1882-1956
Chatfield was nationally recognized for her flower paintings, and she worked out of her home on Ash Street.
Her first interest in painting was aroused when, as a little girl, she had the opportunity to watch Eastman Johnson at work. Later on, she studied oil painting with William Chase. Years afterward, foU lowing a period during which she did no painting at all, she turned to gouache and her work in the past 20 or 25 years has been in this medium.
She first exhibited here in Nantucket in the Easy Street Art Gallery and, since the opening of the Kenneth Taylor Galleries, has been an annual exhibitor during the summer months, at numerous times holding a “oneman” show. Her love of nature was evidenced in the delicate flower portraits, in which field she had no peer. She was particularly noted for her lovely orchids , and for the striking, wind-blown pine branches, which made her work outstanding in the art world. For her painting of orchids she was awarded a plaque by the Orchid Society of America. She also did pencil portraits of driftwood, unusual in form and design. One of these, entitled “Out of the Sea”, received special mention when exhibited here at the Kenneth Taylor Galleries and, in December, 1955, this study was chosen for the Contemporary Painting Exhibit sponsored by the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Fla. In selecting “Out of the Sea” for the exhibit, Mr. James Johnson Sweeney, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York, said: “I regarded it first from the standpoint of eye-appeal, then considered whether it was well painted according to the artist’s objective.”