Watercolors - Sheldon Ward Meade

These two watercolors were painted by my great-grandfather, Sheldon Ward Meade. He was my mother's paternal grandfather. He was an interesting guy. Sheldon Meade was born in Canada and moved to Nebraska to claim land there. He returned to Canada and enlisted in the Canadian Army to fight in the first World War. He traveled through-out The Soviet Union in the 1930's and was married three times. I think my great-grandmother, Dorcus Anne Wilson, was wife number two.

Sheldon Meade wrote an autobiography and an extensive travelog of his trip to the Soviet Union. My mother has his hand painted diary. I will add more details of his life in a later post.

Sheldon Meade included the name and location of the church shown in the painting, Tumacacori Az. The Tumacacori Mission is an ancient Spanish mission ruin built by Jesuit priests, dating from the latter part of the seventeenth century. If you click on the highlighted text you can read about and see a photogragh of the mission. I don't know when or why he traveled to Arizonia.

Tumacacori Mission. Click to enlarge. 




I'm guessing this still life was painted at his farm in Butler Pennslyvania.

Still Life. Click to enlarge.