GINNY WILBER, PAINTING BIRCHES

A dear friend and neighbor, Ginny Wilber, will laugh if you say that you LOVE her paintings. She has been painting for more than five decades, and at least one of her paintings won "Best of Show" when she entered competitions years back.

I happen to love the way she paints birch trees.

She has painted dozens of landscapes and portraits and they hang in her home in Spencertown.

Often when I cross the road and visit her and her husband, Ken, she and I gab and gab about art and painting. She tells me that when she 

and a friend took painting lessons together years ago, they would have a great time 

laughing and painting 

together. 

Today, Ginny is in her eighties, and she is still painting birches, no matter that she has trouble standing. The painting below is her most recent birch painting, and it has already been promised to Ginny's granddaughter, who loved the painting as much as I did. (I told Ginny about all my stories about red cardinals battering at my windows!)

Try to get Ginny to call herself a terrifically talented painter, and she will laugh and say it's just 

what she loves to do. 

One thing Ginny does is encourage me to paint. I show her my crazy abstract paintings

and she

always tells me to keep painting no matter what anyone says! I have been in a bit of a painting funk 

lately, unable to get myself to the easel.

Last week when I visited Ginny she had a wonderful suggestion. She said that I should
put my acrylic paint

in a straw and just blow it onto the canvas! I am going to see if that works!

Meanwhile, thanks to you, Ginny, for all our "arty" conversations, and for so many years of wonderful friendship. You are the best neighbor in the WORLD!!