Sybil H. Connell attended the John Herron Art Institute* in Indianapolis, Indiana from 1914 to 1919. Her instructors there included Clifton Wheeler, William Forsyth, Otto Stark and Harold Haven Brown. She also studied in Nashville, Brown County*, Indiana with Veraldo J. Cariani.

She began her professional career as a fashion artist and as a commercial artist with the Indianapolis Engraving Company and the Pettis Dry Goods Company, also of Indianapolis. From 1941 to 1951 she was a member of the Brown County Art Gallery.

In 1951 Connell moved to Orlando, Florida and in 1953 she moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina, living there until 1961. During those ten years she actively taught art classes.

She returned to Brown County in June of 1961 and became a member of the Brown County Art Guild. She continued to teach until her death in 1983. Her landscapes and floral works won many awards at the exhibitions of the Indiana Artists Club. She also exhibited with the Hoosier Salon*, the Herron Art Institute and the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Submitted by Edward P. Bentley, Art Historian, East Lansing, Michigan

Sources:
Sternberg, Paul E. "Things of Beauty - Floral Still-Lifes" Art by American Women from the Sellars Collection. Brenau College, Gainsville, Georgia. 1992

*For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary at http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx