Our community and our nation have lost a remarkably able and successful artist with the death of Gordon Wetmore of Signal Mountain.
Wetmore was an accomplished and widely recognized painter, whose work, including dramatic scenes in the Holy Land and Ireland, has been circulated in thousands of books.
He is known also for his portraits of many famous people, among them such varied subjects as President Richard Nixon, actress Grace Kelly, Prince Albert, Prince Rainier, Jack Nicklaus, Norman Vincent Peale and noted local subjects Dr. J. Park McCallie and former Sen. and Secretary of Labor Bill Brock.
Wetmore's style presented a sense of real life.
His works have been on display at such prominent locations as the White House, the Royal Palace of Monaco and Israel's Knesset in Jerusalem, and at such schools as Harvard, Duke, Emory, Northwestern, the University of North Carolina and the University of Texas. It has also appeared in our own Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga.
Wetmore was a member of the Artist's Fellowship of New York, the Oil Painters of America and the Board of Overseers of Opera Boston.
Wetmore, a member at one time of First Presbyterian Church, was a personable and modest artist whose great talent was broadly appreciated.