The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-05-16


contained the following about ]. E.
Bundy of this city.
RICHMOND, Ind, May 10.
How long have you been painting
beech trees; and how many trees do
you think you must have painted in
your lifetime?"
These questions were put to the
most unaffected, kindly-faced and
kindlymannered nan / had met any
where in the state and certainly tht
dean of the Indiana artist colony, John
Elwood Bundy, as We sat in his roomy,
comfortable studio at 5271s West Main
street. here in Richmond.
By the word Studio" | do not mean
that the reader is to visualize a Bohe-
mianlike. cobwebby atmosphere,
place Uttered with oil tubes, palettes
and daubed with paint, rubbish and
whatnots; but homelike place where
any man who has earned his retire
ment may receive his friends and for
get the workaday world, say for an
hour
But that is the very thing that John
Elwood Bunday does not forget-work
and he spells it in capital letters,
WORK His work is the all-day sort,
the work day that is straight
through, as he puts it, from sunrise,
or even before sunrise, to the twilight's
glow. And, very often, you'll find him
Up and astir long before sunrise at
his country workshop, six miles south
east of Richmond, at the edge of the
woods, where he has three rooms,
kitchen, bedroom and work or studio
room, and where he goes in the early
autumn and stays through to the mid
die of winter, catching the fall foliage,
the landscape, the frosts and the
SHOWS, and nature in all her moods.
Then he returns. at the end of fully
three months of hard. outdoor work,
often painting with cold and benumbed
fingers, bringing back his finished
sketches and transferring, or trans
planting them to the canvases which
90 out to all the worlds best galleries.
An Outdoor Masterpiece
1t was in his Richmond studio, on
West Main street, that found Mr.
Bundy-and I found him at work He
was 60 years old May l, and he had
been laid low by two months siege
with influenza, brought on by exposure
to the elements in getting his most
recent picture, The Breaking Up of
Winter" He had gone without break
fast to get that one picture. He made
four drawings in the outdoors before
he was satisfied with the finished
sketch. Now that he's over his illness,
he tells me he wouldn't sell the pic
ture for any sum, because he feels GER
tain he has put down on canvas, for
his own edification and enjoyment in
his studio what he likes to think typi-
hes The Last of the Snow" "a Win
ter Mist"-these, or the other sub
iect, The Breaking Up of Winter"
being his own chosen theme for the
work
To get back to the original question
Put to Mr. Bundy, "How long have
YOU been painting beech trees, and
how many have you painted?" he re
piled:
Painted Many Pictures
I've painted a great many of them
Il cS not know how many. l was first
attracted to the beech because it is so
numerous here in Indiana l mink the
beech right here in Wayne county is
the finest I have seen anywhere. ]
like the woodland and, of course, ]
could not paint a woodland without
painting the beech. This is the long
est rest I've had for thirty-three
years. My illness started with heavy
cold and grip, due to winter sketchine
outdoors in mid-January. l can not
stand the exposure, | find, as I once
did Then, since late in January
have been out of touch with all work.
What is your best time of day fol
painting" was the next query.
Il like the early morning, or the
twilight for the late afternoon effects
he replied.
How many hours a day do 70,
work."
We'll, it depends on what am work
ing on. When out, paint when the
mood is on. Indoors l work the day
straight through. rarely stopping anC
rarely idle, except for some refresh
ment. But I've been practically two
months an invalid, and so. of course,
had to stop them" Mr.. Bundy added
with a whimsical smile
Worthy of Close Study
One stops instinctively to study thi:
best beloved of the Hoosier artist col
ony, even before one studies his pic
tures-and there are three or foul
score of them-lying about, on walls
on easels, and in little piles, or lean
ing carelessly against the wainscoat
ing or the room.
Imagine yourself seated in a gallery
room, say 1Sx26 feet, with a high cell
ing and skylight, and adjoining it The
studio room, 1Sx1S feet. and you have
fairly comprehensive idea of the one
story structure, in the rear of a coz!
dwelling at 527 West Main street
where Mr.. Bundy- makes his homt
with Mr.. and Mrs. Elwood Morris Mr.
Morris. too, is painter.
First of all, you are attracted II
Mr.. Bunday by his simple. unaffected
manner and charm. You are attracted
by the wealth of his snow-white hair
his kindly eye, a simple suit of blacl
with tie of simple pattern, block will
white figure, a luxuriantly flown!
snow-white mustache. Tall, straight
with no outward weight of the nov
nearly three-score-and-ten showing
that is Mr.. Bundy as he is today
You are conscious of one other fac
tor in his makeup. the long, strong
self-trained hand, the hand that i
steady, but vigorous, trained to worl
and to work unerringly.
This is the picture of Mr.. Bunda.
that Mr.. Bunday might have painte'
for himself, if he would: but his goo,
friend, Robert Grafton, is going to d
that for him as return courtesy
You see, Mr. Bundy has painted MI
Grafton and now Mr.. Grafton is goin
tolpaint Mr.. Bundy-just an exchang
SOFT of picture, he told me, with