This could have been my father.

This painting was discovered in the Kudzo antique store in Decatur Ga. My father was about this age when it was painted in 1944. Its a wonderful portrait and this is what I learned about the artist.

The artist Elmer Novotny, born in 1909, was a long-time resident of Ohio, teacher at Kent State University and painter of portraits, figures, still-lifes and landscapes. He was a student of Jean and Paul Ulen of the Slade School who studied at the University College London during the 1920’s. They transformed the art department at West Tech into a mini-Slade in Cleveland.

Their students at West Technical High School in Northeast Ohio swept virtually all the top prizes in the National Scholastic Art Awards for drawing and won some 280 scholarships to art schools.

Elmer Novotny also studied at the Cleveland Art School and was an accomplished Cleveland portraitist who developed the Kent State University School of Art and served as its first director. Elmer L Novotny was a member of Kent State's faculty for 39 years, 27 of which were spent as the director of the art department. He exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Institute, Butler Institute, Akron Art Institute, and “Directions in American Painting” (1942, Carnegie Institute). In 1973 he was a Kent State University President's Medal Recipient.

He produced over 1,500 paintings, including portraits of every Kent State University president. "The hours that I spent sitting for Elmer was my unofficial inauguration," Kent State President Carol Cartwright said. "Elmer's commitment was to his students," School of Art Director William Quinn said. "Students came first. Everything he could do for students he did; there was no nonsense about it. The School of Art is truly his legacy." He passed away May 4 1997 at the age of 87.