THE PHYLLIS MERWIN OWEN ART GALLERY
The Forest at Duke Retirement Center
Durham, North Carolina
Created December 1, 2015 and still under construction ...
The Marriage of Phyllis Merwin and Harry Owen, College Station, Texas, June 21, 1941. Painted from an original photo after moving into their Hillandale Road home in Durham, North Carolina in 1952.
Southern Magnolia, painted by Phyllis's mother, Bessie Whitesell Merwin. This large tree grew in her front yard on Gillis Street in Palatka, Florida. She acquired the tree as a seedling in a trade for one of her bantam chickens. Bessie's grandchildren and Phyllis's children David and Marcia, climbed the branches of this magnolia when they visited "Grandma" on Chistmas trips to Florida. This painting was done in Bessie's dining room in 1955.
Winter scene painted in 1941 by Phyllis from a Christmas card.
A mountain scene from a country road just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Western North Carolina. Phyllis painted this in 1965.
This floral design by Phyllis's mother, Bessie Whitesell Merwin, is made from shells gathered on Sanibel Island in southwest Florida in 1941.
Phyllis painted this in 1946 from an original that hung on the wall of the student union building at the University of Florida at Gainesville while Harry was studying engineering there.
Snowy Egrets by Phyllis's mother, Bessie Whitesell Merwin, was painted while living with Phyllis and Harry at their McDowell Street home in Durham, North Carolina in 1963.
Colonial fireplace, Painted by Phyllis's mother Bessie Whitesell Merwin in 1919 from a magazine picture.
Beyond the Sunset, a depiction of Christ's resurrection, by Phylllis's mother Bessie Whitesell Merwin, done as a memorial to her mother Lillian Judy Whitesell, her father William Thomas Whitesell and her husband Jay C. Merwin. Bessie and Jay drove together on a number of occasions to the beach at St. Augustine, Florida to get the proper ocean perspective for this piece. This painting hangs in the Philathea Classroom at St. James Methodist Church in Palatka, Florida.
Mockingbird in a Magnolia Tree by Phyllis. Painting in tempera done in Gainesville, Florida in1946 from a magazine photo.
Painting by Phyllis in 1943 from a photograph taken at the St. Johns River property of friends Jack and Mable DeHaven.
Ceramic work by Phyllis in 2005 from a picture of two cats, the one on the right representing her cat Minette.
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