November may have been a bad month for enjoying a stroll through the various art shops in Colonial Beach, but as December rolled in, the weather was much more accommodating. With the moon high in the sky and the sun far below the horizon, seemingly half of Colonial Beach came out to make up for lost time.
The Jarret Thor Gallery was one of the places abuzz with activity. The Thors were present and able to give the talk about Ebbie Hynson’s artwork that could not be given last month. Even better, Hynson was rolled in from Westmoreland Rehab that night to take a look at her considerable body of work.
“She’s been in our gallery for 15 years,” Carl Thor stated as we toured through more of Ebbie’s work. “So we’ve actually gotten to know her.”
Hynson’s artwork tends to fall into two particular periods--before and after a stroke she suffered some years ago. Her body of work runs the gamut from still lifes to nature scenery, and there tends to be pretty clear indicators for whether something happened before or after the stroke.
“After the stroke, you’ll tend to notice that she loses the left third of the painting,” Thor continued. “Because the side of her brain for that isn’t running on full power. It will appear fuzzily abstract at times because she’s struggling to do it.
“She doesn’t let scale mismatches in her paintings bother her though. If she wants a rose to be a certain size, then it will be that size. I think her flowers are unequalled.”
According to Mr. Thor, Ebbie led a very active and interesting life even before she picked up her painter’s brush. She was employed by and volunteered for labor unions, especially with Senator Mark Warner. Her painting kicked into high gear after she finished with that chapter of her long and illustrious life.
“It isn’t like she’s been painting for 80 or 102 years. She didn’t get a good chance to paint until she was 75 or 80. That’s true of a lot of people in this town. They painted in high school, gave it up for 50 years, and now that they have retired, they now need something to do and have a place to do it. You’ll find that we have a lot of artists here on the older side of things. Anybody that can do stories can do art.”
Hynson’s artwork remains for sale at the gallery at reduced prices per her request. Thor has indicated that at least a portion of the funds generated go towards purchasing more art supplies for Hynson.
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