Colby

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Colby


ANNOUNCEMENT
THROUGH years of splendid training and experience before the public, Mr. Colby has perfected a most remarkable talent as a cartoonist.  He has a pleasant personality, and draws with astonishing rapidity and ease, accompanying his work on the easel with an almost continuous flow of entertaining, humorous, and instructive comment.  The rapid transformations and changing scenes he portrays by a few simple strokes of his crayon, keeps his audience divided between wonder and applause.  He uses many large sheets of paper, bringing out a large number and variety of subjects.  Many of these clever drawings are used as wall decorations.  Mr. Colby gives an unique and interesting entertainment.



PERSONAL NOTICES
Whenever I see Mr. Colby I am sure to think of Bill Nye.—Dr. A. C. Hammett.

Mr. Colby is almost a living imitation of the immortal Bill Nye.—las. A. Sexton, R. I. R. R.


* * * Mr. Colby is an artist, well known in this country, and is a fluent speaker.  He is a life member of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has exhibited in the National Academy of Designs in New York.  He studied three years in Europe. —
Chicago Daily News.

I was very much interested.  It was the best and most interesting chalk talk I ever heard.—John D. Shoop, Principal Holden School, Chicago.


* * * Mr. Colby's rapid sketching, before his audience, has been a most popular novelty in the lecture field in these courses * * *. —
Chicago Daily News.

The entertainment, 'Ideas in Crayon,' given by Mr. Colby before the home department of our Sabbath school, was perfectly satisfactory.  The pictures were all excellent and included some of the most beautiful crayon drawings, in colors, I have ever seen.  It is our expectation to have him give another entertainment for our school.—J. W. Adraince, Supt. 1st United Presbyterian Sunday School, Chicago.

Mr. Geo. E. Colby, artist and lecturer, gave one of the best entertainments in The Daily News Course at the Arnold School.  The rapidity with which subjects developed under the skillful hand of the artist was a continual surprise, and the unexpected changes frequently produced by the addition of a few lines called forth many hearty responses.  The running comment, mingling the humorous and the serious, with which Mr. Colby accompanies his sketches, affords an entertainment exceedingly interesting and instructive to widely varying audiences.— J. E. Adams, Principal Arnold School, Chicago.


* * * The transformation of some complete scenes into something widely different is a trick of the artist, that is a source of wonder to the beholders * * *. —
Chicago Daily News.

Letter from Chicago Daily News Editor to Mr. Colby:

Permit me to tender to you the thanks of The Daily News for your kindness in contributing your personal services toward the success of its free lecture courses * * *.  Thanking you again for your valued assistance, I remain very truly yours.—Victor F. Lawson, Editor.

Mr. Geo. E. Colby, Irving Park, Ill.

Dear Sir: —That most interesting 'Chalk Talk' given by you Friday evening at the Beaubien School, was thoroughly enjoyed by the large audience present.  It was one of the best of the course of lectures. — S. J. O'Keefer, Principal Beaubien School, Chicago.


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George E. Colby, artist and lecturer, is the man who transfers a variety of conceptions from his imaginative brain to the concrete form of crayon pictures executed before his audiences.  This form of entertainment has proved to be a most satisfactory one in the lecture field, and Mr. Colby is in the front rank of such entertainers.  His pictures cover a range of serious studies in landscapes, marine views and other color effects, and such absurdities as caricatures of public men or even pictures made purely to provoke amusement.—
Chicago Daily News.

Mr. Geo. E. Colby gave one of the best entertainments of the lecture course, at the Englewood High School.  It was a chalk talk, that held the closest attention of old and young. — I. E. Armstrong, Principal Englewood High School.


The most effective transformation that is attempted by Mr. Colby is that embodying the arousing of Mt. Vesuvius from slumber to rage He draws in colors a crayon illustration of the famous mountain as viewed across the beautiful Bay of Naples.  The artist darkens the blue sky with a sudden burst of black smoke from the crater.  This addition to the scene quickly is followed by the issuance of a stream of fire and lava, which pour over the bowl of the crater and down the mountain side.  The picture rapidly is altered to display volcanic fire lighting up a cloudy sky and being reflected in the waters of the bay.  This transformation provoked rounds of applause when it was presented recently.—
The Chicago Daily News.

Instructive, interesting, laughable. — W. A. Becker, Speaker Everett Council, National Union.



A FEW OF MANY PRESS NOTICES

Remarkable for combining in his treatment strength, sentiment, delicacy and a nameless charm.—
Chicago Tribune.


