Jessie Arms BOTKE
1883–1971, USA

Botke was born Jessie Arms in Chicago, IL, on 27 May 1883. She studied with John C. Johanson and Charles Woodbury at the Art Institute of Chicago and worked for four years at Herter Looms in New York City. She specialized in oils, often highlighted with gold ground, of exotic birds in lush garden settings with flowers. In 1915 she married the artist Cornelius Botke, with whom she painted murals in Chicago, IL, for Kellogg's and Chicago University. In 1919 the Botkes moved to Carmel, CA, where they remained, apart from an extended trip to Europe in the 1920s.

Botke was a member of the California Watercolor Society and the Foundation of Western Art, both in Los Angeles, the California Art Club in Pasadena, the National Association of Women Artists in New York City, the Chicago Society of Artists, and the Carmel (CA) Art Association. She exhibited a painting entitled Geese at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and one entitled Pelicans at the National Academy of Design in New York City, both in 1919; in 1941 she showed Cockatoos and Loquats also at the National Academy of Design. She exhibited several works at the Art Institute of Chicago, including Feeding Swans, Lincoln Park in 1911, White Peacocks in 1916, and Cockatoos on Gold in 1927. She was awarded a medal at the Pacific Southwest Exposition of 1928 in Long Beach, CA. She also exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the California Palace of the Legion of Honor and the Golden Gate Exposition in 1939, both in San Francisco; and the Academy of Western Painters, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the California Water Color Society, all in Los Angeles . Institutions holding her work include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Municipal Gallery of Chicago, the Irvine Museum (CA), and the San Diego (CA) Museum. Her murals adorn the I. Magnin Company of Los Angeles; the Woodrow Wilson High School in Oxnard CA; Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago; and the Kellogg's factory in Battle Creek, MI. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventory of American Paintings lists one of her works, White Peacocks and Delphinium.
Botke died in Santa Paula, CA, on 2 October 1971.

Source: http://www.redfoxfineart.com