Winthrop Stark Davis (1885-1950)
Member of the 27 Chicago Designers.
Finding a picture of one of these colorful parrots by this wonderful artist was a big and happy surprise. I made an Internet excavation and here are the results. In three separate postings. I haven't found a book or site dedicated to his work so far. If there is, please don't hesitate sending me more examples or information. Most pictures are "left mouse clickable".
Winthrop Stark Davis was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1885. He subsequently lived and worked in Chicago, where he was affiliated with several arts institutions including the Palette and Chisel Club. Davis exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924 and at the Chicago Galleries Association in 1930, winning prizes in both shows.
Most examples of his art (that I found) are executed in pastel showing colorful parrots, resembling and reminding stylish of the many parrots depicted by Austrian linocut artist Norbertine Bresslern Roth(1891-1978) and American painter Jessie Arms Botke (1883-1971). Examples of both artists earlier in the Linosaurus (use the search function).
During the 1920s and 1930s Stark Davis’s illustrations appeared on covers of the Ladies’ Home Journal, and in numerous advertisements, and from 1927 to 1929, Davis’s artistic and colorful “Bird Series” of ads for Lincoln automobiles ran in popular magazines such as Country Life and Home and Garden. Today I (part 1/3) show all his parrot prints, later this week I'll show prints of other animals (part 2/3) and his Lincoln advertising art (part 2/3) in separate postings. 
During his time in Chicago, Davis would make trips to Santa Barbara, California, and subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, where he worked at the Disney Animation Studios and exhibited at the Ainslie Gallery in 1936. 
By 1947, Davis had retired from painting and was living in Morro Bay, a seaside town on California’s Central Coast.
Biography from: Spencer Jon Helfen Fine Arts.
Following soon: Part 2/3: other animals by Stark Davis, Part 3/3: the Lincoln automobile ads.
In the Collections of the Chicago University of Illinois I traced the existence of at least 20 examples of his work. Stored in 26 boxes are the surviving 6-9 color blocks. Learning he combined linoleum printing with the use of zinc plates. Explaining the very fine, line engraved, detaling in some of the flower/botanical prints. I share those prints I was able collect from the Internet. And that have enough resolution for screendisplay. I found some more but because of the very small size hardly presentable. Maybe, hopefully, readers will add some more.
The biographical sketch I borrowed from the University of Illinois Archive Inventories.
Humsky and his family emigrated to the USA in 1905 from Germany. I just stumbled upon these prints but I decided they deserve sharing. They are from his estate. This painting below one of the few other examples I could dig up is also very charming. 
Judging to these compositions and use of color I think he must have been a very nice man. Humski belonged to the 27 Chicago Designers in the times that Chicago’s graphics industry was the second largest industry after the meat(packing) industry. Among its members I've found some colleagues that are worth sharing too.
Some other scheduled postings will have to wait when last night I stumbled upon this nice landscape "under the Hill" and than found some more real nice prints I would like to share. His favorite subjects are New York rural life and landscapes, old barns, houses and trees. Always in small editions.
Most striking in all his prints is the use of the white of the paper. The shape and form, the amount and distribution. Using the white as an integral very carefully designed part of the print. Like a key(block).
Visit the New York State Museum at 
