James Innes Obituary

INNES, James James Munro Innes, 79, of 16 Campbell Drive, Charleston, SC, born in New York City, died January 20, 2009 at Roper Hospital. He earned his BFA and MFA degrees from the Kansas City Art Institute and taught figure drawing and art history for several colleges and for Indiana University of Pennsylvania for thirty years. During this period, he originated, arranged and led Summer Schools in Queretaro (Mexico), Florence, Rome, and Pavia (Italy). Upon retirement he moved to the South where he continued to paint but also took up printmaking as a member of Print Studio South in Charleston SC. He is the winner of the 2009 Piccolo Spoleto Festival Poster and the Children's Festival Poster, the first time these awards have been made to the same artist. Innes has work represented in the collections of University of KansasMuseum, Canton Art Institute, Hagarstown Art Museum, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Museum, Indiana PA Hospital, Sewickley PA Hospital, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Collection and university print collections in University of Ohio, Miami University, University of Cincinnati, as well as private collections here and in Europe. As a printmaker, Innes is a pioneer in the use of polyester plates as a fine arts medium. He published the first manual on the use of these plates. Solo shows include The Springfield Art Museum, MO; Christian College, MO; Canton Art Institute, OH; Washington County Museum of Art, PA; Elmira College, NY; University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA; Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Universidad de Panama; Charleston County Library Gallery; City Gallery, Charleston SC; Lime Blue, Charleston SC. Selected juried shows include The First 280 Exhibition at Huntington WV Art Museum, The 1977 Drawing Exhibition at the same museum, The 16th Missouri Exhibition at the St. Louis Museum of Art, The 11th Annual in Topeka Kansas, The 1981 Western Pennsylvania Invitational, The Small Painting Invitational of 1982 at the Florence SC Museum of Art as well as the 12th, 13th, and 14th Annual shows at the same museum, The 40th Annual of the Guild of South Carolina Artists, The NBSC Show and Traveling Shows of 1990, 1991, and 1992, The 16th Annual in Anderson SC, McClellanville Arts Council "Dante and Death" in McClellanville SC, The City Gallery "The Scroll Show" in Charleston SC. Innes was an active member of the Charleston Unitarian Universalist Church, where he served as a docent and was a member of Connecting Circles. Visit our guestbook at www.charleston.net/deaths.