Fisherman’s Hideaway by Della Bender

Oil paintings by Della Bender of Terre Haute will be featured throughout May in River City Art Association’s Artist of the Month gallery in the Vigo County Public Library at Seventh and Poplar streets.

Bender attended Marshall High School, graduated from Terre Haute Commercial College and married Claude Bender on a military base in Florida during WWII. After the war, they relocated to Chicago, and eventually to Seelyville, where she and her husband began a family trucking company delivering clay products.

Throughout those years, Bender yearned to express herself artistically. Her opportunity came when retired Indiana State University art professor Evelyn Gertrude James offered plein air classes.

After three years with James, Bender was doing commissioned paintings, receiving accolades, and exhibiting at Brazil banks. Her love of nature and wildlife are apparent in her landscapes done in oil. She went on to teach art at the Glenn Civic Center in East Glenn until her health required her to “lay down the brush.”

Now widowed, Bender is spending her “golden years” in Terre Haute with her son and his wife. She recently celebrated her 92nd birthday.

Bender’s artwork also may be viewed May 13 and 14 in RCAA’s Indiana Heritage Art Exhibition in the Terre Haute Masonic Temple, and in June in the RCAA Artist of the Month gallery in Harrison College.

For details on RCAA membership contact officers Todd Stokes at 812-232-0048 or Mike Bender at 812-251-7724.