Lois Graham | An abstract artist with passion for hard work

Lois Graham expressed what she called "terror, tenuousness, exuberance and exaltation" in her abstract art, which reflected her strong personality and also her sense of playfulness. Recognized throughout the country as one of the region's foremost abstract painters and printmakers, Mrs. Graham died Tuesday in an area hospital of heart failure — only five days after the opening of her current show at Seattle's Foster/White Gallery. She was 77.

"She was a worker," said her son Andrew Graham.

"She worked as hard as she could for as long as she could. She was completely fine last Thursday at the art opening; on Monday we took her to the doctor, and she was dead on Tuesday.

"My mother was very strong and tough. She had very high expectations of those she brought into her inner circle, and was very quick to love and forgive them. One of her best friends said she had 'a genius for friendship,' and she was certainly known for her devotion to her friends and fellow artists and their careers."

Andrew Graham's brother Doug said that "the smell of oil paint is as familiar as rain in Seattle." Mrs. Graham's studio, always the center of the home, was not only open to her children; she also was accessible to groups of elementary-school kids, whom she mentored as aspiring little artists for many years.

"We learned as children that when she was painting, she was at work," said Andrew Graham, "but we were always welcome in the studio. The family also assisted her, stretching canvas and building frames."

Phen Huang, director of the Foster/White Gallery, called Mrs. Graham "a strong woman with a generous heart and a vigorous visual vocabulary; her influence in the art community will continue to be felt through her paintings, and we will miss her greatly."

In Mrs. Graham's artist statement for her last show, the artist noted: "I like to play with paint. I love to push it around to see what happens. To me, oil paint seems like a living organism: infinite modulations and transformations are possible."

Born in Kewanee, Ill., Mrs. Graham studied art at Washington University School of Fine Arts (St. Louis, Mo.) and at Knox College (Galesburg, Ill.). Among her further training was private study with Lothar Schall (Stuttgart, Germany).

In the last 30 years, she had solo exhibitions with the Foster/White Gallery and several other galleries, from Houston to Chicago and Los Angeles.

Mrs. Graham was known for her command of a constant and consistent abstract image-field, provoking comparisons with such abstract expressionists as Joan Mitchell, Philip Guston and Jack Tworkov. Her work is in public and private collections in and around Washington and throughout the U.S. Seattle cultural audiences are probably especially familiar with her 1985 "Sargasso Stir," a massive and colorful mural that once hung above the doors leading to the box-office area inside the former Seattle Center Opera House (the mural is owned by the city of Seattle).

Mrs. Graham is survived by her husband of 55 years, retired physician Gene Graham, of Seattle; sons Doug Graham (and his wife, Sarah, and their children Ben and Maggie Graham) and Andrew Graham; and daughter Julia Graham, all of Seattle.

A public memorial event celebrating Mrs. Graham's life will be held at 2 p.m. Oct. 25 in the Foster/White Gallery in Pioneer Square.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com