Mildred Bryant Brooks: Etcher Extraordinaire

Mildred Bryant Brooks
1901-1995

Mildred Bryant Brooks, printmaker, teacher and lecturer, was born in Marysville, Missouri on July 21, 1901. Her father, J. Jay Brooks was president of Tri-State College (now university)before settling with her mother, Millie, in Long Beach, California. 

Brooks, influenced by her mother, an amateur painter, pursued a career in art at the University of Southern California following graduation from high school in 1931. While at university, she married Don J. Brooks in 1924 and during her last two years was a part-time student and part-time instructor. She also attended Chouinard and Otis art institutes.

Mildred Bryant Brooks
Moods
ca. 1935
Dry point and aquatint on paper
9 x 11 7⁄8 in.
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

After starting her family, Brooks fulfilled a long-held desire to learn etching and studied with Arthur Miller, an artist and art critic for the Los Angeles Times. During the years between 1935 and the early 1960s she was also an artist in residence at Pomona College (1946), an instructor at the Los Angeles County Art Institute (1952 and 1954), and a lecturer on etching. When her eyesight began to fail, Brooks began to paint murals and worked on interior design where she lived in South Pasadena. 

Mildred Bryant Brooks
The Pines of Monterey
ca. 1935
Dry point on paper
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

In 1936, Miller wrote that Brooks made "America's best etching of trees." Over the years, Mildred Bryant Brooks produced trees as well as studies of California's deserts, mountains, and other compelling landscapes. She was the recipient of 22 national and international awards. Her exhibitions were in shows for the California Printmakers (of which she was president 8 times) and she also hung works in exhibitions of the Society of American Etchers, New York, Library of Congress, Laguna Beach Art Association, and Paris International. Her one person events were held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (1936), and the Laguna Art Museum (1975)

Mildred Bryant Brooks died in Santa Barbara, California on July 3, 1995.

Mildred Bryant Brooks
My Friends
ca. 1935
Etching on paper

11 7⁄8 x 8 7⁄8 in

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Mildred Bryant Brooks

Last Tree

ca. n.d.

Etching on paper

10 7⁄8 x 9 1⁄2 in.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Sources_____________________________________________________________________________

An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick. University of Texas Press, Austin. 1998. Pages 32-33.

SAAM, Smithsonian American Art Institution and Renwick Gallery, https://americanart.si.edu/artist/mildred-bryant-brooks-597, retrieved 10/3/2023

The Annex Galleries. 
 https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/284/Brooks/Mildred#:~:text=Mildred%20Bryant%20Brooks%2C%20printmaker%2C%20teacher,the%20University%20of%20Southern%20California