Yarberry creates water color portraits
Edna Yarberry’s room at Summit Manor not only serves as her home, but also as her personal art gallery.
Ms. Yarberry, 91, paints watercolor paintings in her free time. She realized her interest in art when she attended high school.
“I had an idea. I wanted to be an artist,” Ms. Yarberry said.
Ms. Yarberry remembers drawing a picture in high school and turning it in to her teacher when she was 17.
“Oh, Edna give that to me; I’d like to have it,” Ms. Yarberry quoted her high school teacher.
For years, Ms. Yarberry didn’t pursue her passion for art. When her daughter, Patricia Yarberry Allen, was pursuing a medical career in Manhattan, Ms. Yarberry moved there to help raise her son. She lived in Manhattan for 17 years.
While in Manhattan, Ms. Yarberry would mention to her daughter about her interest in painting. Her daughter encouraged her to attend the Student Art League in Manhattan.
The Student Art League is an institution “everyone knew about” in New York, she said. At 60 years old, she attended night classes.
When she started painting she used oils, which required the use of thinner. She decided to switch to watercolors because the watercolor paints are less messy in her new room at Summit Manor Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Some of Ms. Yarberry’s favorite paintings include her drawings of lighthouses, desert mountains, her cat, and cypress trees by the sea.
She moved to a town in Upper New York State after her time in Manhattan with her family. She continued to attend classes and also drew paintings of the Boat Club in the area.
Ms. Yarberry then moved to Darien, Conn. with her family, then later moved to Townridge, N.Y. She returned to Kentucky in 1998.
Ms. Yarberry first moved to a house on Conover Street but when her daughter saw the house, she told her mother it was too little.
“I have 15 grandchildren,” Ms. Yarberry said. She then moved to Pineview Drive.
In 2003, Ms. Yarberry suffered a stroke and a year ago she officially moved into Summit Manor because her family was concerned for her health.
“This is going to be my home for the rest of my life,” Ms. Yarberry said.
Ms. Yarberry copies much of her work from watercolor books. She also enjoys translating live events, such as birds feeding, into watercolor. She begins this process by sketching out her objects and then fleshing them out with her watercolor paints.
Ms. Yarberry said the number of paintings she worked on over the years is “untelling.” In her room alone there were 18 painting and around 100 more were scattered across Summit Manor. One of her paintings of a flower hangs in the foyer.
Ms. Yarberry often gives away her paintings to her family members and will sell paintings if the buyer pays $5 for the frame. She said she has sold around 10 paintings.
“You just can’t sit in a room and do nothing,” Ms. Yarberry said.
By Dean Childers
Voice Intern
