Evergreen Muse: The Art of Elizabeth Colborne

by David F. Martin

Elizabeth Aline Colburne (1885-1948) was one of the most accomplished artists ever active in Washington State. An integral part of the regional Arts and Crafts Movement, she is known today for her extraordinary color woodcuts produced during the 1920s and 1930s. These prints depict the Pacific Northwest landscape in a technique that was highly influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. Colborne elected to design, carve, and print her own editions, using brilliant colors and innovative, multiple overlaying techniques. Evergreen Muse is the first in-depth study of her art and presents all the known color woodcuts that she created.

In addition to color woodcuts, Colborne made drawings in graphite and colored pencil as well as small, intimate and highly detailed gouache paintings. Born in South Dakota, the artist divided her time between Bellingham, Washington, and New York, where she studied with Rockwell Kent, Robert Henri, and Allen Lewis and became a leading children's book illustrator.

95 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

David F. Martin is Curator for Cascadia Art Museum and the leading authority on Washington State’s art history. For over thirty years, Martin has focused on women, Asian Americans, gay & lesbian and other minorities who had established national and international reputations during the period 1890-1960.
He is the author of numerous regional books and catalogues and contributes essays and catalogue entries for national and international publications on painting, printmaking and photography.
He received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in 2017.


Curator and author: The Lavender Palette: Gay Culture and the Art of Washington State
Cascadia Art Museum, Edmonds, Washington: October 23, 2019 – January 26, 2020 with a condensed version of the show extended through April 5, 2020. Accompanying book released in July, 2020, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London..

Curator and author: Invocation of Beauty: The Life and Photography of Soichi Sunami (1885-1971), University of Washington Press, Seattle & London.
Cascadia Art Museum, Edmonds, Washington
October 11, 2018 through January 6, 2019.

Captive Light: The Art & Photography of Ella E. McBride (1862-1965)
Tacoma Art Museum
March 17 – July 8, 2018.
Co-author of catalogue and co-curator of exhibition with Margaret Bullock.
University of Washington Press, Seattle & London.

Contributed essays for Collecting On The Edge for the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah. Edited by Bolton Colburn, University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press, 2018.

January 4, 2018: Featured speaker and panel participant at the Denver Art Museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Beyond America’s Heartland: Regionalism and the Art of the American West.



Territorial Hues: The Color Print and Washington State, 1920-1960,
Cascadia Art Museum, October 5, 2017 through January 7, 2018
University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2017.


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Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920-1940, February 28-June 26, 2016; Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Opening night speaker and panel participant on March 5, 2016.

Author: A Fluid Tradition: The Northwest Watercolor Society at 75, University of Washington Press, 2015.

Lecture: Surviving Art History: Pictorialist Photography and Artistic Reputation, November 26, 2014, University of London, Birkbeck, School of Art, London, England.

Lecture and panel discussion: Inspirations – Interactions: Pictorialism Reconsidered, November 21, 22, 23, 2013, Staatliche Museum, Berlin, Germany.

Austere Beauty: The Art of Z. Vanessa Helder. Tacoma Art Museum, July 27 – October 20, 2013; O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, Texas, January 23 – March 6, 2014. Co-curator and co-author of accompanying catalogue with Margaret Bullock, published by the University of Washington Press.


A Turbulent Lens: The Photographic Art of Virna Haffer
Tacoma Art Museum, July - November, 2011. Co-author of catalogue and co-curator of exhibition with Margaret Bullock. University of Washington Press.
Winner of the 2012 Award for Exhibit Excellence from the Washington Museum Association.

Evergreen Muse: The Art of Elizabeth Colborne, guest curator and author of accompanying catalogue, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA, June 17 - October 9, 2011. University of Washington Press.
Mentioned in the New York Times, April 19, 2012, “These Women refused To Stay in the Kitchen”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/art...


Shadows of a Fleeting World: Pictorial Photography and the Seattle Camera Club, University of Washington Press, 2011. Main author with additional essay by Nicolette Bromberg.
Advisor to accompanying exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery, February 12 – May 8, 2011
The CASE (Council for the Advancement and