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June Felter
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June Felter (1919-2019)
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June Felter (1919–2019) was a distinguished Oakland artist whose work is deeply embedded in the Bay Area figurative movement. Her artistic journey began at the Oakland Art Institute, where she studied from 1937 to 1940. She expanded her education at the California College of Arts and Crafts from 1954 to 1958 and the San Francisco Art Institute from 1960 to 1961. Her historic works are now held in prestigious collections, including SFMOMA, the National Gallery of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Oakland Museum of California, San Jose Museum of Art, Berkeley Art Museum (BAMPFA), the Crocker Art Museum and the Monterey Museum of Art. Her shows and work were reviewed nationally in Artforum magazine dating back as far as 1953.
Felter was born in 1919, in Oakland, California. Her parents died when she was very young, and she grew up in the Tom and Grace Scanlon family. In 1943 she married Richard Henry Felter and had two children, Susan and Tom. The couple stayed together until Richard’s death in 2000. In the 1950s, Felter transitioned from a successful career as a commercial illustrator (1939-1943)—creating fashion illustrations and wartime advertisements—to fully embracing fine art. During this transformative period, she studied under Richard Diebenkorn, Fred Martin and Elmer Bischoff in 1960/61 at SFAI. She was also heavily influenced at this time by the paintings of David Park.
Felter was known for her long-standing Tuesday Drawing Group, which she co-established as a space for artists to come together, draw from live models and still lifes, and share their work. This group began in the 1960s and continued for four decades. The group continued the long tradition of Bay Area Figurative artists coming together to draw the model, such as the legendary Wednesday figure drawing sessions held by David Park, Elmer Bischoff, Frank Lobdell and Richard Diebenkorn, which began in 1953.
In 1991, when Felter was 72, the devastating Oakland Firestorm destroyed her home and studio, claiming hundreds of her early artworks. Felter demonstrated remarkable resilience, capturing her experiences of the fire in a series of paintings that utilized gestural brushwork to convey the chaotic beauty of the event (later, she would also paint images of 9/11). The fire has left the public with very few of her early Bay Area Figurative paintings. For this reason, the collection held by Lost Art Salon primarily covers the years following the fire. These late career pieces include local landscapes, intimate still lifes (that often reference her own work), figures, portraits and fully abstract compositions - generally in acrylic or watercolor.
Throughout her career, Felter was committed to education, teaching art at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in the 1970s. Her students included Wayne Thiebaud. Felter recalled, “One time, Wayne Thiebaud signed up for the class. I couldn't believe it. I said, ‘Look, you don't have to do anything that I'm telling these people to do!’ So he said, “okay”, and then promptly did every single thing I suggested.”
June Felter passed away in 2019 at the age of 99. Just after her death, the exhibition, "June Felter: Her Life & Art," at 871 Fine Arts in San Francisco showcased works spanning six decades.
Our gratitude to Susan Felter and the Felter family for bringing this remarkable collection and story to Lost Art Salon.
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