Stephens Museum and Ashby-Hodge Museum of American Art

Stephens Museum

http://www.centralmethodist.edu/museum/index.html

and

Ashby-Hodge Museum of American Art

http://www.centralmethodist.edu/ashby/index.html

Central Methodist University

Fayette, MO

660-248-6304

Pastel Portraits: Ercell Lester Miller

A series of drawings and pastels by the late Ercell Lester Miller of Buckner, Mo., will be featured in a five-week-long exhibition in the Stephens Gallery/Museum on the Central Methodist College campus in Fayette.

Titled "Pastel Portraits," the show will open Sept. 8, 1998 and run through Oct. 15, 1998. Family members include his son, Ercell L. Miller II, a dentist in Columbia, and three grandsons, Dr. E. Lynn Miller, Columbia, Dr. Douglas S. Miller, Fayette, and William P. Miller, West Palm Beach, Fla. Several members of the family are graduates of Central Methodist College.

Ercell L. Miller, the artist, was born in 1892 in Tina, Mo., but later moved to Marceline, where he became life-long fiiends of brothers Poy and Walt Disney, who encouraged his work as an artist when he took up painting later in life. At age 37 Miller started night school classes at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he studied drawing under Professor Ketcham and illustration with Monty Crews. While at the Art Institute, Miller focused on developing his portrait talents, using pastels as his preferred medium. Miller continued to enjoy drawing and illustrating portraits throughout his life. He died in 1973.

Please see the museum's web site for hours and admission fees.

rev. 5/9/05 for name change and URL change

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