Rindge Town Library Receives Watercolor Paintings

Watercolor Paintings by Mary Lou Burness

By Whitney Pettibone
Edited by Adam Stahl

Mary Lou Burness, and her husband Don Burness donated two water color paintings to the Ingalls Library in the Rindge Town Center on May 4, 2010.

A group of about 30 people gathered in the adult section of the library to celebrate Mary Lou and the donation she was giving the library.  Everyone went up and hugged Mary Lou, as Don went around saying thank you to others in the library.

The Burness’s have been going to the Ingalls Library for 42 years.  Mary Lou has been an avid reader and exceptional painter.  She has always been in love with books and traveling.  After bouts of illness and strokes, she is wheelchair bound and cannot speak very well.  Her son Phil Burness was there to give a speech on the family.  “My mother is an adventurous and curious spirit who is a great lover of the written word.  She always has had a book in her hand,” her son said.

One of the paintings Mary Lou donated was of the Pont sur L’Ouveze in France.  The other was of sunflowers in a vase.  She painted them both in 2001, before the strokes.

Mary Lou has always been an exceptional painter.  Her and her husband have traveled all over the world, but they have a great attachment to France.  “We were married in France,” Don said, “we lived in a tent for eight months and traveled everywhere.”  They would go to art museum after art museum, and read every book they could find.

“Mary Lou is a very interesting person, but when you have strokes it takes a lot away from you,” Don said.

To see the paintings go to the Ingalls Library in the Rindge Town Center.

Mary Lou Burness and son Phil Burness