“Healing Through the Arts” is now showing at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Nashua, NH and three of the featured artists are Liz Winchester-Larson, her daughter Sarah Larson, and Liz’s sister Harriet Winchester. Both Liz and Harriet grew up in New Ipswich and Hollis, New Hampshire.

From a young age Liz and Harriet’s parents both encouraged them to follow in the family artist tradition. They grew up watching their father, Laurence Winchester, designing and building the houses that they lived in. He also built the cabinetry and some of the furniture. While their mother, Sarah Winchester, stenciled the designs on the walls.

Liz and Harriet’s parents took them to visit art museums and exhibits. They also took them to science centers, historical sites, and to concerts inspiring their creativity in all forms. Liz remembers watching an artist at Old Sturbridge Village giving a demonstration on “The Art of Theorem Painting.” Round, juicy plums came out of her brush like magic! Their father gave Harriet an easel, when she was ten, along with the Jon Gnagy, “Learn to Draw” set with an instruction book, pencils, and an eraser. Harriet still uses the easel to this day.

These early influences of seeing both still-life and landscape paintings on thier museum trips helped form their individual styles. Liz’s paintings combine her interest in form, light, and shadow, which makes her style. Harriets paintings are inspired by the natural landscape that she enjoyed being taken to by their father with activities that included gardening, hiking, and fishing.

While Liz and Harriet were in high school in Hollis, NH they continued to take art classes furthering their education. Their parents also took them to the Greeley Park Art Show in Nashua, NH. They enjoyed looking at the art and talking to the artists that were exhibiting there.

Liz went on to attend Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She majored in Interior and Environmental Design achieving a BFA with a focus on the adaptive re-use of historic architecture. Harriet went on to attend the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. She majored in Illustration achieving a BFA.

After graduation, Liz worked for a small design firm. She and her late husband, Kenneth A. Larson, who was also an artist, participated in exhibitions and had a small gallery on East 59th Street in Manhattan. Harriet returned to Hollis, NH. She then worked for ten years as a photo technician where she earned enough money to buy a house with her husband James Kuzdrall, an engineer, settling in Nashua, NH.

Liz and Ken relocated to New Britain, CT. Where they continued their work as artists and became historic preservation activists. Ken is still remembered today for his artworks depicting New Britain historical sites as well as his book, “A Walk Around Walnut Hill.” Their daughter Sarah was born in New Britain in 1983 and started to draw at an early age. With both parents being artists, what else could one do!

Liz and Sarah returned to New Hampshire in 1993 and Ken passed away shortly after. They settled in the Keene Area where they both continued with their artwork. Liz, Harriet, and their younger brother Stephen Winchester, who is a woodworker like his father, held the first “Art in the Family” group exhibition in 1999 in the Hollis Photo and Frame Design Shop. Since the first show in 1999 they expanded the “Art in the Family” theme from the original sibling connection to include eleven artists from three generations of the Winchester, Woodard, and Larson families over the last 100 years. The earliest art works being from Charles F Woodard in 1921 to Sarah’s artwork from the present day.

Sarah wanting to carry on the family art tradition since childhood led her to attend Keene State College where she obtained a BA in English. She studied art history, took art classes, and learned how to write like her father. She lived for ten years in Michigan where she began to develop from a child artist into an adult. In 2018 she donated 85% of her possessions to charity supporting the USA Veterans. She also got rid of all distractions such as in-home internet and cable TV to focus solely on her artwork for an upcoming series of “Art in The Family” Shows.

The first big show was at the Art League of New Britain in Connecticut in 2019 and it was a huge success. In 2021 in preparation for the next big show at The Jaffrey Civic Center Sarah relocated to Nashua, New Hampshire near her Aunt. With Sarah back in New Hampshire “Art in the Family,” has continued to grow. Sarah joined her mother and aunt as members in the Nashua Area Artist Association where they are currently exhibiting at the St Joseph’s Hospital.

On display at the exhibition at St Joseph’s hospital Liz has a variety of both still-lifes and landscapes in colored pencils which is her preferred medium. She works slowly building up many layers of color by pushing pigment into paper. Through repetition what is linear becomes a solid form, an optical illusion. Sarah has a series of landscape oil paintings that reflect her life experiences, places she has lived, and has traveled to. Harriet is showing oil paintings of local New Hampshire scenes that reflect her love of nature. The Healing Through the Arts exhibit will be on display through the end of December.