James Abbott, East Grays Harbor County Muralist

Gordon's Select Market, McCleary, Washington, pt. 1

Abbott's multi-panel mural on the always excellent Gordon's Select Market building in McCleary, Washington was a large, ambitious work. It faced west and endured a lot of punishment from the coastal wind and rain. Detail taken Sept. 25, 2010.

Abbott's portrait of Gordon himself.

Taken Mar. 31, 2011. The Simpson door manufacturing plant can be seen in the background.

Very nice detail taken Mar. 30, 2012. Abbott was much better at landscapes than he was at portraits.

This and following two images were taken June 7, 2012.

This particular portrait always gave me the creeps. I always called him "The Demon Child."

A grocery scene.

The following photos were taken Sept. 18, 2011

Rhodes Grocery Building, McCleary, Washington, pt. 4

Farewell to the old Rhodes Grocery building, and to the last Abbott mural in McCleary. Photo taken July 29, 2015.

Rhodes Grocery Building, McCleary, Washington, pt. 3

All of the photos in this post are of the north face of the old Rhodes Grocery, the streetfront side, taken Sept. 15, 2013.

The building had been converted to a cram-yer-crap storage business in the 1980s. So far as I know, this little alcove is unique in the Abbott art experience in that he created an area where human faces are the main focus. This was not his strong point and the combined effect is actually sort of unsettling. However, his "canvas" gives the portraits a nice texture.

A very young Nick Rillakis (1893-1970). By the time I met Nick in 1964 he was a large, stout man with no hair at all. Nick was one of the last of what was once a large Greek population in town.

James Abbott portrait of Henry McCleary (1861-1943), the timber baron who virtually ran the town as a one-man principality until 1941.

This is a portrait of a timid person, and Henry was many things, but never that.

James Abbott's absolutely awful and almost unrecognizable portrait of Ada Johnson McCleary (1861-1923). She was a remarkable person who knew how to use her power as the First Lady of McCleary to improve the lives of the people in the town.

Of the four portraits by James Abbott adorning the front of the old Rhodes Grocery, this one of George Osgood (1868-1955) is the best.

Osgood was an early business partner of Henry McCleary.

Abbott's murals on waferboard appear to have survived in better shape through the weather over time.

Detail of James Abbott mural of the old school in McCleary, Washington. The teacher portrayed in this picture is based on Emma Heslep (1902-1974) who was also a published poet.

Rhodes Grocery Building, McCleary, Washington, pt. 2

Two photos of the east face of the building, taken Sept. 18, 2011.

The following photos were all taken Sept. 15, 2013. Note the addition of the commercial sign and the unfortunate condition of the mural itself due to weather. Most of these shots are of the east wall, but the last three are from the south wall.

Rhodes Grocery Building, McCleary, Washington, pt. 1

This was Rhodes Grocery in McCleary, Washington when I was a kid. A big, bald Greek fellow named Nick Rillakis ran the place and would talk your ear off. I remember he had one of those huge cheese wheels. I believe this was McCleary's very first concrete building when it was constructed in the 1920s. North face taken Oct. 10, 2010.

It is rather difficult to see from the ground, but in this James Abbott mural on the back of the old Rhodes Grocery, he portrayed one of the many "soiled doves" that held a prominent place in the history of this Wild West company town. West face taken Oct. 4, 2010.

South east corner, facing east. McCleary Timberland Library and McCleary US Post Office in background. Taken Feb. 6, 2011.

Detail of south wall. Legal matters override artistic presentation. Taken Feb. 6, 2011.

Two photos taken Aug. 30, 2013 of the west wall. The sower of seeds portrait was on the southwest corner and bore the brunt of the weather. As you can see part of the scene next to the prostitutes had been covered over with sheet siding for some reason since 2011.