Acrylic on panel, signed with initials and dated 2005, framed.

Frame dimensions 18 x 21 in.

From the Collection of Susan and Michael Hershfield, Durham, NC, Proceeds to benefit the Dr. Ira and Joyce Wiggins Endowed Scholarship Fund in the NCCU Jazz Studies program.

Somerhill Gallery, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Born in Missouri, Ginny Crouch Stanford was greatly influenced by the dramatic Midwest landscape's "beautiful skies and intense color." Eschewing formal art studies, she left college after one semester to travel through Europe to soak up art at museums and paint whenever she could.

After returning to the States, she met her future husband, the poet Frank Stanford, and settled in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She continued to paint and draw, with her work often accompanying her husbands publications.

Following Frank's untimely death in 1978, Ginny eventually settled in California. Here she found inspiration and freedom while living near the ocean in Sebastopol, California.

Two of Ginny's paintings are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. - the first is a portrait of the American food writer M.F.K. Fisher, and the second a portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first commissioned portrait of a first lady.

Some rubbing to frame.