Howard N. Watson

Watson died in Glenside, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 2022, at the age of 93.

In 2015, he was in a major exhibit of artists mounted by Woodmere Art Museum titled "We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s." It included more than 70 works by many of the area's most noted artists.

In the 1997 exhibit "Religion Through Brown Eyes," he was joined by Cal Massey, Barbara Bullock, Paul Keene, Benny Andrews, Charles Searles and Columbus P. Knox. The show, sponsored by the Minority Arts Resource Council, was mounted at the William J. Green Federal Building in Philadelphia. His work was shown in a regional show of members of Allied Artists in America in 1980. Sponsored by Bucks County Council on the Arts, the exhibit included Ranulph Bye, Jack Bookbinder and E. Fenno Hoffman.

In 1994, he was commissioned by Clinton's staff to create a watercolor as a gift to Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos, who had been a cadet at West Point. They needed the painting in three days. Watson dropped by the Print and Picture Collection at the Philadelphia Free Library to look at old photos of the military academy. He painted its clock tower with cadets marching in front of it. The Philippine president wept when he saw it, Watson told a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter in 1995, because it was the spot where he always met his wife.

Stephens curated another exhibit of prints of Black artists in the library's collection in 1992, and Watson was represented, as well as Roland Ayers, Benjamin Britt, Robert Jefferson, Columbus P. Knox, Tom McKinney, Cal Massey, Ellen Powell Tiberino, Joseph Holston and Sam Byrd.

In the 1990s, he created wintry scenes of Philadelphia landmarks for greeting cards for sale to benefit the nonprofit Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness, of which he was a board member. He annually designed holiday cards for the Easter Seal Society to raise money for rehabilitation, and often visited the Easter Seal-Fuhrman Clinic School and Rehabilitation Center. His 1970 card depicted a child walking with crutches in Elfreth Alley. He created artwork in 2007 to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. He also designed a series of postcards to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976.

Watson exhibited his paintings, participated in award programs and was a fixture with the Rittenhouse Square Art Show for several decades, including chairman of its annual competition in 1989. In 1988, the organization awarded a watercolor prize in his name.

Watson, nicknamed "Bud," created some of his landscapes from sketches but mostly from photos he took with his camera or from photos culled from the research he undertook. He was also a quick painter, able to produce works in minimal time. His paintings were cheerful, his figures – who "are just shapes and color," he explained - enjoying carefree idyllic lives in the city and suburbs blanketed in snow or bathed in light. He saw homeless people on the streets, he told a Chestnut Hill Local reporter in 1988, and was affected by their predicament but chose not to paint it. (He created paintings to benefit various nonprofit organizations that assisted people in need).

At the Philadelphia Free Library in 1988, Watson was featured in an exhibit titled "The Pride, the Prejudice," which explored how Blacks had been portrayed in various media over three centuries. The works were from the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University and the Print and Picture Department at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Others represented included Dox Thrash, Samuel J. Brown Jr., Varnette Honeywood, Cal Massey, Barbara Bullock and Louise Clement-Hoff. It was curated by Blockson and artist Frank Stephens, graphics manager at the library.

Academy of Notre Dame de NAMUR, Villanova, PA, 1984

In 1980, Watson was among 50 people named Distinguished Pennsylvanians in business, education, government sports and community affairs. In 2002, he was the first artist to be inducted into the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts’ Hall of Fame. He painted two works for the occasion.

Uchoraji Gallery/WEB DuBois House, University of Pennsylvania, 1978

Watson was on the board of Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, which provided legal and business services for culture groups. In 1973, he was appointed to a Pennsylvania committee to review the arts industry to help inform the state on grants to local organizations. In 1980, he was appointed by Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

He published two books of his works: "Philadelphia Watercolors" in 1971 and "Old Philadelphia Impressions" in 1975. He illustrated a children's book in 1969 by Victor Sharoff titled "Garbage Can Cat" and did drawings for "The Proud Past."

