Evening star., 1937-10-03
Air Corps Artist Now
Paints in Washington
Mary Oda Eglin, Whose Husband Died
In Crash, Has Done Portraits
Of Many Flying Folk.

ships zoomed over her quarters. In
the dust kicked up by scores of pro-
pellors on young and unsodded land
ing fields they have seen her trying to
preserve flowers until she could cap
ture their beauty on canvas.
Army officials have always been
kind about seeing that the Eglins were
assigned quarters in which Mrs Eglin
had room suitably lighted for her
work and it is at the Officers Club at
Boiling Field that Mrs Eglin will
probably have her first Washington
exhibition. Two facts the Air Corps
has always taken for granted are that
men must fly and Mary Eglin must
paint.
Mrs. Eglin's problem at the mo-
ment is transporting enough pictures
to Washington to make an exhibition
possible, although she is once more
at work at her studio apartment at
1924 Decatur place. With a demand
larger than she can supply, pictures
in Mrs. Eglin's household consist only
of few portraits of the Eglin chill
dren, Philippine landscapes and a
mural from her student days.
THE two Eglin children are Jane,
IS years old, who has just enrolled
at Western High School, and Fred
erick Irving, jr., 18, who is a student
at Millard's Preparatory School.
Suitably enough. Jane expects to be
an artist and is already experimenting
with mediums, while Fred hopes to at
tend West Point and be an officer and
aviator like his father who was one
of the veteran pilots of the Air Corps.
Col. Eglin entered the Air Corps dur
ing the World War and left disting-
uished record of service behind him.
To these ambitions Mrs. Eglin
makes no protest. although in spite
of her teaching experience, she does
not believe it advisable for her to give
instruction to her daughter. She en-
joys teaching until her students turn
out to be the possessors of parents who
insist upon their young taking lessons,
regardless of talent, so that the par
ents may have one or two finished pic
lures to hang in their living rooms
and point to with pride.
Mrs. Eglin is from Charlottesville,
Indiana, birthplace of many we'll
known Americans, and began painting
at the age of 8. She first studied with
teachers in her home state and taught
there. following with instruction at
the Chicago Art Institute and Chicago
University. Then she went to New
York to study and was with the Rock
well Studios. At one point she did
commercial posters for subways. al
though she never neglected producing
oils. pastels, watercolors, still life.
murals and landscapes. She was par
ticularly well known for pastel heads
of women and children.
Il was even guilty, in those pot
boiling days, Of painting China" Mrs
Eglin says.
A slender. fair, woman of enormous
vitality. Mrs. Eglin is not easily lured
into conversation on theories of art.
Having long worked alone, the facile
patter of the professional artist in
communities extremely art conscious
is not part of her vocabulary of
paint. and she is easily understood by
the layman.
Men" she says, ''are definitely
easier to paint than women" She likes
the strength of their facial lines.
However" she continues, Il do not
believe that in doing portraits of
women the artist should ignore the
fact that although women do not
necessarily want portrait or even
a photograph to look unlike them