1919-2010
Born Oct. 25, 1919 in Newton, Massachusetts. She spent much of her life drawing, painting and creating, and won many prizes and awards from juried art exhibitions. She grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut; lived in Windsor, Connecticut for 60 years; and summered 30 years on Nantucket, MA. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Yale University, School of Fine Art in 1943, and was employed by Hamilton Standard for 18 years in their Art Department as a technical illustrator. After graduating from Yale she worked at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City from 1943-44. In 1944 she joined the American Red Cross to contribute to WWII effort, stationed mostly Southampton and London, England. At this time she painted murals in Service clubs and organized art therapy in Service Hospitals, as well as driving ambulances and hospital trucks, working the Clubmobile and hospital ships, and serving coffee and doughnuts to soldiers coming back from France. After the war she wrote and illustrated books and did free-lance illustrating for London publishers, and then she returned to the States in 1947. She designed the shield for the Poquonock Fire Department, and in 1975 the Commemorative Medals for the Bicentennial Celebration for the town of Windsor, CT. She also designed stage sets for many years for the Windsor Jestors, and she taught art classes for children at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT. from 1948-50. Ms. Van Winkelen ran the Spindrift Art Gallery on Old South Wharf on Nantucket, MA for thirty years during the summers. She illustrated a children’s book, Escape From the Chanticleer,based on an an old carousel horse in the garden of the Chanticleer Restaurant in Siasconcet, Nantucket. Published in 1995, the story was written by Jared Tausig and Eva-Marie Tausig. She designed Christmas plates for 12 years in collaboration with with the well-known decoupagist Leslie Linsley, and did hand-painted boxes, cutting boards, recipe boxes and other items. Early art work was in oil, egg tempera, etchings and pen and ink drawings. Later she worked with egg tempera and primarily watercolors with which she painted still life, flowers, cats, Nantucket scenes and historical buildings in Windsor and Nantucket along with many other subjects. Ms. Van Winkelen traveled to Hawaii, Greece, and Bermuda to paint. She was a member of many associations and societies, among them the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society and New England Watercolor Society. In Connecticut, she was a member of the Artist Association of Nantucket, Academy of Fine Arts, Watercolor Society, Windsor Palette & Brush Club, Essex Art Association, New Haven Paint & Clay Club, and the Academic Artist Association.