Self-portrait by Howard Colvin, 1934
La Crosse Artist, Howard W. Colvin
Birth: July 30, 1908, Beaver Crossing, Nebraska
Death: June 11, 1991, La Crosse
Howard Colvin was an active member of the art community and made his day job with his craft. He was a talented artist who worked with various mediums in his pieces, including oil, watercolor, pastels, pen and ink, and charcoal.
Peerless Beer Advertisement by Howard Colvin
The Colvin family moved to the Coulee Region when Howard was a child. He attended the University of Minnesota to study architecture, but after a short while, he realized that the general requirements to get the degree were going to hold him back. He returned home to La Crosse and began his career as a freelance advertising artist. Colvin was extremely active in the Men’s Sketch Club, serving as president in 1939 and 1940. Under his leadership, a Junior Sketch Club began for boys under the age of 21 that were too young for the Men’s Sketch Club.
In the early 1940s, Colvin and Clifford Andrea started Andrea & Colvin, an advertising agency working out of the Rivoli building. The pair did commercial art, merchandising, commercial photography, and advertising copy.8 The partnership was short-lived when Colvin enlisted during World War II. Being stationed nearly 7,000 miles from home did not stifle his creative side. He painted pin-up girls on the planes and drew portraits of fellow servicemen after a good friend asked him for one to send home. While serving in China, he completed exactly 100 portraits, and when he received his orders to go home, he still had 125 more commissioned portraits to complete.
While abroad, Colvin wrote home, checking in on the Sketch Clubs, and was proud to hear back that the sketch clubs were continuing in his absence. “It makes me happy to know that the Sketch club is still going. Hang on to it, because we fellows away on our travels will be glad to be back in it when the war is over.”
He began working for the La Crosse Tribune in 1946 and organized the first Advertising Department. After 23 years, he retired and was excited to pursue his hobbies of art and photography once again. Shortly before retiring, Howard and his wife, Lugardia, turned the small house on the back of their property (affectionately known as the “cottage”) into a recreation space. The main floor of the cottage had a pool table and served as an entertaining space for friends, and the second floor was an art studio for Howard during retirement.
Howard was a humble artist and insisted that there were always better artists than himself. He was hesitant to show his unfinished works and insisted that even his family wait until he was finished with a piece to see it. He had a passion for drawing and painting dogs. One of his dog drawings was purchased by the marketing department at La Crosse Breweries Inc. for an advertising campaign. The drawing is of a beagle destroying its owner’s shoe with an innocent expression and head slightly cocked to the side with a piece of leather in its mouth. The brewery cleverly added the text, “Sorry, Gee-I wish I could buy him a bottle of Peerless Amber.”
