California Artists
Florence ‘Daphne’ Epl.
Sisters Venetia Epler and Daphne Huntington are California artists whose work is represented in several permanent collections: the San Bernadino County Museum, the De Saisset Gallery, the Santa Clara Museum, the Mary Pickford Collection and
the Richard Nixon Library. Venetia and Daphne have both been included in Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in California and Who’s Who in the West. Both are Fellows of the American Artists Professional League, and the American Institute of Fine Arts. Daphne is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Artists of the Southwest, the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association and the California Fine Arts Club, for which she was Vice President in 1967.
the Richard Nixon Library. Venetia and Daphne have both been included in Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in California and Who’s Who in the West. Both are Fellows of the American Artists Professional League, and the American Institute of Fine Arts. Daphne is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Artists of the Southwest, the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association and the California Fine Arts Club, for which she was Vice President in 1967. Venetia and Daphne studied painting at Slades in London, stained glass at the London School of Arts and Crafts, and the École de Louvre in Paris. The sisters’ most extraordinary achievements are two huge oil on canvas pieces that were re-created in tesserae by Italian master mosaicists. Both mammoth mosaics were titled “The Life of Christ.” The most recent “Life of Christ’ was dedicated in 1993 and is the façade of the mausoleum at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Orlando, Florida. The first, and completely different “Life of Christ” mural was completed in 1972, and to this day serves as the world’s largest religious mosaic; it is the façade of the Christian Heritage Mausoleum at Forest Lawn in Covina Hills, California. The piece measures 30’ x 180’.
There was never a doubt about what career Daphne and Venetia would follow; art was in their genes. Their great grandfather was the famed etcher and watercolor artist, Thomas Charles Farrer, the principal founder of the Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art, which represented the Pre-Raphaelite movement in America. TC’s younger brother Henry Farrer was also a well known artist.
Growing up in Southern California, The Girls worked and became friends with many well known artists: Claude Parsons; Sam Hyde Harris; Teeny Johnson, and Percy Gray, whose landscapes they emulated. Percy adored Venetia; he called her ‘Vanilla.’ The seascapes that Daphne is well known for were painted in many locations: Big Sur, Carmel, Malibu, the Oregon coastline and Seattle. Their landscapes were done in the Big Sur / Monterey Valley area of California.
They experimented with many different art forms, but initially their specialties were stained glass and ceramics. They created windows for churches in Beverly Hills and Compton, England. Venetia started a novelty company with their brother, Richard, making very delicate hand painted ceramic jewelry and curios. They also designed their much heralded Aztec line of turquoise ceramic ware, for which The National Ceramic magazine gave them a Gold Award. Sadly their ceramics business was to be short lived; the city of Los Angeles banned the use of kilns on residential property, and so painting became their artistic outlet and passion. They indulged in many styles, techniques and subjects: Cowboys, American Indians, Cattle, Landscape, Still life, Fantasy, a Guatemalan series, and Portraiture. Venetia’s portraits included those of President Dwight Eisenhower in 1970, which hung in the White House and is now in the Richard Nixon Library Collection; Ambassador Peter J. Valez de Silva, in the Embassy Malta to Guatemala, and Superior Judge Macintyre Faries, in the Occidental College Library.
