BY BONNIE BRECHBILL
Franklin Co. Correspondent
CHAMBERSBURG Daisy
Knepper appears to be the average
wife of a retired farmer. She keeps
an immaculate house, talks about
her grandchildren, and wins prizes
at the county fair for her jams, jell
ies and afghans.
A visitor to the farmhouse
where she lives with her husband
Jaye notices many excellent oil
paintings on the walls. Most depict
old, local buildings such as spring
houses and bams. Several are of
fruit arrangements. Daisy does not
call the visitor’s attention to the
paintings; instead, she talks about
her bell collection or her husband’s
woodworking.
If a visitor looks closely at these
paintings—and their beauty tends
to encourage close inspection
the viewer will realize that Daisy
herself is the artist
If pressed, Daisy, 67, will talk
about her work, but only with
extreme modesty.
All the paintings of buildings
were done from snapshots. “It
takes me too long to sketch it to sit
out there,” she explained. Build-
Retired Couple Blend Artistic Talents
ings take a long time to capture in
oils she can do about three dur
ing a winter, in her spare time. The
still-life paintings were assign
ments for an art class she took.
Daisy was Artist of the Month at
Chambersburg Hospital in 1977.
She has taken lessons from three
local artists over a period of ten or
fifteen years. One of her still-lifes
won a prize at Godfrey Diehl's
yearly exhibit at St. John’s Church
in Chambersburg.
Daisy has painted about one
hundred pictures in her career.
Earlier, she had taken orders and
sold some paintings, but is not cur
rently doing so.
An interesting aspect of Daisy’s
paintings is that they help to prc-
Jaye Knepper enjoys working with his lathe.
serve local history. Many of the Daisy and Jaye married in 1939.
buildings she has depicted in her In 1953, they bought the farm
artwork are no longer standing. (Turn to Pag* B 12)