Sylvia Winslow 1910 - 1996

Desert Verbena

"Linns Valley" CA

Sylvia Winslow, painter, muralist and author, was born in Ireland and educated in Switzerland and Italy. She came to America with her mother at age 18. In Southern California, she met and married a cowboy, Slim Winslow, and rode off with her new husband to a 640 acre homestead in Bodfish Canyon near Kernville. In time, her cowboy husband became a desert pilot, and during the 1950's, in their Ercoupe which Sylvia named "Buttercup," they explored vast areas of the desert Southwest on painting and archeological excursions.

As a child Sylvia showed her artistic talents, but once in her new desert home, her passion was to paint the desert. As a self taught artist, she was invited to become a member of the Artists of the Southwest. Her paintings were exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum, the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, and at numerous state fairs and shows. Her work has won numerous awards. Like other well known desert painters such as John Hilton, Sylvia contributed to the Death Valley 49'ers invitational art exhibitions.

Apart from painting, she taught art classes and pursued her other desert passion, archeology. She spearheaded the founding of the Maturango Museum in Indian Wells Valley, and in 1972 was instrumental in bringing to the Maturango Museum the legendary Dr. Louis S. B. Leakey to present a lecture called "Latest Evidence for the Antiquity of Man." Today, the museum includes the Sylvia Winslow Gallery, dedicated to provide a forum for showing the work of current desert painters. Maturango Art Museum

Sources: Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, 1998; Sylvia Winslow, The Trail of a Desert Painter; The Maturango Press, Maturango Museum of Indian Wells Valley, China Lake, CA.