Paintings Here and About by Phyllis Blair

Many of us at Sweetwood had the pleasure of attending a showing of paintings by one of our residents, Phyllis Blair, and it was a wonderful treat! Her art is beautiful, painted mostly in our own region, with watercolors and oils of the local farms, sunsets, flowers, animals, and homes and the people of this part of the Berkshires.

Set at Sheep Hill, a renovated farmhouse owned by the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation, room after room was filled with her work. Phyllis presented a delightful walking tour with comments on each piece of art, explaining where they were, why she had chosen to paint them, and how she had always loved this area so. Many of the paintings are for sale, and the proceeds will go to the Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation.

Sweetwood is fortunate to be home to many of her paintings as well. Take your own walking tour or our halls and enjoy the fine work of Phyllis Blair on your own.

Bill Steel Just Keeps on Teaching!

Our own Bill Steel gave a slide presentation to a group of children from Williamstown who are being home schooled. His topic was Medieval Castles, and the photos were gathered from his travels to Europe from the late 1970s until 2001. Bill, and his wife Mim, visited Scotland, Wales, England, France, and Luxembourg where the photos were taken.

The young audience was enthusiastic, asked good questions, and learned many new details from Bill. His philosophy of teaching is to ask questions that will help kids think, not just memorize. He asked the students how they might build a castle after seeing the presentation. Their answers were creative, to be sure!

Julie Gill, the leader of the home schoolers, said they are always looking for special presentations for their children. If you have a topic you would like to share with them, please let us know! Bill said that they brought cookies and they were great!