2023 Ohio Watercolor Society Jim Brower Lifetime Achievement Award

Barbara Zentgraf

Cincinnati, Ohio

My art career began in the 7th grade when I rode the street car up to the Cincinnati Art Museum every Saturday morning to take lessons. Then, art was one of my majors in high school. Although Paul was a year ahead, we were in the same art class for one year, and that was how we got to know each other.

At the University of Cincinnati, I was in the graphic program...7 weeks in school and 8 weeks at work. My co-op job was at Gibson Greeting Cards and my take home pay was $27.00 a week. Still, I loved it and even free-lanced at home for some years after marriage. We had a young group there that ate lunch together and partied on weekends. Paul came in looking for a job and soon was part of the group.

Paul and a friend decided to go to California to try their luck ... So I knit a pair of socks and wished him luck. He hoped to work at Disney but had no money to join the union, so he worked at a major department store selling Gibson greeting cards and gift paper. In the end, he got a job at the Cincinnati Enquirer. I was still doing cards at Gibson, so we were together at lunch. One day on the escalator at Shillitos, he asked me to marry him. Unfortunately, Paul got his draft notice and ended up in New Jersey at a Nike site protecting Philadelphia. We were married, and I joined him there. It was all new art territory to explore, and we did. Not only the Philly and Wyeth area but New York and Washington D. C. We saw the cherry blossoms in Washington and the Easter Parade in New York and enjoyed many a day at the shore. Galleries and museums filled much free time. We even traveled through New England up to Canada.

We came back to Cincinnati with $1.63 in our pocket. I again freelanced at Gibson and Paul worked with Cincinnati Electronics and then General Electric in the marketing department.  I was doing other freelance.  Because it was easy to work at home with adding three kids to our family, and I am a night person, I was able to take classes with several known artists that came into town. Dee Stegman had a place in Maine, and five of us from Don Dennis classes ended up there for 25 years ... first at her place and then to different areas along the Maine coast. We left the husbands, kids and pets at home for two weeks and painted.

Then for twenty-five years, I was Treasurer of the Ohio Watercolor Society and also the Cincinnati Women's Art Club.

During that time I was a volunteer educator for 25 years at the Cincinnati Zoo as well as an animal observer. My shift was usually from 12am until 4am on Tuesdays. I saw the first Cincinnati Zoo's Okapi born as well as a Brazilian Ocelot. I didn't do many animal paintings, but do have lots of photos.

And now I am painting just for the fun of it!