b. April 14, 1909 - June 2003

Studies in Light
Second retrospective, oil paintings
exhibited February 28, 2003

Mildred’s parents, Stella Kurtzeborn and Benjamin Scott Benson, were introduced at a church meeting in St. Louis at the time of the World’s Fair in 1903 and married the following February 14. Mildred was born in Ottumwa, Iowa on April 14, 1909. They moved to pre-smog Los Angeles in 1912 where her brother Benjamin was born. She started her education in one of California’s progressive elementary schools. Upon returning to Ottumwa in 1917 she was placed in a group of advanced students, a half grade level ahead of their class. The country was in a patriotic fervor at the height of World War I with band concerts every Thursday evening in the park. Chautauqua each summer in a large tent and a Carnegie Library were the principle cultural foci for this small Iowa town. She graduated from high school in 1926 after putting artistic touches on her school’s yearbook.

Mildred entered business school for a year of practical education before entering Principia in 1927. At Principia, she studied art with the inspirational Kathryn Cherry who painted in the art colony at Gloucester, Massachusetts each summer and whose work is still sought by collectors today. Following Principia, Mildred moved to Washington, D.C. in the depression year of 1930 to work in the Federal government. Her first morning in town, she met her future husband Carlos Van Leer, Jr. on the church steps. They were married the following February 14. She painted the “Violin” watercolor in 1933, which is in the exhibit. They attended weekly art lectures at the Phillips Gallery during the time and enjoyed exhibitions there and at the Corcoran before the National Gallery was built.

Mildred and Carlos had two boys, Carlos Clark Jr. and John Cloud Van Leer and settled down in Bethesda – Chevy Chase area of Maryland, where she would live for the next sixty years. Carlos joined the Navy during World War II and served in the Phillipines while Mildred held down the home front complete with a Victory Garden. After years as a mother and homemaker, Mildred finally got back to her first love – art. She enrolled in the Corcoran School of Art in 1956, studying with Edmond Archer where she did the pastel “Young Man” also, in the exhibit. Later she studied extensively with the more adventurous Daniel Mistrik in Bethesda. Her painting efforts extended over about sixty-five years until 1997. Then, arthritis in her right shoulder and later eyesight diminished by macular degeneration forced her to give up her beloved painting.