In the 1970s in the Carter White House, Watson was artist-in-residence, meaning he was "the preferred artist," he said. He was commissioned by Carter to illustrate a book on the 1976 campaign, and one year, he contributed to the design of the Carters’ greeting card. Carter gifted a print of one of Watson's paintings to VIPs around the world in 1995. Momjian commissioned Watson to create a painting of the 1977 inaugural parade, and Carter was given a limited-edition print of the painting.

Also in 1969, his watercolors were shown at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, including urban street scenes He also participated in a member show of the Philadelphia Watercolor Club at the Alliance in 1963. In 1974, he participated in an exhibit at the Ridgeway Recreation Center titled "Old Way in New World" along with Roland Ayers, Benjamin Britt, James Brantley and Walter Edmonds.

In 1968, he exhibited in the first of a series of shows at Cheyney State College (now university) with an aim to broaden the scope of the school's 1,900 students. He exhibited often at Newman Galleries starting in the 1960s. He was one of three artists in a show in 1966, and a Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer called his works "picturesque transcriptions of Philadelphia life convey the bustle of city streets in realistic watercolors. They are agreeably fresh and rewarding in best examples, although sometimes Watson lets himself be overwhelmed by masses of detail." He also was featured in a solo show at the gallery that year.

In 1967, he participated in "Black Projection ’67" at the Southwest-Belmont Branch of the YWCA whose aim was to honor Black artists. Others represented included Benjamin Britt, Reba Dickerson-Hill and Humbert Howard. Watson was featured in a major exhibition of Black artists from across the country titled "Afro American Artists, 1800-1969." It was mounted by the Philadelphia School District and the Philadelphia Civic Center Museum. At La Salle University’s Black Student Union in 1969, he joined Benjamin Britt, Humbert Howard, Barbara Bullock, Paul Keene and Louis B. Sloan in an African American Arts Festival featuring 28 artists.

In September 1964, he helped form the Germantown Arts Association. The group held shows at Shelmerdine mansion, which it hoped to purchase to house its headquarters, art gallery and workshops for professional and advanced amateur artists. Watson was among artists in its first show, organized a few months before the group was formalized, along with Benton Spruance, Mildred Dillon and Jack Bookbinder. The association held its first major show at the mansion a month after becoming official. Watson headed the curatorial committee, inviting professional painters, sculptors, printmakers and photographers in the Delaware Valley to submit work. The exhibit included a membership and fundraising drive. In early 1965, the group held a retrospective on pioneer photographer Berenice Abbott of New York, who had worked with Man Ray in Paris in the 1920s. The group continued to hold art exhibits through 1965, including a display of prints and photographs, including Pablo Picasso’s and Alfred Stieglitz’s, on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. By June 1965, the group faced eviction from the mansion and was finally evicted.

From 1962 to 1966, Watson painted watercolors for the Philadelphia Inquirer for a series depicting city and regional scenes titled "The World We Live In" that were reproduced in the newspaper. The first was a pictorial tour of the city, with paintings of Chinatown, Independence Hall, the Swann Memorial Fountain in Logan Square, Reading Terminal Market, and 56th and Market Streets. A commercial artist during the week, according to the accompanying text, he spent weekends walking the streets of the city painting scenes that "strike his fancy." He made his own watercolor paints, and spent two to three hours creating the works, according to the statement.

He was a member of the American Watercolor Society (joined in 1962), the Philadelphia Water Color Club (renamed the Philadelphia Water Color Society, and joined in 1959) and the Allied Artists of America. He was president of the Philadelphia club for 10 years and also served as its archivist.

During the 1960s, Watson was hired at advertising agencies and greeting-card companies. He told one reporter that he was proud to have been the first person of color hired by an advertising agency - he illustrated ads - in the city during the 1960s. He also worked for Gourmet magazine in New York for four years. He created a series of prints for a calendar for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Camden that he acknowledged were not very good. He decided that from then on, he would only do the best he could.

Locally, he taught at the Woodmere Art Museum for 20 years. He taught graphics and illustration at the Hussian School of Art in the 1960s, Abington Art Center, the Philadelphia College of Art, the Oreland Art Center, the old Howard Pyle Art School (the Brandywine School in Wilmington, DE) and at various galleries. At one of his classes at Abington, he met his second wife, Irene.

