Bucks County artist Shirley Broad has certainly put the old adage ‘practice makes perfect’ to the test. At eighty-five years old, she has been painting for 60 years and despite some personal setbacks, her enthusiasm has never waned. She has attained status as a juried artist in both Bucks County and Florida, but remains extremely modest regarding her accomplishments. When asked if her paintings were oils or watercolors, she replied, “Oh, they’re just watercolors.” She continued to downplay the amount of skill it takes to execute a painting, something that appears to come naturally to her.
A resident of Carversville for 17 years, Shirley grew up in Logan, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Germantown High School in 1945. When she was 12 years old, she loved drawing clothes on figures and dressing her paper cutout dolls. “I wanted to get into fashion design,” she said, “but wasn’t able to continue my education at the time.”
While in high school, Shirley worked part-time in Gimbels department store and after graduating worked at a number of jobs including bookkeeping. After marrying at age 21, she lived in Mt. Airy and later in Dresher with her husband, Jack. He had an electronics store on Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia where Shirley would also work, assisting customers and doing window displays.
If you would like to find out more about bucks County artist Shirley Broad, turn to page 47 in our Winter 2012/13 issue.