Beulah Schiller Ayars (American, 1869-1960) Beulah Schiller Ayars was born in Eagle Lake, Texas on November 11, 1869. Her mother was Mary Parmer, a granddaughter of Martin Parmer, who was a Texas pioneer. Ayars spent her early life in Eagle Lake until moving in her thirties to Houston in 1905-06 and marrying Lee C. Ayars (1863-1921). They had two daughters Orissa and Louise, the latter attended Sophie Newcom College and pursued art, later exhibiting as Louise Ayars Stephenson (or Mrs. Louis Arthur Stephenson). Beulah Ayars came to painting later in life (around the age of forty-six), beginning to experiment with painting in 1915. In 1921 she went on to study at the Museum School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and with Houston’s Frederic Browne and Taos artist Emil Bisttram in Santa Fe, NM. Despite her late emergence onto the scene, Ayars exhibited immediately (her first showing in 1930) and often in theAnnual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists. In 1934, at age 65, she was given a one-woman show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. During this exhibition, artist Grace Spaulding John publicly praised Ayars “as one of the most remarkable artists of the city for she has flung herself wholeheartedly into her work...” and her continued improvement of work over the years is credited by “impeccable personal taste, her remarkable flair for selecting what is real and tasteful meat of the newer trends in painting.” Other exhibitions include: the Annual Texas Artists Circuit Exhibition (1932); the Texas Centennial Exposition, Dallas (1936); the National Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York (1936); and the Annual Southeast Texas Artists Exhibition, Houston (1937 and 1939). A 1937 edition of the Houston Press declared in its arts page headline: “Grandmother Becomes One of City’s Leading Painters After 8 Years of Study.” Once she decided to paint, she attached the project full force. She said, “I waited so long to start painting that I must work all the faster now.” Alongside Grace Spaulding John, Emma Richardson Cherry, Ola McNeil Davidson, Ruth Pershing Uhler and others, Ayars was a founding member of the Houston Artists’ Gallery, the first professional artists’ gallery co-op in the city, and established the headquarters in the basement of Beaconsfield Hotel on Main Street in 1930. In 1937, Ayars traveled with Grace Spaulding John to study in Santa Fe and stayed at Gerald Cassidy’s adobe compound. During this trip, it is known that she painted “She is I” which was exhibited this same year at the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, 1917-1937, School of American Research, Museum of New Mexico (Santa Fe, NM) before returning to Texas and exhibiting in the Southeast Texas Artists Show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Beulah lived in Houston most of her life and died in Houston in 1960 at age 90. She was a member of the Trinity Episcopal Church and is buried at the historic Glenwood Cemetery. Her work is represented in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, TX. Beulah Schiller Ayars (1869-1960) BIRTH: 11 Nov 1869, Eagle Lake, Colorado County, Texas, USADEATH: 3 Aug 1960 (aged 90), Houston, Harris County, Texas, USA Selected Exhibitions1930 6th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Still Life 1930-31 – first prize at Beaumont fair 1931 7th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Boats at GalvestonOil: Zinnias with Rag Rug 1932 8th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Castor BeanOil: Head and Torso of a WomanOil: Miss Lavern WeissOil: Portrait Study 1933 9th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: American LotusOil: Jan OlmsteadOil: Reba Torrey´s Garden — Honorable MentionOil: Southern Negro GirlOil: Spanish DaggerOil: Spider Lilies 1934 10th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Negro GirlOil: The NudesOil: Scene of Buffalo Bayou (1939 acquired by MFAH)Oil: ShackOil: Still Life 1934 Solo, Paintings by Beulah Schiller Ayars, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 1935 11th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: The Old Willow 1935 Junior League Show, Houston, TX Oil: Magnolia Blossoms (gifted to North Side Branch Library) 1936 12th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Cock’s CombsOil: Negro Cabin 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, TXOil: The Green Bottle 1936 American Art Show, Rockefeller Center, New York, NYOil: Scene on Buffalo Bayou 1937 13th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Calla LiliesOil: Home in ShadysideOil: Old companions 1937 Southeast Texas Artists Show, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: She is I 1937 School of American Research, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NMOil: She is I 1938 14th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Celosia (Cock´s Comb) 1937-38 25th Annual Southwestern Show, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM (newspaper) 1938 School of American Research, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NMOil: Flower Study with Nike 1938 Solo, Sam Yunt Gallery, Houston, TX 1939 Southeast Texas Artists Show, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Church in Tesuque 1939 Fiesta Show, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM (newspaper) 1940 16th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Old Aspen Trees 1943 18th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXOil: Tranquility 2014 Madonna’s of the Prairie: Depictions of Women in the American West, Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, TX; Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, OK 2009 Lone Star Still Lives, Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, TX 2018 South and North of the Border: Houston Paints Houston, Heritage Society, Houston, TX Museum CollectionsMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXPanhandle Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, TX