As a sophomore at the museum school in 1959, his watercolor won first prize in the Clothesline Exhibit at Rittenhouse Square, now the Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show, the oldest in the country.

Watson enrolled at Temple University's Tyler School of Art in 1954 and later transferred to the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (which became the Philadelphia College of Art and currently the University of the Arts), from which he graduated in June 1960 with a diploma in illustration. At the time, he was represented in a member show of the Philadelphia Watercolor Club – which he joined in 1958 - at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. A few months earlier, he had participated in the annual art show of the Pyramid Club. He also had illustrated several books and exhibited in national watercolor shows.

Around 1954, Watson painted a portrait in gouache of the noted African American singer Marian Anderson, her face superimposed above Philadelphia rowhouses in the background. She is shown "in her native urban context," stated the introduction in the 2015 catalog for Woodmere Art Museum's "We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s."

With too few art classes offered at Penn State, Watson left to join the Air Force in 1950. He wanted to go into the Navy, but he could not swim. Once in the Air Force, he said in an interview, he learned to swim in a week. After serving in Korea and Japan, he was discharged in 1953 as a staff sergeant, returned home and married his first wife Julia, an artist and illustrator.

His stint as a teacher reached back to when he was a student at Penn State. In the summer of 1949, he headed to Camp Sun Mountain in Pennsylvania to be art director.

In 1948, when Watson was 19 years old and a freshman at Penn State, several of his works were reviewed by prominent New York artists Chaim Gross and Moses Soyer. According to a newspaper article, Watson was hoping to get a four-year scholarship to the Cranbrook Institute of Design in Michigan (this was most likely the Cranbrook Academy of Art). Gross wrote that he was impressed by Watson's use of color and composition. Soyer agreed, adding that he was more impressed by Watson's potential.

Both Watson and his middle brother James loved drawing, and Watson was drawn to landscapes. In high school, he was more into music than art and had to choose between the two. He chose art. In junior high school, his art introduced him to watercolors and encouraged him to become an artist. He graduated from Pottsville High School in 1947 and attended Pennsylvania State University's Pottsville Undergraduate Center (now Penn State Schuylkill), majoring in art and music. He played basketball and baseball. He was also president of the school's art club.

He also participated in shows by the Pyramid Club, a social organization of Black professional men that held an annual art exhibit starting in 1941. He was joined in its 1960 show by Benjamin Britt, Reba Dickerson-Hill, Robert Jefferson, Samuel J. Brown Jr. and Dox Thrash. Watson's father had been a member of the club. In 1962, Watson, director of George Beach Studios, a Black-owned commercial art company, exhibited at the Little Gallery in Philadelphia as part of the Philadelphia Arts Festival.

Howard N. Watson (1929-2022) was an African American watercolorist, landscape artist, illustrator and teacher. He was known for his impressionistic watercolors of Philadelphia's historical buildings, streets, neighborhoods and landmarks.

Howard Noel Watson was born on May 19, 1929, in Pottsville, PA, to James B. and Lillie E. Hunter Watson, the youngest of three boys. His father was a cartoonist and illustrator for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper and a well-known photo engraver, commercial artist and sign painter (he also made posters for some local theaters). His father owned an engraving shop and did work for several newspapers in the Pottsville, Schuylkill County, area. His father drew the cartoon "Amos Hokum" for the Afro-American newspaper in Baltimore starting in 1923 and wrote a humor column of the same name. In 1926, the weekly comic strip was put on hiatus for 10 years, and his father resumed it in 1936 until around 1942. The strip was syndicated in the Pittsburgh Courier and the New York Amsterdam News. He also drew editorial cartoons for the Afro-American. As a boy, Howard sat next to his father as he drew cartoons, and he allowed the young Howard to erase any mistakes.

The images of Black people in his paintings were also shapes and colors. He drew them in their Philadelphia neighborhoods - their faces brown - in much the same way as he painted people in the Italian Market, Chinatown and other ethnic neighborhoods. But he was aware of his Black history. "I liked doing the landscape of the (Philadelphia) Art Museum," Watson said, "not only because it’s one of the finest museums in the world, but also because of Julian Abele, a Black architect who designed the Art Museum during the 1920s, although he gets very little credit."