Winnie’s watercolors bring life to pandemic isolation

With a bottle of brushes, a notebook of paper and paints by Crayola, Winnie Rohrbaugh of Windridge decided to make use of her time during the pandemic by reviving a long-dormant love of painting. 

“I mostly put the paints away after we moved to Cedar Falls in 1972 and raised our children,” says Winnie, whose late husband, Phil, was a long-time physician at Medical Associates. “During COVID-19, though, I had plenty of time and I never got bored!”  

Certainly not: Winnie knitted caps and booties, read books and completed 70 watercolors during those months of isolation. She offered the results for sale at the Friends of WHC Handcrafted Sale on Oct. 30. 

Winnie’s love of painting first blossomed as a young adult. In 1965, with a husband busy in medical school, she took a night class and joined an art group in her apartment building. “I learned perspective and horizon, plus the basics of drawing,” Winnie recalls. “Then we moved and the instructor lived down the street, so we painted together once a week for a few years. It was fun!” 

A 1969 move to Germany found Winnie able to do more drawing than painting, especially of landscapes from a nearby park. A large sketch of a favorite tree there is one of the many original drawings and paintings that fill her home. 

Winnie finds a lot of fun in her hobby. Some of her first pandemic paintings included pigs; she said one of those pigs came out pretty well so it needed a name. Her daughter aptly named it “Sir Francis Bacon.” 

Winnie finds inspiration all around her and often paints landscapes, birds and animals from travel photos, calendars and other pictures she finds. She loves the satisfaction of putting something beautiful on paper and creating memories.  

Now that the worst of isolation is over, Winnie is thankful to have returned to her hobby; she wants to paint more and plans to add acrylics and oils to her repertoire.