The Realities of Working in an Art Studio

TI list member Bruce Hettema is the owner of P&H Creative Group and the author of an article in the current issue of Illustration magazine on the history of his Petaluma, California art studio, which began life in the 1920's in San Francisco as Patterson & Sullivan.

"Pat" (Patterson) and "Sully" (Sullivan) ran a tight ship.


They were two business-minded individiuals who were bottom-line oriented, and they constantly pushed their artists to be more productive.

Stan Galli, who Patterson & Sullivan hired right out of the San Francisco Art Institute in the 1930's, remembers fellow art students warning him against going to work at that studio because it was too commercial. "But I needed a job. I needed to make some money, and they paid $40 a month."


Clyde Seavey (below) was a talented artist at P&S who, in the early 30's, did a series of humorous caricatures of all the P&S artists and a series of cartoons depicting, from the artist's perspective, the grueling existence of a staff artist.


It's an insightful and amusing look at daily life in the agency at that time, which included client demands, creative differences, and squeezing budgets.

You can find the full length version of this article in Illustration magazine #19.