Artemis Skevakis Jegart, Railway Express, polymer tempera on board, 48 by 35.75 inches. Signed, dated and titled, verso.
Artemis Skevakis Jegart was named by her father, a native of Greece, for Artemis the goddess of wild animals and hunting. Artemis Skevakis was born in Tampa and grew up in St. Petersburg. She graduated from St. Petersburg High School in 1945 as art editor of the school yearbook and in 1949, from Florida State University where she was editor of the university yearbook Tally Ho. Skevakis worked in commercial art in Atlanta before spending the summer of 1951 in Europe. Returning to Tallahassee to work on her master’s degree, in 1952 she married Rudolf Jegart, an associate professor of art at FSU.
The Tampa Tribune (May 12, 1963) describes her work. “Artemis Jegart is best known for her stylized, realistic canvases dealing with Nature and architecture in Florida—particularly the relics of past generations. Looking back, she can see how her work has developed in phases. When she was a rider, horses were among her favorite subjects….’My subject matter moves along with me depending on where I am and what I’m doing.’ Her husband Rudolf says, ‘She is painting changes in the South. These are the things she likes to paint and it is good because she is capturing a dying era.”
Artemis Jegart working on her mural Capital Center at the Tallahassee Municipal Airport. Mural 5 by 15 feet. Courtesy, wwwfloridamenory.com.
A fifty-foot mural by Jegart, displaying amusing scenes of campus life, decorated the walls of the soda shop in the Longmire Building at FSU. Jegart participated in many Florida exhibitions as well as the Southeastern Annual in Atlanta in 1953. In 1955 she was honored with inclusion in the Ringling Museum Exhibit, Fifty Florida Painters. Her Saturday Afternoon on Adams Street was selected for reproduction in full color, as the 1956 Painting of the Year by the Atlanta Paper Company. She won first prize at the Society of the Flour Arts in Palm Beach in 1957 for her painting Railway Express. Jegart continued to win first prizes in important Florida exhibits.
Artemis Jegart’s The University, Sunrise to Sunset, 2001, an oil on canvas, 12 by 14 feet, hangs in the atrium at Dodd Hall at Florida State University, a gift from FSU classes of 1949 and 1950.
Artemis Skevakas Jegart, oil on board, 16 by 24 inches. Signed lower right.
Artemis Skevakas Jegart, Strawberries, oil on board 12 by 11 inches. Signed lower right, titled and dated verso.
Born: 1927, Tampa. Education: Florida State University, BA, MA; In Europe. Membership: Tallahassee Art League; Florida Federation of Art. Exhibits: Florida State University, one woman show, 1950; Tallahassee Art League, Sidewalk Show, May 1953; Southeastern Annual, Atlanta, 1953; Ringling Museum of Art, 1955, Fifty Florida Painters, polymer tempera, Nassau’s Blind Blake; Society of The Four Arts, Contemporary American Painting Exhibition, January 1955, S. J. Levin Purchase Award, The Numbers Man-Havana-Cuba; Society of The Four Arts, Contemporary Art Exhibit, December 1955, North Florida Fox Hunt, prize, best oil painting, Cedar Key; Society of The Four Arts, University of Miami, Lowe Gallery, Patronato De Bellas Artes Y Museos Nacionales, Palm Beach, Miami, Havana, December 1955, January-February 1956, S. J. Levin Purchase Prize, The Numbers Man-Havana-Cuba; National Contemporary Painting Exhibition, Palm Beach, 1st prize, 1955, 1956, 1957; Society of The Four Arts, 1956; Mississippi Art Association, Jackson, 1956; Studio Craft Shop, Coconut Grove, March 1956, one woman show; Painting of the Year Contest, Atlanta, Georgia, May 1956, 2nd place, Saturday Afternoon-Adams Street; Society of The Four Arts, Contemporary American Painting Exhibition, December 1956, tempera, North Florida Fox Hunt, Cedar Key; Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, Miami Beach, 1956; Sarasota Art Association, 7th Annual National Contemporary Art Exhibit, 1956, 1st prize; Washington Federal Savings and Loan, Miami Beach, January 1957, one-man exhibit, 13 paintings; Sarasota Art Association, 1957; Harry Rich Art Competition, 8300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, March-April 1957, honorable mention; Florida State Fair, Tampa, 1957, North Florida Fox Hunt, Purchase Award, Cedar Key; Society of The Four Arts, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1957, polymer tempera, Plantation Christmas, James Cameron Clark Award, polymer tempera, Railway Express; Mississippi Art Association, Contemporary Art Exhibit, 1st prize; Atlanta Art Association, 1958; Art League of Manatee County, November 1958, joint exhibit with husband, Rudolph Jegart, Plantation Christmas; Society of The Four Arts, 20th Annual, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1958, casein, Hot Dog Stand; Other Florida State Fair Showings: 1958, Oyster House, Railway Express; 1960, Yellow House on Macomb Street; 1961, Hot Dog Stand III; Painting of the Year Exhibit, 5th Annual, Atlanta, April 1959, honorable mention, Fruit Market; Mississippi Art Association, 18th Annual National Watercolor Exhibition, Jackson, Mississippi, June 1959, 2nd prize, Smoky Hollow (an area southeast of Tallahassee); Washington Federal, Miami Beach, 1959; Jacksonville Art Museum, 1959; 6th Annual Painting of the Year Exhibit, Atlanta Art Association, 1960; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1960, Florida State Fair Award for Cane Juice Mill; Sarasota Art Association, Ringling Museum, April 1960, Bill Wilson’s Shed; Society of The Four Arts, 22nd Annual, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1960, oil, Hot Dog Stand III; The Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, March 1962, including Black Freighter and The Tent; The Group Gallery, Jacksonville, 1962; Barron Gallery, Chicago, 1962; Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, Miami Beach, 20 paintings, January-February, 1962, including Plaza Mexico; Washington Federal Savings and Loan, Miami Beach, January 1964, Isle of Patmos II, Athens Peripteron, Memory of Kriti, View of Samos, The Prince George Hotel, Nassau; Washington Federal Savings and Loan, Miami Beach, February-April 1968, one woman show, shell art. Forty abstract shell designs, including Plaza Mexico; LeMoyne Art Foundation Gallery, Tallahassee, October 1968, 40 shell mosaics. Work: Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce; Tallahassee Municipal Airport; Florida State Railway and Public Utilities Commission Building, Tallahassee; American National Bank, Winter Haven; Louisiana State University, Student Union; Florida State University, Student Union Building; Gulf Life Building, Jacksonville.