The illustrated chalk talk given by G. E. Colby Thursday evening under the auspices of the Altrui Club, was enjoyed by a large audience, that gave frequent evidence of its pleasure in the fascinating exhibition.  The growth of the pictures by a few skillful strokes, and the change from one scene to another by a few additional lines quickly drawn, seemed marvelous.—
The Jeffersonian, Mayfair.


Mr. Colby's rapid sketching before his audiences has been a most popular novelty in the lecture field in these courses.—
Chicago Daily News.


One of the most interesting features of Mr. Colby's lecture is that he calls on some one in the audience to make a few marks on the paper.  These marks are most always ridiculously meaningless but with lightning rapidity the artist transforms them into a picture of some kind.  Out of these meaningless marks have come deer heads, boys jumping, balloons, flying machines, elephants, Dutch windmills, the American girl, Indians in full regalia, and many other interesting subjects.
The chalk talk by Geo. E. Colby, one of the members of this council, was heartily applauded.  His character sketches in the cypress swamps, that of an alderman and many more were full of mirth and humor.—

Everett Council, National Union.


The Belding school hall at Irving Park was filled to the limit last Friday evening, the occasion being one of the most interesting numbers in the lecture course for this season, a chalk talk by the eminent artist, G. E. Colby, president of the Society of Associated Arts.  One of the pictures, a ship in a storm at sea, was preserved and hung for the school children to enjoy.  Mr. Colby depicts a beautiful scene that would bear pages of description, in a few lines made with common crayons.  As the picture grows under the swift, skillful strokes of the artist's fingers, the audience watches with the rapt attention it would give to the developing plot of a drama.  Mr. Colby's standing in the art world, and his local standing as a fellowtownsman, gives his work additional interest.—
The Jeffersonian.


Many corridors and classrooms in public school buildings of Chicago are ornamented with large crayon pictures that are souveniers of George E. Colby's popular entertainment, 'New Ideas in Crayon,' in the course of lectures.  Mr. Colby is a speaker and artist who entertains his audiences by drawing pictures at a large easel and giving with each picture which he executes something in the way of narrative, or comment upon its subject, or upon the details of its execution.  In the course of an hour's address he makes a dozen sketches.  The results of his skill are of a quality to win for him a burst of applause as he steps back from his work to disclose each completed picture.  Many of the scenes he has drawn at lecture entertainments have been framed by the teachers and hung in the school buildings.—
Lake View Reporter.


Mr. Colby's pictures are worth seeing, while his talk is interesting and funny, as well as instructive.—
Kansas City Times.


Mr. Colby's chalk talks are full of surprises, and one marvels at the sudden appearance of pictures both beautiful and comic, as they come out of a maze of color and lines.  It will be an evening of fun.—
Chicago e ws.


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Friday evening, Mr. Geo. E. Colby, one of the foremost sketching artists in the world, edified a fairly large audience by his clever interpretations The crayons fairly flew over the paper at his will, and with the most exact precision, expressed perspectives, hidden depths, mountains high, or tall and rearing monarchs of the forest, overswept by the glow of the dying sun, or resplendent in the effulgence of the silver moonlight.
Castles and seven story flat buildings alike rose at the magic of his touch, which turned a view of the Grand Canyon into the familiar scene of the Chicago river from Goose Island, with but a few swift strokes.
Interspersed with all this crayon work, the gentleman kept up the interest in the pictures by tales of hunting, little quips of fresh and sparkling humor, and a continual fire of talk of the Mark Twain order, which held the audience in a thrall of interest that was at once entertaining and instructive.
Those who were present voted the entertainment one of the best that has been on the courses of popular lectures.—

Whiting (Ind.) Call.


George E. Colby, the popular artist, gave ideas in crayon while his daughter, Frances, played appropriately on the piano, and when she finished playing a beautiful crayon picture of a castle by the sea hung on the easel for the admiration of all.  Mr. Colby's work was nothing short of marvelous, his colors being well chosen and perfectly blended.  Mr. Colby made a few remarks concerning the castle drawing, and then proceeded to draw four flats, which he turned into other pictures very skillfully, amid much laughter.  Mr. Colby supplemented his drawings with funny stories, to the enjoyment of the audience.—
The Jeffersonian.


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Draws As He Lectures.—Another distinctive entertainment in the course of lectures is 'Ideas in Crayon,' presented by George E. Colby, an artist who effects a happy combination of lecturing and making pictures at the same time.  Mr. Colby works at a large easel before his audiences, rapidly drawing crayon sketches of a variety of subjects, giving the discursive and graphic features of a lesson in elementary drawing.  A few anecdotes are scattered in with the lesson, while the pictures afford a source of wonder and enjoyment to his pupils.—
West Side Bulletin.

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