There will be more than watercolors in our new exhibition. For the first time in thirty years, visitors will see a striking portrait of a dear friend of Ben and Rae Solowey: Viginia Widenmeyer (nee Castleton).
Virigina was a writer living in the area who met the Soloweys through her husband. Ben and Rae so enjoyed her company that the publicity-averse Rae even consented to participate in an interview with Virginia on her beauty secrets for Prevention magazine! And it was Virginia who Rae turned to write a piece on Ben for the 1979 memorial exhibiton of Ben’s work at the Woodmere Art Museum.
Since her time in Bucks County, Virginia has led a peripatetic life and in her eighth decade she decided that she could no longer carry all of her beautiful objects of art with her wherever she goes. She contacted the Studio and sent two beautiful pastel still lifes (one in a Solowey handmade frame) and her portrait to be included in this exhibition.