signed each of her artworks with an ancient ‘chi rho’ symbol, which signified the blessing of the Creator, to which she dedicated her work,” he concludes.

Plans for a memorial service in April are underway. For more information, phone (707) 489-5055.