These paintings were done one summer when I was getting my 5th year Teaching Certificate at Eastern Washington State University in 1965. I was going to be teaching 7th grade honors math the next fall and I wanted to be able to tell my students about some of the mathematicians that developed the math they were working on (at a 7th grade level, of course).

I checked out a book from the EWSU library titled, Men of Mathematics by E. T. Bell. It's a great book with very interesting chapters about twenty-nine great mathematicians. The material is strong on their lives but just touches the actual math they did. It was perfect for my purposes.

The fine thing about the hardcover version of the book is that it includes photos of paintings of these math people. I looked at them to paint my pictures. The book's photos were in black and white so I sort of guessed at the colors. I finished all thirteen paintings in the fourteen days before the book was due back. That amounted to a painting a day and explains the very sparse backgrounds. I ordered a copy of the book for myself, but the hardcover version (with photos) was no longer available. The paperback version has everything except the pictures.

So that next fall of 1965, and in every math class I taught at Keithley JHS thereafter, I brought in a different painting each month and told the students about that mathematician's life. Perhaps current math teachers will find these downloadable pictures useful since it's difficult to find good color pictures of some of these people.

(Note: I sign all my art work .037 which is my first name upside down.)