Rosalyn Gale Powell

a long-time Bainbridge resident and well-known Northwest artist, died in her home on August 14 after a long illness. She was 78 years old. Born in 1929 near Salisbury, England, she began drawing at the age of 5 and moved to Paris at 19 to study portraiture. In 1952, on an extended visit to her sister in Seattle, she met and later married physician Archie Powell. They came to Bainbridge Island in 1954. Powell continued her art studies under Jacob Elshin and Kenneth Callahan, then at the University of Washington with Spencer Mosely and Gerald Tsutakawa. She and her husband divorced many years later but stayed close friends until Dr. Powell's death a few years ago.Over the years, Ms. Powell's paintings developed from somber portraits, to still lifes awash with bold brush strokes, to minutely detailed flowers and grass fields. Her use of shadow was superb, and her subjects included a mound of bright red cherries nestled in a silver bowl, a broken eggshell, an enameled cup of peonies, an ornamental red cabbage, and many others. She first exhibited her works at the Gordon Woodside Gallery in Seattle, then in 1970 began showing at Foster White Gallery and Bainbridge Arts and Crafts. She painted several posters for the Pike Place Market, contributed paintings for the Bainbridge Arts in Bloom tour, and had an exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Her works are included in the Seattle Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum, SeaFirst Bank, Safeco, Paccar, the Bainbridge Public Library, and many other corporations and private collections. In 1979 she was commissioned by a Saudi king to do paintings of the four seasons for his private jet. Powell received the Governor's Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Arts in 1984.Rosalyn Powell's paintings are exquisitely realistic, yet evoke a poetry that is more than just an accurate likeness. In addition to being an immensely talented artist, she was an intellectual aesthete whose wit and (occasionally wicked) sense of humor earned her countless friends. She loved to talk politics and current affairs, read voraciously, tended her English garden whenever possible, and loved her dogs and her frequent company. She gave generously to charities and began a scholarship given in her name by Bainbridge Arts and Crafts in the early 70s that lasted for many years. In 2001, the Rosalyn Gale Powell scholarship was started again, with $1,000 given annually by Bainbridge Arts and Crafts to the Island's most promising student artists.No services are planned at her request. Bainbridge Arts and Crafts will hold a Rosalyn Gale Powell memorial exhibition on October 1st and 2nd, and a reception on the evening of October 1st. Donations in her name may be sent to Interfaith Care Givers, Helpline House, Hospice of Kitsap County, or PAWS. Ms. Powell is survived by a wealth of loving friends and her two nieces, Jacqueline Lantz and Caroline Ellison, and nephew Christopher Nyhus.Arrangements entrusted to Cook Family Funeral Home.