Ethelyn Hersh

1915, Ansley, Nebraska – 1999, Kenesaw, Nebraska

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Ethelyn Hersh was born, along with her twin sister Evelyn, February 27, 1915 in Ansley, Nebraska. Throughout Ethelyn’s life, she focused on developing her creativity through art, raised three sons with her spouse Dean Hersh, and spent much of her free time gardening, ranching, and raising turkeys. She and her husband built a home of sod and plaster with their own hands, and she used the kitchen of their house as her art studio. Although she had some formal art training in Portland, Oregon, her artistic abilities were mostly self-taught.

Some of Hersh’s favorite subjects included landscapes, flowers, and animals which were rendered in a variety of media including oil, watercolor, and textiles. Later, she experimented with china painting. The artist said that she had always had the desire to create art, even in her early childhood. For her, painting was a way to help fulfill a need to be creative. She felt that she had an innate talent for creating natural perspective within her landscape paintings, and several art writers commented on the accuracy of her freehand perspective. Hersh taught painting classes in a number of Nebraska towns including Brewster and Broken Bow. She died at the very end of the 20th century.

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Ethelyn T. Hersh, Magnolias, oil, 1958-1959