Granddaughter of the surveyor of the Santa Fe Trail, Paulina Jones Everitt was a passionate and prolific painter and sculptor since her early youth in Kansas. A graduate from Missouri University, she attended Kansas City Art Institute and Washington University of Fine Arts. She studied with Thomas Hart Benton, and her regionalist period reflects that connection. Married to a successful architect, R. Stanton (Bob) Everitt, Paulina began her career by painting and sketching and taught art in the Kansas public school system in Independence for two years. Over the years, she provided illustrations, most notably a historical guidebook of Independence.
After seeing an exhibition of Greek Tanagra figurines at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in the early 1950s, she discovered what she called a "latent desire to become a sculptress." These small sculptures depict mostly women in everyday garb, and their discovery in the 1860s had inspired artists like Degas. Paulina set upon a volume of clay left over from the basement excavation of her art-moderne home (designed and built by her husband). She soon built a kiln in a small cottage on the property and began to learn to fire by trial and error. As part of this work, she made numerous drawings and watercolors of nude figures.
The couple lived into their 90s, with Paulina passing before Bob. Many of Everitt's works were lost when the house at 107 E. Southside Blvd. in Independence was gutted after being left in trust without restrictions to the Nelson-Atkins Museum - with items grabbed out of dumpsters by friends as well as passer-bys. A selection of her pieces is now in the collection of the museum.
Exhibitions: Winner of Mid-Western (Watercolor) Kansas City, Missouri; Joslyn Museum Collection (Drawing) Omaha, Nebraska; Honorable Mention (Drawing) Missouri Show, St. Louis Museum; Purchase Award, Mid-America, Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, MO (Sculpture); International Exhibit, New York's World Fair (Watercolor); Little Gallery, University of Kansas City
Published Works: Official Visitor's Guide, The KANSAS CITIAN '68, Color reproduction of 13 water color paintings of scenes of Kansas City (two were used for covers). - Author unknown.
