Jeanne Cloe (1920-2019) American, Framed Original Watercolor on Paper. Depicts the Oregon coast by Newport. Signed bottom right. Informative label on back. 

Overall: 22 X 18 in. 

Sight: 13 X 10 in. 

#3888 . 

Jeanne Cloe was  born on February 1st, 1920 into a pioneer family living along the Umpqua River just east of Reedsport, Oregon. Cloe graduated from Reedsport High School in 1938 at the top in her class, and the following year she went to work at a local fish plant. There she met and married Tate (Amos T.) Cloe, a divorced man with a 4 year old son. They had two more children of their own and moved north to nearby Newport in 1944 when Tate's work was transferred there, and she remained in the city the rest of her life. Once her children were in school she took a job with Newport News as a reporter and assistant to the owner of the small paper. Five years later she left to become the bookkeeper at Bumble Bea Seafoods to spend more time with Tate. In the early 1950s she discovered watercolors, creating vibrant still lifes and landscapes, and was one of the founding members of the Yaquina Art Association, buying a small beach changing/rest stop building at the Nye Beach Turnaround to provide a space to the community for art classes. She and Tate maintained the facility all their lives, and she began offering watercolor classes every Monday in the 1970s. Her paintings hang in homes and offices all over the area, including a prominent permanent exhibit in the Newport City Art Collection in City Hall and at the Oregon Council for the Arts, who named her a "Community Legend" in 2010. Long after Tate's death in 2006 she continued to make art, cook her locally famous clam chowder for benefits and charities, and make art classes available to any interested parties even into her nineties. She passed away on April 8th, 2019 at the age of 99, and her legacy lives on in the countless paintings she made and inspired other artists to create.